Scandinavian Defence

[Kevin Pacey]

Here's the wiki on the Scandinavian - it's a fairly detailed treatment of the various lines at a shallow move number level. Notice that after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5, it doesn't quite make the over-simplified statement found in many books that Black loses time in this opening as a result of the usual 3.Nc3. IMHO that's a convenient half-truth to avoid going into a more complicated story when explaining things to novices. Namely, after 3...Qa5 or 3...Qd6 Black actually does have equal development to White (in terms of number of pieces deployed and an open diagonal for a bishop per side; observe also that 2.exd5 was not a developing move), but Black has committed his queen early, to an insecure square (a5 or d6), and so after some choice series of moves by White, Black will feel the need to move her again, at which point Black really has lost time in the opening due to 2...Qxd5:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Defense

Below is a link to a blog entry of mine, which notably includes some suggestions of mine on what to play vs. the Scandinavian, besides that other particularly pesky and relatively uncommon first move defence by Black, the Alekhine's:

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...ing-repertoire