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Guided lesson · Improver · Openings

The Scandinavian: trading on move two

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The Scandinavian is the most straightforward answer to 1.e4 there is: Black trades in the centre immediately and the game is defined within two moves. For someone starting out the appeal is huge — it saves you half a library of variations, because your opponent can't drag you into the Sicilian, or the French, or anything else he has studied and you haven't. The price arrives on move 3: the black queen recaptures and sits in the middle of the board, so White develops by harassing her and gains time. That's the whole verdict on the opening, and it's worth being clear about it from both sides: White collects tempi, Black collects simplicity and a structure with no weaknesses. Neither of them wins the game over it.

The key idea

White develops by ATTACKING the black queen: every tempo she loses repositioning is a white piece that comes out for free. And Black accepts it in exchange for a settled centre and a light-squared bishop that gets out of the house before ...e6 locks the door.

Example 1 · White collects the tempi

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5, the classical line. From here, watch how every white move does two things at once.

  1. d4 A big centre, for free. Notice the detail that defines the opening: the knight on c3 didn't just develop, it developed hitting the queen, and she had to spend a turn going to a5. That turn is what I'm investing here, in building the centre he'll struggle to challenge.
  2. Nf6 Black develops and covers d5 and e4. His game is healthy — don't get that wrong.
  3. Nf3 Second piece out. I'm following the usual order — knights, bishops, castle — with the calm of someone who is a tempo ahead.
  4. Bf5 And here's the reason a lot of people play the Scandinavian: the c8 bishop gets out into the street BEFORE ...e6 blocks its diagonal. In the French that same bishop spends half the game shut in; here it breathes from the start.
  5. Bd2 Modest and very annoying. The bishop steps onto the black queen's diagonal: the moment my c3 knight moves or she loses track, Nb5 and Nd5 start to hurt. Against an advanced queen you don't need to chase her — you just leave the threats loaded.
  6. c6 The house move: it gives the queen c7 to come back to and props up d5. Black knows his queen has to retreat soon; what he does is choose when and where.
  7. Bc4 The bishop onto the diagonal aiming at f7, and now I have three pieces out with castling one move away.
  8. Nbd7 An honest tally: the engine gives me a bit over half a pawn. That's what two tempi are worth in the opening — a more comfortable position to play, not an extra pawn and not a won game. If you were expecting a punishment, the Scandinavian doesn't have one: it has a small bill that you have to know how to collect.

Example 2 · And Black, from his side

The same opening with 3...Qd6, the square almost everyone prefers today. Now Black is the one teaching.

  1. d4 White builds his centre, same as before. The interesting question is why the queen went to d6 and not to a5, which was the square for a century.
  2. Nf6 From d6 the queen covers her own sixth rank and, above all, stays out of the c1 bishop's diagonal and out of the line of a future Bd2. On a5 she lives exposed to pins; on d6 she gets in the way less and still defends.
  3. Nf3 Normal white development.
  4. g6 Black's plan in one move: fianchetto. The bishop on g7 eyes the long diagonal, castling comes straight after, and the queen on d6 stops being a problem because nobody hits her with tempo. A solid structure with not one pawn weakness on the board.
  5. Nb5 The jump everyone fears the first time: the knight heads for c7, forking king and rook. Before you panic, count.
  6. Qb6 The queen steps aside and hits b2 and d4 on the way. The b5 knight was threatening thin air: it can't reach c7 — she covered it from d6 and covers it from b6 just the same — and on b5 it's far from everything. This is the move you need to see to play the Scandinavian calmly: most of the scares in this opening are solved by checking who covers the square, not by running.
  7. a4 White supports the knight and gains space on the wing.
  8. a6 And the knight has to make up its mind. The final count for this example: Black is slightly worse, as in any opening where you don't have White, but his good bishop is solved, he has no weaknesses and he has a clear plan. That's what the Scandinavian buys — not instant equality, but a game you know how to play without having memorised anything.

Practice

You have White against the Scandinavian and the black queen is on a5. There's no blow to look for: develop, and do it in the order that leaves her most uncomfortable.

  1. The centre first. That's what the tempo she lost going to a5 buys you. Take the centre with the pawn that hasn't moved yet.
  2. Second piece out, no rush and nothing left hanging. Bring the other knight to its natural square.
  3. That's it. Modest, but it puts the bishop on the black queen's diagonal: from here on, moving the c3 knight comes with a threat attached. Put the c1 bishop on the diagonal where the black queen lives.
  4. Three pieces out and castling one move away, against a queen still looking for a home. That's all the Scandinavian gives you, and it's enough to play comfortably. The light-squared bishop, onto the diagonal pointing at f7.

Not one brilliant move and not one mistake: that's how you meet the Scandinavian. Keep the mechanism above the specific moves — when a queen comes out early, don't chase her: develop towards her. Every piece that comes out with a threat is a tempo your opponent hands you, and three tempi is a won opening. And if you play it yourself with Black, now you know what you're buying and what you're paying.