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Welcome back to Chess Openings.com. In today's video, we'll take a look at the Scandinavian
Opening, which begins with the moves, pawn to e4 and pawn to d5. With the move pawn to
d5, Black immediately challenges White's central pawn on e4, and also creates opportunities
for his light-squared Bishop to get developed.
In most cases as well, Black will have an opportunity to bring his Queen to a somewhat
active post. On the flipside, White has no real difficulty in grabbing a quick and early
development advantage. Also, even though White finds it necessary to trade off his e-pawn
early in the game, he often experiences no real difficulty in placing his d-pawn on the
fourth rank. We'll get a chance to ponder all of the implications of these small strategic
nuances today. Let's take a look.
Black's move, pawn to d5, kicks off the Scandinavian Defense. White's almost universal reply is
pawn takes panw on d5. Black has 2 ways to go about recovering the pawn: The main method
is simply to play Qd5, leaving the Queen vulnerable to the move, Nc3, which is in fact often played,
and does gain some time for White's development. Nevertheless, Black gains a somewhat active
square for the Queen, either by Qa5 or the recently common and interesting move, Qd6.
Black may also argue that despite his losing the tempo in replying Nc3, the Knight may
be placed just a little bit clumsily. Ideally, White would have preferred to play the moves
pawn to d4 and pawn c4, prior to playing the move Kc3. Let's back up for a moment, and
take a look at another possibility for Black, which begins with the move Nf6.
With the alternative treatment of Nf6, Black aims to recapture the pawn with the Knight.
One of the attractive features of this move is that if White tries to hold onto the pawn
with the move pawn to c4, this opens the way for a potential gambit with the move pawn
to e6, pawn takes pawn, and Bxe6, whereupon the development of the Be6, and the pawn Nf6,
gives quite a bit of compensation for the pawn and excellent attacking chances. Another
possibility for Black would also be to play pawn to c6, which also leads to a fair game.
White does not need to hang onto the pawn fiercely in this manner. Instead, it is quite
possible for him to continue more quietly with the move pawn to d4; this has been shown
to be quite an effective approach. After Black's planned recapture, Nxd5, White only now plays
the move pawnt to c4, this time, simply gaining time at the Knight's expense. After the frequent
moves, Nb6 and Nf3, it is true that Black has created some new options for himself,
due to the Nb6. For example, a common approach here is pawn to g6, making use of the Bishop's
free scope along the diagonal to pressure the center and develop the pieces in a more
imbalanced way. However, White's central space and the Knight's awkward placement on b6 often
allow White to seize a significant advantage out of the opening.
Thus, from Black's point of view, the most solid move is Qxd5. Now White normally continues
Nc3, gaining a juicy tempo at the Queen's expense. At this moment, Black has 2 options
about where to place the Queen: The most traditional move has been Qa5 overtime, but another recently
popular idea is also Qd6. We'll spend the video today looking at Qa5, which is the most
traditional and still the most popular approach in this position.
White now continues pawn to d4. While it is evident that White has a little extra space
in the center, it may be difficult to understand at first glance how White can make any use
of this. Black has no real weaknesses in his position, and as we'll see in a moment, he
doesn't experience too many problems in developing his pieces. However, the centralized pawn
on d4 does confer to White some important benefits: In the first place, Black's e-pawn
is deprived of its most attractive location on the e5 square. Though the move pawn to
e5 would be in the same spirit as the initial move of the Scandinavian pawn to d5, here,
Black simply doesn't have enough time and White would have a significant advantage after
either pawn takes pawn on e5, or the even stronger move, Nf3.
After the standard developing moves Nf6 and Nf3, Black can no longer dream about bringing
a pawn to the e5 square. At the same time, the pawn on d4 helps to create an outpost
for the Knight on the e5 square. This will come in handy as the Knight itself will be
helpful in gaining some attacking chances. Also, by releasing the f-pawn, which is behind
the Knight currently, the kingside pawn majority will also gain some flexibility at a later
stage in the game.
Another way that White tends to gain an upper hand in the Scandinavian is by sometimes capturing
the Bishops which Black finds active squares for at a later stage. This is a common occurrence
in the openings for Black that quite frankly, when he finds active squares for his Bishops,
he may find that they are also vulnerable. For Black's part the will simply want to continue
his development. Play normally continues with the move paen to c6. This is a solid move
which has among its purposes, the creation of flight squares for the Queen. It is quite
typical to find the needing the insertion of the move c7 to c6, since later, after White
plays the move Bd2, the Queen may find herself needing the flight squares, either on c7 or
d8.
Now White's follow-up of choice here has been the move Bc4. Since White knows that the mobility
of his kingside pawns may later play a role, he often ensures that his development scheme
supports him in castling his King on the Queen side. This is one reason to move the Bc4,
leaving the e2 square as an attractive square for the Queen. The Bishop also makes an important
contribution in attacking along the a2 to g8 diagonal, which will be felt over the next
several moves.
From here, ordinarily, Black plays the move Bf5. It may appear tempting to try the move
Bg4 instead, but here, practice indicates that White gains an advantage by gaining the
Bishop pair. He does this by means of playing h3, Bh5, pawn to g4, Bg6, and then Ne5, and
then capturing the Bishop over the next few moves. In this position, since White is very
likely to castle onto the queenside, the movement of the kingside pawns is actually quite legitimate
and may even constitute a gain of time if White expands the pawns forward at a later
time. By the way, it may appear that after the move Bg4, White has the tactic; Bxf7+,
Nxf7, and now Ne5+. Here, White would be in for a rude awakening after the move Qe5+,
pawn takes Queen, and Bxd1. When despite the fact that White has 2 pieces available for
capture, he will still remain down a piece.
Thus, instead of Bg4, Bf5 is a bit more logical and has been played more frequently. Play
continues naturally with the move Bd2; and while it's true that the Bishop is now eyeing
the Queen for discovery attack, as of yet, White doesn't have any particularly powerful
method of exploiting this fact. Therefore, the move e6 has been played, simply continuing
to develop by opening the way for the f8 Bishop.
In cases were Black has modestly retreated the Qc7 instead, White has typically used
the extra time to again pursue the Bishop pair and extra space, with the move Ne5, which
attacks the f7; pawn to e6, g4, Bg6, and now often the move pawn to h4, with an advantage.
Thus, the move pawn to e6 not only contributes to Black's development, but it also blunts
the Bishop's trajectory on c4, and thereby, solidifies Black's position. There follows
now the move Qe2, preparing the way for queenside castling. From here, it is quite common for
play to continue, Bb4, when after castling queenside, White often eventually plays a2
to a3, netting the Bishop pair and maintaining an opening initiative.
The move Qe2 contains a hidden threat, as well. If White was able to violate the rules
of the game and move a second time consecutively, he would then have the excellent tactical
shot pawn to d5; when right away, the dogpile on the e6 pawn has serious consequences immediately.
If Black is willing to play C takes d5, it appears that he has escaped most of the difficulty,
but in fact after this simple move Bb5+, there's no healthy way for Black to deal with this
simple check. If he plays the move Nc6, White would then play Nd4, attacking both the Knight
on c6 and also the Bishop on f5, due to the pin given by the Queen. After the natural
move castling queenside which appears to handle both threats effectively, White would simply
win material with Bc6, Bc6, and Nc6l forking both the Queen and the rook.
Another attempt in place of Nc6 could be Nd7. Here, White is ready to deliver the powerful
move Nd5, bringing the Queen on a5 under attack, regaining the pawn, and developing decisive
threats. After Qd8 which is the only safe square for the Queen, White wins more material
after simply playing Ne5. Threatening to play Knight takes up 6 check, and then followed
by capturing on d7. The only move which even comes close to defending the position is e
takes d5, but there are numerous ways for White to win after this move, the simplest
being Nc6+, winning the Queen.
It turns out that either entry position by the Nb8 causes problems, and the other moves
also do not work. If Black plays Knight F to d7, he will still succumb to various threats
after Nxd5, Qd8, and then Bf4, with an unstoppable threat on the c7 square. Also, if Black were
to try the move Nd8, then after Nxd5, he would actually find the Queen on a5 trapped without
an escape square.
It turns out that after the move Qe2, White is threatening a 1-2-3 punch of pawn to d5,
and then after the natural C takes c5, Bb5+, that's 2, Nxd5, that's 3, which is also made
possible by the Bishop's placement on b5, since it cuts off the rank from the Queen.
This tactical punch helps explain why White is comfortable leaving the c2 pawn hanging
in this position. The move Bc2 also leads to disaster after the powerful move, pawn
to d5.
Interestingly enough, the otherwise seemingly natural move, Knight B to d7 also encounters
difficulties after the move pawn to d5, C takes d5, and Nxd5. The exchange of pawns
on d5 still gives White considerable direct tactical pressure on Black's position. These
situations are not immediately winning for White, but still offer excellent play, with
one example line continuing, Qd8, Nxf6+, Qxf6, and castling queenside, when Black is still
barred from castling thanks to the move Bg5. White has a very strong threat to simply play
the move Bb5, followed by great chances to win material, let's say, because of Bc3 or
Ne5 as well.
All of this helps to explain the necessity of Black addressing the threat of d4 to d5,
and this is why Black generally plays a timely move, Bb4 here, leading quite often to an
eventual loss of the Bishop pair after castling queenside, Knight B d7, and a3. Yet, Black
can still claim to have a solid position with adequate development. These positions appear
to offer White a slight advantage.
That's all for today. I hope you've enjoyed some of the twists and turns in this video
on the Scandinavian Defense. We'll see you again.