Chess Openings: Scandinavian Defense

One of the oldest chess openings, the scandinavian defense, black immediately challenges the center from white’s e4 with d5. After white recaptures black has two options to respond. Black can immediately recapture with his queen and reach equality in material or play Nf6 and try to gain a spacial and developmental advantage. If black chooses for Nf6 both sides need to keep their eyes open as there are many small traps that both sides can fall for that will destroy their position.

Chess Software used in the video can be found at and

178 Comments

  1. you refer to the queen as a he when a queen is a she ๐Ÿ™‚ good video though

  2. at 3:35 why not just capture with the queen instead of the knight?

  3. @themanflesh I did watch the whole video… and my question refers to the point in the video with the knight developed not right off the bat taking with the queen

  4. i would love to see a video about the wing gambit in the sicilian

  5. I actually appreciate how you explain both sides because then I can learn both how to play the defense and how to counter it in the same video. though maybe others would prefer if you created a strict defense video and then produced a second video that shows possible/probable counters. in any case, thanks again for your work.

  6. at 7:46, why cant black play pawn e5 and then if knight to f3, then pawn to f6?

  7. I'm a beginner and currently trying to practice against the computer (comp. player rated 1600. I lose every time). After …Qa5, d4 the computer always goes …e5. I have no idea how to react to this. Everything I've tried has resulted in a bunch of pieces getting traded, me ending up with the fewer pieces and getting my ass handed to me. Any recommendations?

  8. You Must be Having A good Rating Kevin can i know please?

  9. The only problem is that black can't bring his knight to c6

  10. after 1.e4 d5 2. exd Nf6 3. d4 Nxd5 4. Nf3 g6 instead of Bg4 is an interesting line
    after 1.e4 d5 2.exd Nf6 3. d4 you can also play Bg4!? as black, it looks very interesting. Nigel Short played it once against Carlsen, but Carlsen didn't know the lines and played the natural looking 4.Nf3 and the game ended in a draw (Short made a bad move (f5?) and Carlsen let gain his opponent counterplay with Qd3?).
    4.f3 is theory and I'd recommend it for white, it looks very interesting.

  11. when queen takes d5, knight moves threatning, would queen e6 check be bad for black?

  12. after queen takes d5, it becomes the mieses kotrok gambit, doesn't it?

  13. I thought this was from black's perspective, I started playing a game while watching it n u switched to white's perspective for the rest of the video. Thanks.

  14. @around 6:00, my intuition would be to move Qe6 check. What necessarily wrong here?

  15. Blocks your e pawn from being able to move at all, blocks your bishop a bit, and White easily can protect himself while developing a piece at the same time. Just giving white more time to develop pieces, while wasting moves on your queen, and prohibiting your own development partially.

  16. Kevin, at one point you introduced seven consecutive moves with the phrase "from here." YOu really need to vary the presentation more than this. Not trying to be nasty, but it is very annoying and detracts from the great service you provide.

  17. I disagree. I preffer to be aware of white oportunities

  18. If you dunno how Chess works, why are you stopping people from giving their suggested moves based on their experience and analysis. You obviously are the type of guy that just goes around jealous and arrogant to listen to any advice at all. Good luck in your games (even if you play Chess) cause you'll need it.

  19. What should black play if, after 2. Nf6 white plays 3.Bb5?

  20. hiiii ๐Ÿ™‚ what's your FIDE rating? ^_^

  21. Thanks for these videos. My 5 year old son has basically been coached by you (which is nice because we sure couldn't afford to pay a coach). He went 3.5/4 his first tournament. I'm not a chess player, so finding you was awesome. He likes aggressive play, so you two seem a good match. One question: I saw someone's "Beating the Scandinavian Defense"; how would you respond to this? Thanks again.

  22. buy a book on openings, it will greatly improve your game. Also these videos help also.

  23. at 6:22 what about queen to e6 putting white king in check?? they always seems to play this move..

  24. What if instead of c4 pawn, white plays bxc4? Is there a trap you could use for this variation?

  25. I wouldn't recommend it. It would block the light-squared bishop and the e-pawn (also making it more difficult to develop the dark-squared bishop). As a rule of thumb, never check the king unless it gives you some sort of advantage. As a matter of fact, if I were playing this game as white I would love to see black play Qe6-check at this point in the game.

  26. I think he should've given all possible moves up until turn 10 or so (maybe less) and then explained the best choices up until then. Complicated, yes, but effective nonetheless in keeping both opportunities covered, and the viewers satisfied.

  27. What do you think of this line?

    1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qe5+ 4. Be2 Qg5 5. Bf3 Qe5+ 6. Nge2 Nf6 7. O-O e6
    8. d4

  28. "One of the key things you want to think when you're white, or black " that sounded strange

  29. 9:16 I like the scandinavian D. Been playing it. But what if white goes Kn to E4. Black has to retreat the queen to C7. White can then take the knight on F6. Black is forced to double up pawns taking back… Is black okay with this? I know black typically castles queen side but wanted to get your thoughts. thanks.

  30. Black's queen goes to e8, c7 is being attacked by the knight. Then if Nxf6, Qxf6 with a stronger Q than before

  31. Yeah I suppose that'll work. I'll try that. I didn't think about that because considering I'm planning on castling queen side, feel like i"m a little behind development wise as I'll have to move my queen yet again later on (if he were to not take my knight with his) but still, it's better than what I had. Thanks.

  32. Just remember even Magnus carlsen, gary kasparov, bobby fischer, etc… were all once bad at chess ๐Ÿ˜€

  33. you forgot to mention the best move for white when queen goes to a5 and that is b4. after that aggressive move black has big problems if he takes the poison pawn and that is the main question for black in scandinavian defence – how to repond to b4? and what about bronstein variation? it was only mentioned.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *