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euro_pop_legend 12-May-23, 13:43	Whites options against the Scandinavian and Transpositions Just finding an occasional post/link from older clubs of mine and transferring an informative link back into my new club: gameknot.com The Scandinavian has many types of responses or transpositions,like into the Advance Var of the French.More on this subject when I am feeling up to it. Here are some stats as well on the French.It is also probably listed in my French thread,but recopying some stats never hurts... Winawer Var:42% white wins,29%black wins,29% draws Advance Var:38% white wins,35% black wins,27% draws Exchange Var:25%white wins,32%,black wins,43%draws Main line(4.e5):40%white wins,29%black wins,31%draws Tarrasch Var:40% white wins,25%black wins,35%draws. Any transpositions from a Scand to a French Advanced,as you can see illustrate a very good winning potential stats for white...near the top.This should give some of you a strong message! Again,I will discuss the Scandinavian later on when I have time.In the meantime,take a look at this thread if you like! Books,books and more books.... Just checking my personal library on the Scand.,I found several books: 1.The Safest Scan. by Vassilios Kotronias 2.Understanding the Scan.by Sergey Kasparov 3.Smerdons Scan. by David Smerdon 4.The 3.....Qd8 Scan.-Simple and Strong by Daniel Lowinger 5.The Scan.by Cyrus Lakdawala 6.The Modern Scan. by Walls,Muller & Langrock
euro_pop_legend 12-May-23, 13:44	Do I recommend the Scand.? Perhaps for beginners and intermediates,but overall,no,I do not recommend it.Yes,it is played quite often and is relatively easy to learn from the early learners standpoint. The Scandinavian defense is theoretically inferior because White will gain time with his actual and potential threats to chase the Queen. Unlike the Scotch game, the threats against the Queen are real, because no pairs of knights have been exchanged, and only one pair of pawns.So,yes,on the early learners level I may suggest it,but with class "A"and above players I do not recommend it.Sure,you will see an occasional GM play it as a surprise psy weapon...but you are not a GM,now are you?A GM playing black can open up with 1....Na6 and 2....Nh6 and still beat the pants off you 1300-2100 guys!If you played a Scand.as white against TA,even if your rating was 2300-2400,I will usually crush those 2300-2400 players.Again,you are not TA,but you may encounter another TA sometime! So the game is semi-open right out of the chute,but has many pitfalls for early learners.For one thing,it DOES violate classical principles of development, true,but many openings do this unpunished. That Black risks losing his queen may only be true when very weak players try the 3.Qxd4 lines.But "weak"is a relative term!I simply recommend better openings than the Scand....even a Trompowsky is way better.I play it all the time in blitz,but that is a different story.Losing is learning however,so I think that learning a few easy lines of the Scand.are fine for training purposes.It simply is not on my favorites list,for a host of reasons.You may have had success with it in the past,but perhaps your opponents were really not that strong anyway?So I judge openings from above,looking down into a large domed bubble.What I see is beginners/intermediate using it(mainly)but class "A" and above not using it much and also losing or drawing(way too much) to it as black if opening with it.You will never see me opening the game as a defense with a Scand.....so that should give you a hint. It is not enough to know just the opening lines of the scand., it also important to know the middlegames, and you will need strong endgame abilities to win (or draw) these positions - both as White and Black. This is the "problem" of the Scandinavian,more than other openings. www.youtube.com

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