Openings · B01

Scandinavian Defence

Challenge e4 on move one and take a fully open game — with the queen out early, which is either the point or the problem.

1.e4 d5played as Black

Play it through on the board below, and 6 moves into the main line.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded. The line runs on past the moves that define the opening and into the main line, because two moves is not a drill.

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a
Your move 1 of 40/4
  1. 1.e4d5
  2. 2.exd5Qxd5
  3. 3.Nc3Qa5
  4. 4.d4Nf6

White is answering…

The idea

1…d5 forces matters at once. After 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 the queen is chased, but she goes to a5, d6 or d8 and Black gets a game with no weaknesses, a clear plan of …Nf6, …Bf5 or …Bg4, …e6 and …c6, and almost no theory to memorise.

It is the most practical answer to 1.e4 for a player who does not want to learn the Sicilian: one structure, reachable by force, that White cannot dodge. The queen is not really a target once …c6 is in — but she is a target before it.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level: named traps and the errors every coach corrects.

The bishop on d2, waiting

After 7.Nd5
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
  7. 7.
The mistake
Developing while the queen on a5 sits on a diagonal with a white bishop at the end of it.
Why it costs
6.Bd2 looks like a modest developing move. It is loading a discovered attack: 7.Nd5 steps the knight out of the way, so the bishop hits the queen, and the queen cannot take the knight because the bishop on c4 guards it. The knight is hitting c7 and f6 as well. The engine rates it winning for White; Black's least bad answer gives up the queen for a knight and a bishop.
Instead
Play …c6 early. It gives the queen b6 and c7, blunts the diagonal and supports …d5 ideas later — which is why it comes before almost anything else in this opening.

Retreating the queen to d8

After 5.Nf3
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
The mistake
Putting the queen back where she came from to keep her safe.
Why it costs
Black has spent two moves to bring White's knight to a good square, and now has a French Defence without the pawn on e6 or a Caro-Kann without the pawn on c6 — the same cramped game, minus the pawn that made it solid.
Instead
3…Qa5 or the modern 3…Qd6. Both keep the queen active and both have a plan; d8 has neither.

The Portuguese, unprepared

After 6.c4
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
The mistake
Playing 2…Nf6 and 3…Bg4 as a gambit without knowing the follow-up.
Why it costs
White can simply hold everything: 4.f3 and 5.Bb5+ keep the extra pawn, and 6.c4 builds a centre Black cannot break. The Portuguese works on the sharp lines it was designed against, not against a player who defends.
Instead
2…Qxd5 — the main move for a hundred and fifty years — or 2…Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5, which is the sound version of the same idea.

In real games between beginners

  • 1 in 58games end with Black giving checkmate by move 15. In all openings: 1 in 54.
  • 1 in 46games end with Black getting checkmated by move 15. In all openings: 1 in 33.

From 36,149 Lichess games in this opening between players rated under 1200, blitz and slower, September 2026. How we counted.

What the engine says

After 1.e4 d5, these are White's six best moves according to Stockfish, with the bar showing White's chance of winning.

  1. exd5+0.6
  2. d3+0.1
  3. e5-0.1
  4. Nc3-0.3
  5. Bd3-0.4
  6. d4-0.5

The engine's main line from exd5: exd5 Qxd5 Nc3 Qa5 d4 Bf5 Bd2 e6.

Stockfish 18, depth 24. Scores are in pawns from White's side. Another engine or depth will move individual numbers a little; the picture does not change. How we check.

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