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

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.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.e4d5

White is answering…

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

The bishop on d2, waiting

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bd2 e6 7.Nd5

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 while the knight itself forks c7 and f6. Black comes out of it a piece or the exchange down, or with a king that cannot castle.
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

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3

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

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.f3 Bf5 5.Bb5+ Nbd7 6.c4

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.

Try it on one of your own

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