More Scandi OTB

My last tournament started 30th June. Because of that, games will be rated using June, and not July ratings (at least from what I understand), which will make me miss out on 3 more elo points.

The tournament was a 9 round accelerated swiss. Time control was 90+30, and we got a bonus 15 minutes after making the 40th move. Only Boards 1-6 were streamed, so I won't have move times for all games. I was the 14th seed (out of 104 players), so I had a chance to play many stronger players If i started out well.

Amazingly, all my Black games I faced 1. e4! I'll skip all White games, as they weren't very memorable, and I want to focus on the Scandinavian again.

Don't play this gambit

Round 1 I got White. I saw my opponent plays the French, so I decided to play 1. a3. Somehow we transposed into a London. My play was atrocious, but the time pressure led to my opponent blundering a piece in the endgame.

Round 2 I got Black, and my forst Scandinavian of the tournament.

After Nf6-g6-Bg7-O-O generally next is either a6-b5-Bb7, or b6-Bb7. The bishop doesn't always have to go to b7. The b8 knight can go to both d7 and c6 (sometimes even a6, defending against Nc7, if White played Bf4)

It's first time I faced this Nb5-c4 idea, disallowing typical b5-Bb7, but I still can develop with b6-Bb7.

He played a couple more moves, but eventually resigned. Too much stuff is hanging.

I'm very happy with the opening, but to be fair the play was very simple. The middlegame, even though not very accurate, I'm very happy with. I found two right ideas, c5 and Nc6, realized Nxe7+ isn't scary, and a cherry on top - Bc2.

Calculation is easier to improve, so I'm happy my understanding and intuition were right.

With that I'm was 2/2, and going to play the top players of the tournament.

Opening surprise

In Round 3 I got paired against a higher-rated opponent. But I quickly made a stupid mistake blundering a pawn in a simple tactic.

I kept on playing, and a few moves later I managed to equalize, as my opponent missed something aswell. The game was very messy, with +2 advantages for both players, but it ultimately ended in a draw.

This leads us to Round 4, where I got to play the Scandi against a higher-rated player for the first time (but not the last).

I've played him a couple years prior, and I played his IM father at the start of 2025 (I drew him!), and I played the Caro both times. So he got surprised seeing 1... d5

Btw his July live rating is 2127!

I wanted to meet dxe6 with Ne5. Against Qe2 I thought Nb6 is very strong, and against a3-b4 I intended to go Nb6, and sacriface my bishop on b4. And yet he managed to surprise me with Nd4, which didn't come to my mind at all.

After all that chaos I emerged up a pawn, so my opponent decided to complicate things with Ba7. Equalizing on material but getting the bishop to a weird spot.

Objecvitely Black is winning, but I got too excited, played too fast, and missed his critical idea. Feel free to find the best move for Black yourself ;)

A massive opening success! Good refutation of d5, and winning a pawn. Only problem was getting to excited after Ba7, and moving to fast. c4-c5 isn't difficult to spot, as these are only forcing moves in the position, and White must act quickly (to be fair I missed Qf5, but still). I'm not mad with missing that pin in the endgame, as it's pretty difficult to spot.

After this game I was 4th in the tournament.

Getting prepped against

Round 5 I played against a blitz demon in the French. I was expecting a Scandi, so I didn't play 1. a3. We ended up quickly (time-wise, not move-wise) drawing the game, but I was better the whole time, so no complaints (His performance in blitz).

Round 6. Again Black, again Scandi. But since Round 4 was streamed, my opponent came "prepared"!

Also I want you to pay attention to my time usage.

He played the objectively best line against the Scandinavian. But as you can see, there is a lot of room for mistakes on White's part. Just knowing the moves in't enough. you MUST understand the position to play it. My opponent is a perfect example of that, losing all advantage in 2 moves after his prep end (which I assume was c3).

Now we have a position where White must be very caraful to not lose the h-pawn. Let's see how the game proceeded.

Unluckily, when playing Ng4, I missed c5-a5-Bb5 at the end. But with my time advantage I was able to calculate everything to never get into any trouble.

I pushed the endgame a little more, but he defended very well, and I drew another game (4th in a row lol). I was in 6th place now.

Immortal

Round 7 I fell to board 8, and got a win in the Vienna. Sitting at 5/7 I went back up to board 4.

In the morning, before Round 8, there was a blitz event, where I somehow played my opponent, but with reverse colors. I played 1. a3, and won a nice game. Now I had to do the same in classical :D

Btw his July live rating is 1905.

Not objectively the best game I've played, but the finish is the most beautiful thing I've ever played in classical. This game put me on 6 out of 8, and I knew I'll be playing the leader of the tournament last round. I was 3rd after this game!

Color switch

Even though I played even rounds with Black, last game I got Black again. I was a little annoyed, as my opponent played Nf3-g3-b3 against my freind earlier in the tournament, and I didn't want to face that BS. However, as you already know, in all my Black games I faced only 1. e4 and this game wans't an exception.

I was surprised he played 1. e4, but to be fair, he played it before in the tournament, I just didn't bother to prepare lol.

And he played my line! Something I enjoy to play with White, just because how dofficult the position is for Black (I even got a completely lost position against my 1600 rated clubmate in a friendly match)

Yes I blundered a piece in one move in a classical game. But let's focus on the key moment of the game - move 8.

I know Nge2 is the best move, so I quickly concluded that my punishment has something to do with the d4 pawn. That leaves 2 candidate moves - Nc6, and Qd4.

And do you want to know why I refuted Nc6? I thought Na4 traps my queen. The same queen that went to d4 on the same move. I have no idea how I managed to miss that. But that led to me quickly choosing the wrong move.

Conclusion

The last game was a horrible ending to a great event. I finished 7th and gained 21 elo. At the closing ceremony I even got to play 2 blitz games against the runner-up of the 2025 Polish Classical Chess Championship. And I put up a fight (in the first game) where I got like a +2 out of the opening, but well, he is a grandmaster for a reason. And we don't talk about the second game.

Now about the Scandinavian. First game was an opening success, I got a game with a clear imbalance (up a pawn, and play against the centre), and good chances to play for a win. Game two aswell a success. Difficult position to handle for White after O-O-O, and I knew how to exploit that. Game 3 also an opening success. Playing a higher rated opponent in an engine refutation line, and it's me pushing for a win. Round four was weird. I got a chance to win a pawn out of the opening, but the position I got also was easier to play for Black. I'm not sure if it's an opening success. And last round I think only shows that even 2100 with time to prepare mishandle the Scandi. I'm talking about the 8th move, where he played Qe2. With a little more experience I easily spot Nc6, and get an amazing position.

Overall, even though I have only 2 months of experience in the Scandi, scoring 3/5 against average 1920 (1980 if you count July ratings) with Black is a great result.

My next tournament is gonna be even harder, I'll be playing in 2000+ group, so I'll have experience against much better players aswell!

With all that said, thank you for reading, I hope you ejnoyed this recap and sorry for a longer break <3

Oh, and here's the tournament link.