Playing Scandi OTB

A little backstory on my openings against 1... e4, before we get into the games :)

I played the Caro for around 5 years. Of course, inspired by GothamChess, from whom I picked up other openings like the Vienna, or even f6 in Accelerated London. In that 5 year span I improved a lot, and my style of play got more defined. I feel very uncomfortable in closed positions, without a clear plan, and in the Caro White has many lines to achieve that: King's Indian Attack, Two Knights, or the Short Variation for example.

Another thing is, there are many trappy and tricky lines, where you just must know them, especially in faster time controls. For example Bg5 in Tal Variation (which btw I picked up for myself, it's so fun to play), Rasa-Studier Gambit, Van der Viel and Bayonnet Attacks. And the list seemingly never ends.

Therefore I decided to look for alternatives. Most obvious choice was the Sicilian (which I also picked up from Gotham), as it's known as the most combative response to 1. e4, but there again, White has many options to get a calm game, most notorious being the Alapin. Also Closed Sicilian is very common, and not really my style. I gave up on it after 121 games with a miserable 38-50% score.

The French was another reasonable option, as I have experience in those structures after e5. And there are no good anti-French lines, Black always can transpose to a Sicilian. While I enjoyed those games, I can't stand the idea of playing a 5 hour game against a lower-rated opponent in the Exchange French for a win. So it's another miss.

I knew I didn't like the positons after 1... e5, but I gave it a try anyway. I went 1-6 with it. Safe to say, I'm not touching that opening any time soon.

So I was out of options. At least objectively good options.

But I wasn't done searching. Finally I decided to try the Scandinavian (again, from Gotham), and I'm so happy I did. I started playing it in May, with no experience and theory. So I was learning it on the fly, experimenting a lot with b8 Knight's placement, castling both sides and both light and dark-squared bishop's development. I lost many games in the opening, and still the Scandi was is my best opening with a 52-41% score after 1... d5, and 55-37% after 2... Qxd5. And including only games played in June, where I had some experience, it's up to 55-39% and 58-36% (which is a better score than my White pieces after 1. e4)

And I already got a chance to try it OTB!

Blitz Games

First was a 4-person team 3+2 Blitz event with a weird format. First a Swiss, then top 16 teams play a single-knockout. We were 22nd seed out of 26 teams. And the first team had two top 10, top 20 and a top 50 Polish player. I was hoping we could maybe face them. Sadly, we weren't even close.

1st round I got a nice win against a 2000 (I knew I'm playing a higher-rated opponent, but I didn't know how much, as there is not much time to check pairings between the rounds) in my f6 line against the Accelerated London (Game link). Next game i beat another 2000 (which I didn't know yet) gambiting a full piece against the Taimanov (Game link, broadcast is broken, and it shows a draw) :D

First OTB Scandi game

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Round 3 we played a team of 3 people, so we got a forfeit on board 4. I faced another 2000, this time unleashing my Scandinavian.

That's why I love the Scandi, you can't not accept it. You have to go 3. Nc3, otherwise this happens :p

As indicated by the time usage, my opponent was surprised by 8... Nxd4!!, which I knew from Gotham's course (again he lol). He decided, that it's better to go for a desperate attack with 12. Qa4 (or he missed 12... Qd2+), than play down a pawn, which is a reasonable call in a blitz game.

In this position I quickly spotted Qd2-Qxb2 with a fork. I placed the queen on d2, and realized, there is some play with Rb1-Qxa7, so, without letting go, I put the queen back to d4 and started calculating that. I saw the sequence 12... Qd2+ 13. Kf1 Qxb2 14. Rb1 Qxc3 15. Qxa7 e6! 16. Qxb7+ Kd7 and I'm safe with Bd6 on the way.

Yeah, I actually threw the game, missing that my c7 pawn is pinned. And we lost the match 1.5-2.5 which made the loss fell even worse, but there is not much time to worry about that in blitz.

But let's focus on the topic of the blog - the opening. A massive success. Outpreparing a 2000 opponent in an opening I play for less than a month? Not only outpreparing, but getting a winning position, out of the opening, spotting the winning line (Qd2+-Qxb2), and calculating it, having 2 minutes to convert the position. And all of that with Black! Can't ask for much more. Game link

Round 4 I got a +3 position out of the opening on move 11, but played instantly, instead of finding the correct continuation for whatever reason. I missed the critical way to get the advantage, and I even lost the game on time (Game link). This leads us to round 5, where I got to play the Scandinavian again.

My longest OTB game ever

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We fell down to last board and I faced a lower-rated opponent. However this time, the opening didn't work out so great for me.

This time, the opening didn't go so great for me. I missed the critical 8... Nc6!, where Black score skyrocets over 50%. Instead I went for the natural 8... c6 followedd by O-O, which gave up all kingside to my opponent.

And my opponent used that kingside right away. While his play wasn't the most accurate, it was still problematic, and proved too difficult for me to handle. White will win to many pawns before my rooks coordinate on the 2nd rank, so the position is lost.

But the game went on 88 more moves, 120 in total. With some skill, and a lot of luck I managed to hold a draw, mostly because my opponent missed the same checkmate in one/two 7 times. I love blitz! Game link

Round 6 I beat a WCM in a messy 4 Knights Sicilian, where she responded to my off-beat 6. a3 with inaccurate 6... a6, allowing me to get a better version of the main line (6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Nd6 8. Ne4, Game link). However in the next round I got outplayed by a CM in the French (Game link, but please, don't look at that), so I was sitting at 3.5/7. Not a bad score considering I played only one lower-rated player, and lost 2 winning games.

Second-last round was my last Scandi of the tournament.

Last blitz game

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Another Classical Scandinavian, against another lower-rated opponent

We get a normal, open position out of the opening. With clear play on the d4 pawn, and non-symmetrical structure, there are winning chances for me, so that's an opening success in my book.

And after the easy Rac1-Rhd1 and Rac8-Rhd8 from both sides, my opponent makes a strategical error with 17. c5!? further weakening the d4 pawn, and completely giving up the d5 square.

Now it's a nightmare position, especially for a blitz game.

After 25. Rf3 I blitzed out 25... Nf5 continuing with my plan, quickly realizing, that I've missed a game ending tactic. Luckily for me, my opponent missed it aswell.

But my opponent refused to resign, so I had a little fun converting the game... (Game link, in the game my opponent played illegal Ka3, so broadcast froze, but I got the reset mate on the board, don't worry :p)

The last round was a pretty messy win in a Reversed KID, but I was winning/better for almost all game (Game link).

I finished the tournament with 5.5/9. The ream finished 23rd place, so we didn't advance to the next stage. And had I won rounds 3 and 4, and had a score of 7.5/9, I'd had the most points out of everyone on board 1! Of course that would influence the pairings, but still. Tournament link

Now let's move on to the classical games, played 2 weeks after the blitz tournament, so I had much more experience from online games.

Classical domination

On June 14 and 15 I played a 5 round classical tournament in my hometown. I was a 2nd seed, 3 elo behind my friend. So the goal was clear - 5/5.

First game I got the White pieces, but that didn't stop me from playing the Scandi ;) You must be wondering now, how can I play the Scandinavian with White as an e4 player. Am I calling the centre game the Scandi? No, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

1. e4 is overrated

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One of the most common, if not the most, and most overlooked piece of opening advice titled players give (excluding all generalizations), espiecially to aspiring players, is to have a second weapon. And it's time I finally listen to that, and widen my repertoire. But what move would fit my style? Well...

I got lucky, as the previous day I was analyzing how to play the Scandinavian against Nc3-g3, and I saw this cool line, and I got to play it the next day!

Engine actually thinks, the pin is so strong, it's better to not even touch the knight, and continue like nothing had happened. Surprisingly, my opponent is a human :o

The position quickly fell apart after 11. h6! and 12. Nxd5! I won back a piece, and my passed h-pawn forced more material to be given up.

Overall, another massive opening success, like in the first blitz game. I mean, how often you get to sacrifice a piece in the opening? And how often with black? (this line would work for the Black pieces aswell)

The queen belongs on e2

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Round 2 I got to play another Scandi back-to-back! With another nasty pin.

White is never able to play Qd2-O-O-O, mostly due to that pin. That's why, in the Scandinavian, the queen belongs on e2 instead. It would've been much better for my opponent to simply retreat to g3 instead.

Now it's clear, that Black is playing for a win, and White has to defend to survive. And it's only move 9! Definitely an opening success!

10... Nb6, while not the most accurate, made my opponent make 2 consecutive errors, letting me exploit the pin. Then it was only a matter of technique. A pretty clean game overall.

With that win I was on 2 out of 2, and I went on to continue my streak till the end of the tournament, winning with 5/5, and scoring the highest performance rating of my career - 2532! More than enough for an IM norm! I gained 26 elo points (not the most in the tournament btw) and I'm up to 1953. Tournament link

What's next?

On 30th of July I'm playing another classical tournament, this time longer. A 9-round 90+30 swiss lasting for a week. In April I played there in group A (1900+), but now rating requirements are different, and group A is 2000+, so I'll be playing in group B (2150-).

I'm excited to try out Scandi against players my strength, and try to get to 2000, so +47 is the goal.

Of course I'll update you on how the tournament went.

Inbetween I might post a blog on how to get into the Scandi, the basic ideas, and lines, as this opening not only is the most forcing, limiting White's responses, it's really not complicated.

Thank you for reading

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Thanks for sticking around to the end, I hope you found the games interesting, and maybe you even got inspired to try out the Scandinavian for yourself!

And if you struggle against some lines, message me, and I might have something against that :)

Also if you want to play training games in some specific lines, not only the Scandi, DM me, and we might make something happen <3

And one more last thing. I hate the french. More generally closed positions with unclear plans, so if you know/play any aggresive, interesting lines against the french, where Black can't transpose into the better Sicilian, then please share it with me either privately, or via comments, I'm running out of ideas of what I can play.

See you soon!