What is the idea of the Scandinavian Defence?

In 2013, IM John Watson wrote an extremely positive commentary about My System,
theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/john-watson-book-review-108-of-eplus-books-part-2-nimzowitsch-classics
but he did note that "not everything in it has stood the test of time", thus inspiring me to browse around in the writings of Nimzowitsch, looking for specific statements that would now be seen as incorrect. I am, of course, not qualified to do such a search, but I made the attempt anyway and found what seems to me to be one candidate in a Nimzowitsch discussion of a Tarrasch book:
"... the game Rubinstein-Bernstein (San Sebastian 1911), in which Rubinstein, following Lasker's prescription, demolished 1...d5 thoroughly and for all time! ... Black gets a free, but a lost game! ..."
One can see the 1911 game at:
www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1119737
[Event "San Sebastian"] [Date "1911.02.23"] [White "Akiba Rubinstein"] [Black "Ossip Bernstein"] [ECO "B01"] 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 c6 8.Bd2 Nbd7 9.O-O-O e6 10.Bc4 Qc7 11.Rhe1 O-O-O 12.Bb3 h6 13.Kb1 Nb6 14.Ne2 Be7 15.c4 Rd7 16.a4 Na8 17.Bf4 Bd6 18.Be3 Qa5 19.Rc1 Bb8 20.Red1 Nc7 21.Nf4 Rhd8 22.Bd2 Qa6 23.Bc3 Qb6 24.Ka2 Na6 25.Nd3 c5 26.a5 Qc7 27.dxc5 Nxc5 28.Nxc5 Rxd1 29.Rxd1 Rxd1 30.Nxe6 fxe6 31.Qxd1 Ne4 32.Bb4 Nc5 33.Qh5 b6 34.Bd1 Qe7 35.Bf3 Bd6 36.axb6 axb6 37.Qg6 Be5 38.Ba3 Bf6 39.b4 Qd7 40.bxc5 Qd2+ 41.Kb3 Qc3+ 1/2-1/2

@Champignon said in #10:
> The idea in the Scandinavian is that black gives up the control of the center and helps white develop their pieces with tempos, but in return black gains a solid but passive position.

This seems to sum it up pretty well. I play the Scandi a lot. If white knows what he's doing, black can get a cramped position and it can be tough to get untangled. But many white players, at least at my level, aren't very familiar with it. I win a lot of my Scandi games. You'd be surprised how often white players forget the queen is on a5 and blunder a knight or bishop (usually a bishop) on g5...

To confuse the opponent, to have tactical shots against the unprepared.

You may choose to play b4 - confusing them back.

The power of these cheapos is, that their refutations look counter-intuitive. - like playing h3, g4, Ne5.

Black loses tempi, and the center. I highly recommend GM Adhiban's e4 course on the matter - he extinguishes this viking fire pretty easily.

And as mentioned, you play Nf3, waiting for him to pin you (correct is Bf4) and then you kick the bishop h3 g4 Ne5 ready to perhaps even trap the queen with Nc4 if Black isn't careful.

You're not afraid he will sac. a piece on 2 pawns when you play h3 g4, - he's losing, but you need to prepare for it with Mr. Computer.

@Nisko1234 said in #13:
> To confuse the opponent, to have tactical shots against the unprepared.
>
> You may choose to play b4 - confusing them back.

b4 tripped me up a few times but I don't know if it's really dangerous if black plays correctly?

>
> The power of these cheapos is, that their refutations look counter-intuitive. - like playing h3, g4, Ne5.
>
> Black loses tempi, and the center. I highly recommend GM Adhiban's e4 course on the matter - he extinguishes this viking fire pretty easily.
>
> And as mentioned, you play Nf3, waiting for him to pin you (correct is Bf4) and then you kick the bishop h3 g4 Ne5 ready to perhaps even trap the queen with Nc4 if Black isn't careful.

Ne5 can be a big problem, which is why I often play Bg4 and take the knight. Gives up the bishop pair but seems to buy some time for black. Haven't seen Adhiban's course but I found a game where he played Scandi and drew against Magnus in 2017. But he didn't play Qxd5, he played the Nf6 line.

In many common lines you actually also lose a lot of space but the Scandinavian is kinda an easy opening that you don’t need to know much theory about to play.
I fun response if you wanna mix things up, played it once in classical OTB and drew so still an okay classical opening as well .