Help with the Scandinavian Defense

@Ushtar said in #1:
> I learned the Scandinavian defense, and have been playing mostly the main lines for 40 games now. However, I have only won 35% of my games with it. What am I doing wrong?
>
> I have games I can show as examples. I like the Scandinavian because it opens up the center and often neutralizes white's pawns in the middle of the board. I don't know if I am not playing the opening correctly, or if my problem is something else.
>
> Thanks for any help or advice!
>
> -Ushtar

Sometimes, people try the Tenison's gambit so be careful about that.

Please check on Google how many Scandinavian defense variation have...

The Scandinavian you play has one major fault: you brought your queen out early. I have a more challenging approach, but it's just my personal recommendation.

It's the 2.Nf6 scandi(navian). Not really a scandinavian, but the more modern approach. You're trying to recapture with the knight instead, and if they try to hold-on to the pawn, it's getting very very dangerous. Go try it out

I found a video on it that explains very well (in french, sorry):

youtu.be/eu6M25QuU7Q

@Ushtar said in #10:

> As with the comments above, it seems the Scandinavian opening creates a more open game which allows my opponents to exploit other weaknesses in my game (i.e. King safety, etc.). So my conclusion is perhaps I should study other openings as black against White e.4 that lead to a more closed game.

No. That's the wrong conclusion. In general you need to castle and complete development before starting an attack. That's super important, no matter what opening you play. Feel free to show more games for advice.

@Ushtar Here's where you can learn your opening from.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLssNbVBYrGcDxYjYug23Ls2C-wMcqJQUQ

Thanks for all the helpful comments everyone. Much appreciated.

Here's a game I played yesterday where I tried to learn from your comments and my previous mistakes. Key to this game was that I developed both knights as quickly as I could, then castled early (Queen side), and brought both rooks to the open files in the middle of the board. Combined with my bishops I was able to create some nice pins that led to White resigning.

My conclusion is to try to castle early and bring my rooks into the middle files to control the center of the board as black.

<iframe src="lichess.org/embed/3oFZqoki?theme=auto&bg=auto"
width=600 height=397 frameborder=0></iframe>

@TheKingClash said in #11:
> The Caro-Kann is positional but also allows white a relatively open game with 3.Nc3 or 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4. You could try the French Defence. Although your c8-bishop is hemmed in by your pawn chain it is usually a closed opening, e.g. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5.

I will definitely check this out. Thank you!

@Frogster64 said in #15:
> No. That's the wrong conclusion. In general you need to castle and complete development before starting an attack. That's super important, no matter what opening you play. Feel free to show more games for advice.

Thank you, this is the kind of feedback I need. See the other game I just posted above.

Well I play the Blackburne Koolsterboer Gambit, e4 d5 exd5 c6 dxc6 Nxc6 my favourite variation under Scandinavian.