Scandinavian DefenceB01
Black challenges e4 immediately, and after 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 the queen steps to a5, where it is annoying rather than exposed — it eyes the c3-knight, supports …c6 and …Bf5, and is perfectly safe as long as you remember to give it the b6 or c7 escape square in time. The standing criticism, that bringing the queen out early loses time, is true and priced in: White gains a tempo with 3.Nc3 and Black gains a structure with no weaknesses and a light-squared bishop that is never buried. The set-up hardly varies — …c6, …Bf5, …e6, …Nbd7, castle queenside — which is exactly what you want from an opening you have decided not to study for a hundred hours. The one thing that actually goes wrong: playing …Bg4 or …Bf5 before …c6, so that Nc3-b5 or Bc4 hits something.
Played by
- Viswanathan Anand — played it against Kasparov in the 1995 title match, which is why it stopped being a joke
- Sergei Tiviakov — the opening's most loyal grandmaster, with a record against 1.e4 built almost entirely on 1…d5
Model game
Karpov – Larsen, Montreal 1979
Next: e4
