Chess Openings: Scandinavian Defense

One of the oldest chess openings, the scandinavian defense, black immediately challenges the center from white’s e4 with d5. After white recaptures black has two options to respond. Black can immediately recapture with his queen and reach equality in material or play Nf6 and try to gain a spacial and developmental advantage. If black chooses for Nf6 both sides need to keep their eyes open as there are many small traps that both sides can fall for that will destroy their position.

Chess Software used in the video can be found at and

181 Comments

  1. Don't chase a queen or you'll get heartburn. Got it

  2. Does Magnus Carlsen have to play this defense?

  3. What if white doesn’t take d5 pawn and move white pawn to e6?

  4. Yo stupid, are you playing black or white??
    Most stupid chess vid I’ve ever watched.
    Chess talk( channel) is WAY better tbh.

  5. Him: If you are going to bring your QUEEN out more than likely you want to keep HIM active.
    Me: Confused noises.

  6. people dont do e4xd5 they do stupid shit like e4 to e5

  7. No, I think this video is better at 1.25x faster speed.

  8. You've aged 10 years and you still sound the same….

  9. In the last position what side is better for black king to castle to ?

  10. you should put white as the one moving…like the 1st one -_-
    cuz we don't know which defense is this for

  11. I hate the Scandinavian defense so much it makes me irrationally angry every time I play against it. I take it as an insult not just to my intelligence, but my value as a human being. This is the sound of me screaming in rage when I see the 1.d5 move “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” I take a deep breath before I continue, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” usually by this point it’s the middle game and I have finished screaming. I am now crying and shaking, the tears streaming down my beet red face burn my eyes like sea water as I make my moves. The game ends. Sometimes I’ve won, sometimes I’ve lost. I take a break from chess afterwards. I hate the Scandinavian.

  12. Your awesome dude !!! Appreciate you brother

  13. It doesn’t go over what to do if the other person moves their Knight after you move yours

  14. Anyone else here because they got an achievement for playing the Scandinavian defensive and not knowing wtf that it is…

  15. Anyone here from the first harry Potter movie

  16. video should be named "Scandinavian counter attack"

  17. i asked for defense for black but youre saying its good for white?

  18. Great video as always, thanks for all the work you put in to help noobs like me get better <3

  19. I play the Scandinavian all the time, I was hoping to see how to play it to win, not how to defeat it with white.

  20. Scandinavian defense is not a really good opening for beginers

  21. Oh man, i was playing without even knowing its scandinavian defense and i thought how bad i play lol

  22. Ok so slav and scandinavian defense both begin with d5

  23. You didn’t show the Portuguese variation (the butcher has a great recent series on this) or Qxd5 (stockfish’s first choice and my preference in the nf6 line if they play d4). Although interestingly in terms of games statistics black wins more than white in the nb6 line (this isn’t my experience, it’s sort of like an alekheine and not the kind of game a scandi player wants )

  24. My favourite opening. For some reason this always leads to a checkmate for me

  25. So apparently based on my lichess analysis, as white I always play Queen Gambit, and as black I always play Scandinavian Defense even tho I play based on my feeling and not learning

    Therefore learning from you about all the possibilities with Scandinavian Defense, and your other videos Queen Gambit, really help me to open up my mind

    Keep up the good work mate

  26. Big up to this guy for responding to all our questions even after 11 years

  27. After the queen takes the pawn in the center, and then black attacks with his knight, why not move the queen to E5, piutting black king in check?

  28. Nothing like a gane of chess to make me cut myself. I'm such an idiot. It just makes me want to take pills and never wane up

  29. i have question, what to do after? how to crush white?

  30. I’ve been playing the scandinavian and I didn’t even know it

  31. I came to this channel to try and learn strategy and tactics after downloading the top chess app on the play store. I'm stuck at the candidate master level, it seems the AI knows every counter to everything all the while laying traps for me to walk into. 😩

  32. Demetrius Demarcus Bartholomew James III Jr. says:

    Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland & Iceland

  33. After queen captures d5, what would you do if white then plays c4?

  34. youre using "he" to describe the queen …lol wtf is it transgender?

  35. one moment you are explaining as the black player, next thing we know you are explaining as the white player!!!

  36. It's funny that you call the Queen "him"

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.