The Scandinavian Defence
Challenge the e-pawn on move one, recapture with the queen, and put her on a square where nothing can chase her. It is the defence to 1.e4 that White has no good way to decline. Step through it, then play it.
Last updated
- First moves
- 1. e4 d5
- ECO
- B01
- Best for
- Black
- Style
- Tricky
- Theory
- Light
- Level
- Beginner
The Scandinavian Defence is 1.e4 d5, and it is the most direct answer to 1.e4 there is: no preparation, no supporting pawn, just an immediate challenge in the centre. White has no good way to decline it - 2.exd5 is close to forced (2.Nc3, 2.e5 and 2.d4 are legal, and each gives Black an easy game)
- so from move two you are always in a position you have seen before.
The queen came out on move two, which every beginner is told never to do. The reason it works is arithmetic: White gains exactly one tempo with 3.Nc3
- a move White wanted anyway - and then there is no second move that attacks her. One tempo is a fair price for a defence with no weaknesses in it.
The main line
The 3...Qa5 Scandinavian, the classical main line. Step through all twelve moves.
Now play Black's side of it.
You are Black. Challenge the e-pawn, recapture with the queen, and settle her on the one square that cannot be attacked again.
The Modern Scandinavian: 2...Nf6
If the queen sortie is not to your taste, there is a whole second opening inside the same first move: leave the pawn on d5 and develop instead.
The Modern Scandinavian - Black recaptures with a piece, and the queen never leaves home.
The trap you must not fall for
The queen on a5 sits on the b4-a5 diagonal. If White's dark-squared bishop reaches d2 while a knight still stands on c3, that knight can move anywhere it likes with a discovered attack on your queen.
You are Black. White has just played 7.Nd5, apparently hanging a knight in the middle of the board. Decide.
White just played Nd5, and the knight is attacked by your c6-pawn. One capture wins a piece. The other loses your queen. Choose.
The plans, for both sides
Black's plans. The setup is fixed and easy: ...Qa5, ...Nf6, ...c6, ...Bf5 or ...Bg4, then ...e6, ...Bd6 or ...Be7, castle - often long, onto the half-open d-file. After that, play against d4: the ...Bg4 pin on the f3-knight and ...Nbd7-b6 both aim there. And permanently: know where the queen's escape squares are, because the c7-square that ...c6 creates is usually where she goes.
White's plans. Take the space that Black's slow development concedes: d4, Nf3, Bc4 or Bd3, castle, and then look for the moment when the queen on a5 is a target rather than a piece. Bd2 followed by a knight move is the standard trick; a4-a5 and Nb5 are the standard squeeze. What does not work is trying to punish the early queen sortie directly - after 3...Qa5 there is no second attack on her.
The recurring tactics are the discovered attack that this page's trap is built on, the fork on c7 when a knight reaches b5 or d5, the pin of the f3-knight after ...Bg4, and the skewer along the d-file once Black has castled long.
For a defence with the same "bishop out first" idea and no queen sortie at all, see the Caro-Kann Defence; for the opposite personality entirely, the Sicilian Defence.
Try it
White has played 1.e4. Answer with the Scandinavian.
The Scandinavian is the smallest defence to 1.e4 by study cost and one of the most reliable by result: one line, one structure, and one trap to know. Play it while you learn the middlegames, and the openings you graduate to later will make more sense for it. The lessons take it from there.
Common questions
- What is the Scandinavian Defence?
- The answer 1.e4 d5, also called the Centre Counter. Black challenges White's e-pawn immediately; after 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 the queen is chased once and settles on a5, where it is safe, active and annoying. It is the oldest recorded reply to 1.e4 - a game from 1475 opens with it - and it is the only defence White has no way of avoiding.
- Isn't bringing the queen out early a mistake?
- It breaks the rule, and the rule is right almost everywhere else. What makes it work here is that White gains exactly one tempo, with 3.Nc3, and that move was one White wanted to play anyway; after 3...Qa5 there is no follow-up that hits the queen again. Compare it with a genuine early-queen blunder, where every developing move comes with a threat and the queen runs for ten moves.
- Is the Scandinavian good for beginners?
- It is one of the best first defences to 1.e4. There is essentially one line, it is all but forced from move one, and you reach the same structure nearly every game - so the study cost is a fraction of a Sicilian's. The trade-off is that the positions are slightly passive: Black usually has a solid, slightly worse game and needs patience rather than fireworks.
- Where should the queen go after 3.Nc3?
- The three respectable squares are a5, d6 and d8, and they are three different openings. 3...Qa5 is the classical main line: active, pinning the c3-knight in some lines, and out of the way of Black's own development. 3...Qd6 is the modern favourite: safer, and the queen supports ...e5 later. 3...Qd8 is the most passive and the most solid - it wastes a move to reach total safety.
- What is the Modern Scandinavian with 2...Nf6?
- Instead of recapturing with the queen, Black develops and asks White to hold the pawn: 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6. After 3.d4 Nxd5 Black has an easy, comfortable game with no queen sortie at all; 3.c4 c6 is the Scandinavian Gambit (3.c4 e6 is the Icelandic Gambit), where Black offers a pawn for very fast development. It is a completely different opening that shares one move.
- What is the trap every Scandinavian player must know?
- The queen on a5 sits on the same diagonal as a bishop on d2 - so any White knight on c3 can move away with a discovered attack. The concrete version is 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 c6 5.Bc4 Bf5 6.Bd2 e6 7.Nd5!, where the knight is 'hanging' but 7...cxd5?? 8.Bxa5 wins the queen. Move the queen off the diagonal, or check what a knight move uncovers before you capture anything.
Ideas this opening runs on:
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