Double Trouble Scandinavian Style: Two Repertoires for Black

Preface

I have always been interested in 1.e4 d5, but wondered whether Black must play his queen to a5 (2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5) or whether (after 2...Nf6) Black must play some gambit or other. Aren’t there other possibilities? Of course there are! In which case, let’s have a book that is not a packed directory full of all sorts of black and white possibilities with countless tightly-nested game fragments, and is instead a straightforward volume of repertoire recommendations. Well, here is that very book. It is the kind of opening book that I would have wanted myself – I hope that it is yours too.

I thank all those people who encouraged me and helped me with my work on the Scandinavian Defense. And of course this book is dedicated to the love of my life. She knows who she is, most of the time.

Marek Soszynski

October 2023

Birmingham, UK

P.S. To players with the white pieces – kindly close this book immediately! For a start, the diagrams will be the wrong way up for you.

Foreword

In response to 1.e4, the great masters and teachers have for many decades pointed out that when and if Black can play ...d5 safely, the result is approximate equality. Scandinavian devotees argue all that can happen on Move 1! But it’s hardly a peaceful equality.

The Scandinavian topples a tall pile of thick opening tomes from your study table. The opening is a theory-killer – of your opponents’ theory! Hyperbole aside, in this book, popular author and Correspondence Master Marek Soszynski gives you a defense to 1.e4 that can honestly be called complete. Your prep could not be better.

I fell in love with 1.e4 d5 when I first took up serious tournament chess in 1969, just out of the Army at the age of 22. I was playing over a then-60-year-old game by the Old Master of Attack Jacques Mieses when the moonlight hit the board. I loved how Black takes charge of the opening from the get-go, constructing a playing field where all the potholes and poison ivy are known best to him. More than a century later, Stockfish confirms that Mieses got the advantage by Move 10 and never gave it up! Of course, I loved the swift cutting-edge of mortal tactics at the finish:

Perlis – Mieses

Scandinavian Defense [B01]

Ostend 1907

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Bd2 e5 7.Nb5 Qb6 8.Qe2 a6 9.Nc3 Bg4 10.f3 Nxd4 11.Qxe5+ Be6 12.Nge2 Nxe2 13.Qxe2 0-0-0 14.0-0-0 Bd6 15.Bc4 Rhe8 16.Bxe6+ Rxe6 17.Qc4 Qf2 18.Qf1 Qc5 19.g3 Be5 20.Qg2 Rb6 21.Be1 Qe3+ 22.Bd2

22...Bxc3 23.Bxe3 Bxb2+ 24.Kb1 Bd4+ 25.Kc1 Bxe3+ 26.Rd2 Bxd2+ 27.Qxd2 Rb1+

Romance aside, we all want results. At my late start in chess, I needed some opening shortcuts. The Scandy was my perfect sideline. I played it consistently, using it to upset even a master-rated rival at the PanAmerican Intercollegiate Team Championships and to win the championship of a small but chess-savvy city, Lincoln, Nebraska, where I was a full-time high school teacher. I even tied for first at a big event, the Midwest Open. Later in New York, I relied on the Scandinavian to draw against a well-known IM and reach a USCF rating well into the 2100s. Statistics from my games show my best performance has always been not with the White pieces but from the Black side of the Scandinavian.

I sometimes had to suppress a grin when an opponent reacted impertinently to my first move. After the blitzing of 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 and a few more moves – came White’s Big Think. I could almost hear the ruminating: Now, why is this bad? From time to time, I played Soszynski’s alternative recommendation, 1.e4 d4 2.exd5 Nf6 with confidence, keeping my familiar opponents guessing. And I had something different to match my mood.

During the 14th game of 1995 PCA World Championship, the Scandy got a big endorsement. On the observation deck of the now-memorialized World Trade Center, challenger Viswanathan Anand answered World Champion Garry Kasparov’s 1.e4 with 1...d5 2.exd5 Qxd5. Kasparov had never before faced the Scandinavian in a serious game. (Ironically, six years earlier and just four miles north, millions had watched Garry on the old Dave Letterman Show, as Kasparov dealt deftly with the late-night host’s lame attempt at playing the defense.) Both the audience in attendance at the World Trade Center and around the chess world reacted with consternation at Anand’s choice. But Kasparov, widely admired for his opening preparation, played tentatively. Privileged to be there representing US Chess, I was excited as a Scandy devotee. Indeed, Anand got a very good game but went wrong after 30 moves and lost – not as a result of the Scandinavian. After that top-of-the-world encounter, the opening began building some more serious theory.

This book cuts it down to size. Marek Soszynski gives you just what you need to know to show that the old theoretical equalizer, 1...d5, can indeed be played, and played with verve, on Move 1!

Al Lawrence *

October 2023

* Al Lawrence is a former Executive Director of US Chess. He is also a three-time Chess Journalist of the Year. The Scandinavian has been his weapon of choice against 1.e4 for many years.

Part One

Chapter 1

Introduction to Double Trouble

White opens with 1.e4. That is what happens most of the time. After all, it is the strongest and most assertive move. Now, who knows what wiles and wickedness White wants from his opening. The Exchange Spanish (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6) heading for an endgame? A tactical Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4) against the Sicilian? The devious Chigorin Variation (1.e4 e6 2.Qe2) against the French? We cannot be sure. So we, as Black, have really not a moment to lose if we want to turn the tables for it to be us who choose the tabletop battleground. To that end, we play 1.e4 d5!. We go into the details later. First, an explanation of the structure and content of the book.

The book is in three parts. Part One, besides introducing the book generally, covers the very first moves of the Scandinavian Defense and White’s early deviations. Then Part Two covers Qd6 + g6 systems, while Part Three covers the very different Nf6 system. This is the Double Trouble that our white opponents will face. They will not know what kind of Scandinavian they are getting in to: it could be 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 or it could be 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6. And it gets worse for them. We will not even be playing the first-choice black continuations of these lines. So most of White’s top-line preparations will be wasted.

Each of the three parts of the book has a few theory chapters to begin with. In those chapters I show the best moves for both sides plus White’s most common moves, while concentrating almost entirely on helping Black through the early part of the game. So these chapters are not exactly surveys, and will not have many game references. They form repertoire recommendations for Black; ways for Black to combat White’s moves. Above all, remember that from the starting position (i.e., no moves) White has some sort of advantage. So, even with best play by Black, it is impossible to force White into an inferior position. Of course it is possible to exploit White’s inevitable inaccuracies in positions that we will be familiar with – as a result of studying this book.

Note that what I offer is a skeleton repertoire for Black against 1.e4. This is neither a middlegame manual nor a best games compendium (though there are many good games within). I merely want to get you past the first few moves safely and with reasonable prospects for the rest of the game. That is not easy. White had the first go and chose the most aggressive move. Of course no repertoire book can solve all your problems as Black. There will always be that insurmountable issue of not having the first move.

A further word about the analysis. This is not an encyclopedic book of over-long analytical lines that would be impossible to remember. (If there are any longish variations, this is usually only to prove a point.) However good your powers of recall, and even if you have an opening book within sight, eventually the variations will run out, or your opponent quickly deviates anyway, and then you are on your own. This modest book will take you to a point – admittedly only an early point in most cases – where you have a good-enough position from the opening to just play chess. You can find some long analyses elsewhere, or get your engine to generate them. Good luck recalling them!

Your engine? My preferred analysis engine is Andrea Manzo’s Shash-Chess, a derivative of Stockfish. The latter is the world’s strongest engine by a clear margin and has been so for some time. It has two drawbacks in its evaluations, however. These do not affect Stockfish’s gameplay, i.e., its usually commanding performance in matches, tournaments and test suites. When it comes to assessments, in my opinion ShashChess is more reliable (less volatile when switching back and forth from one color to the other) and more realistic for human play (in other words, its evaluations are more conservative). For example, a clear advantage ( ) for Stockfish may in practice, in over-the-board or crossboard reality, be only a slight advantage ( ) for human chessplayers.

As I said, in this book there are very few game references in the analytical chapters. Why not? Because it would be perverse and pointless to determine the best moves (after much book research and computer analysis) and then half-desperately search (very often in vain) for games by decent players in which those moves happen to occur. Only then to quote games in the theory section that in fact went on to be decided much, much later by a random blunder or a lengthy technical endgame – in Black’s favor we hope. I agree that the study of complete games is required for the improvement of one’s chess overall. (And there are sixty-four annotated games for you here.) This book, though, is primarily for the enhancement, by diversification, of one’s opening play. Speaking of which, a word of advice that this book will help you to follow. Do not change your repertoire – add to it!

Finally, at the end of each Part, there are a number of illustrative games. Never mind the theory, here are the continuations that are actually played in games by masters and some lesser players too. Some of these games are inspirational or influential; some show alternatives to the theory (and often why the theory is better); others are harsh lessons or roller coasters. These are real-life human case studies so to speak, not book or computer-aided analyses (excepting the correspondence games and the one Stockfish game of course). It is true that the examples are selected somewhat, though not entirely, in Black’s favor; nevertheless, all of us who will play Black should be heartened and encouraged by White’s frailties and failures. These sample games are arranged in date order (except for Chapter 16), and have some references back to the theoretical sections.

Chapter 2

Introduction to 1.e4 d5

Our weapon of choice is the Scandinavian Defense (also known originally as the Center Counter Defense or Centre Counter Defence in British spelling). We choose 1.e4 d5 because moves other than 2.exd5 are inferior and less popular for that reason. So, White is already being channeled