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The Scandinavian Defense is a potentially great response by Black against the standard king’s pawn opening. However, the commonly played line where Black returns the queen to d8 (1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8) is one where Black must play carefully, and probably, know some theory. From the perspective of opening principles, White seemingly has effectively won an early beat of tempo. Stockfish’s evaluation mostly agrees with an evaluation of around [+0.9]. Lastly, when looking at the Lichess community database of lower rated games of blitz and rapid, White has a win advantage of 50% to Black’s 45%.

Against this line, my usual approach is to immediately develop quickly to keep up the tempo advantage – first (4. d4) and then (5. Nf3). Black attempted to play symmetrically, but that doesn’t quite work [+1.32]. I took advantage of the semi-open d-file to push my d-pawn to attack one of the knights (6. d5). Although Stockfish considered this suboptimal, it forces Black to respond by placing their knight offside (6… Nb4) and gives the appearance of blocking the movement of the e-pawn, which blocks the development of the king-side bishop.

Black plays (7… b6), presumably to fianchetto the queen-side bishop, but this move is a blunder [+5.12], though it isn’t immediately obvious. Fundamentally, Black’s development is too slow, and I now have the means to attack the offside black knight and it is almost trapped (8. a3). I now play (9. Bb5+) and attack along the weakened light square diagonal towards the Black king. Black’s inclination to avoid material loss leads them to play another backwards knight move (9… Nd7) which furthers the mistake [+9.11].

Black has smothered mobility in their back rank, which is a dangerous potential position to be when White is attacking with a pair of knights! The attack of knights isn’t blocked by intervening pieces, making them particularly deadly in cramped positions. A few moves later, one of my knights captures the Black queen (12. Nd8) who was unable to escape. And on move 15, my knight pair delivers a seemingly impossible checkmate! GG.

Game analysis on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/analysis/library/3ydSogCcxn

[Event "Rated Rapid game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/jG4ou2cv"]
[Date "2022.11.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "sedicent"]
[Result "1-0"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.07"]
[UTCTime "08:31:02"]
[WhiteElo "1670"]
[BlackElo "1698"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "+15"]
[BlackRatingDiff "-6"]
[TimeControl "600+5"]
[ECO "B01"]
[Opening "Scandinavian Defense: Mieses-Kotroc Variation"]
[Termination "Normal"]
[Annotator "lichess.org"]
[BlackUrl "https://images.prismic.io/lichess/5cfd2630-2a8f-4fa9-8f78-04c2d9f0e5fe_lichess-box-1024.png?auto=compress,format"]
[BlackCountry "164"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/3711094.c39cd81f.80x80o.3026cc513d16@2x.jpeg"]
[WhiteCountry "17"]
[WhiteTitle ""]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 {Scandinavian Defense: Mieses-Kotroc Variation} 3. Nc3 Qd8 {Queen returning to d8 is \"okay\" and established theory, but with some risks with a Stockfish 15 NNUE evaluation of roughly [+0.9] at depth 40} 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Nc6 $6 {An inaccuracy [+1.32]} 6. d5 {An inaccuracy [+0.43]} 6... Nb4 7. Bc4 b6 $4 {This move is too slow and a blunder [+5.12]} 8. a3 $1 Na6 $6 {This backwards knight move is an inaccuracy [+7.09]} 9. Bb5+ Nd7 $6 {An inaccuracy [+9.11]} 10. Ne5 Nc5 $2 {A mistake which hangs [+M8] though this is not necessarily easy to see...} 11. Nc6 {Stockfish calls this a mistake [+8.12] but only because a forced checkmate line was available. This move captures Black's smothered queen.} ({This line forces checkmate...} 11. Qf3 Nd3+ 12. cxd3 f6 13. Qh5+ g6 14. Nxg6 Rg8 15. Ne5+ Rg6 16. Qxh7 Rg7 17. Qh5+ Rg6 18. Qxg6#) 11... a6 12. Nxd8 axb5 13. Nc6 Bb7 14. Nxb5 g6 {Black blunders [+M1]} 15. Nxc7# {[%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;CheckmateBlack][%c_arrow
c7e8;keyPressed;none;from;c7;opacity;0.8;to;e8;persistent;false,c6d8;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e8;persistent;false,d8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false]
White wins by checkmate.} 1-0