How to WIN against the Scandinavian Defense

[@tamro9701]

Nd2! I never would have come up with that on my own.

[@alexastaneh]

Yeah, me neither. Actually GM Shirov recently had this position as White and he did not find this Nd2 idea, it's a real computer line but very pretty.

[@truthseeker4874]

@@alexastaneh Ivanchuk -- perhaps among others -- said that knight retreats are the hardest moves to spot. Your videos are the most pedagogically sound way of presenting material, BTW. Well-structured, to the point, logically linked, with essential repetition of the most salient ideas ("Repetition is the mother of learning" -- Russian proverb).

[@robertmurtagh9257]

I like the clear explanations and practical playability of the positions. Please keep it up Alex :) I've definitely suffered with the black side after Bg4 so I'm glad you highlight it so much as a target for White. I've also played Be2 and 0-0 with White.

[@alexastaneh]

Thanks, will keep it going as long as I have different ideas of content that I'd like to put out!

[@wannabe2700]

It seems the difference between Ne5 and Nd2 is very small. Ne5 Nbd7 Nc4 Qa6 h4 and now the weird Qe6 somehow very slightly improves the eval in black's favor compared to Nd2 Nbd7 h4 9:30 Black can win the pawn back with Bxc2.

[@samwyatt5482]

What happened to your old videos? I can't see any on the channel and one's I had in a playlist where marked private. I really liked your French series in particular and would look back at it from time to time, as I don't have many courses and have learnt a lot of the theory I know from KZbin.

[@alexastaneh]

Hey Sam, I made them private as so many of my videos were old and unstructured and I wanted to make more structured series on the channel without confusing new viewers. I've turned the French videos from private to unlisted, hope that helps!

[@samwyatt5482]

Thank you! I can see them again now, loving the new series btw :)

[@shayanabbasi8897]

yeah but no one takes with the queen The correct move ia g takes knight and open up the f file and go for king side attack , white should castlw queen side and after that game goes on

[@TorHermanAndreassen]

Thanks a lot. Very instructive!

[@alexastaneh]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed!

[@nickeldood]

What a poisonous line! I've never seen it before. Thanks for these fantastic videos, Alex - I already claimed an OTB scalp with the ideas from your Alekhine's Defence vid. My only request is that you immediately remove this one from the Internet now I've seen it, so that none of my opponents find out what awaits them. :)

[@alexastaneh]

Boom! This is exactly what I want to hear, all part of the evil plan to indirectly inflict defeat on unsuspecting chess players around the world. Not sure that I can promise to take the videos down just yet though ;) On a serious note though, super happy to hear that you've already claimed a scalp against the Alekhine, it's an annoying opening when you're not sure what to do against it so I'm glad to hear you're more confident against it now.

[@JohnS-il1dr]

On Rh3 what if black plays ...Bf5 with ideas of ...Bg4

[@micahsilverman5284]

Alex, I'm a new viewer and I love your videos! Every time my opponent tries to play something they saw in a Gotham video, I just come here to learn how to crush them 😂

[@alexastaneh]

Glad to hear it :) Hopefully will be back with more vids in the future. Hope your chess journey's been going well!

[@davyanonymous9674]

Thanks!

[@schachschach9119]

funny how lichess masters db doesnt have Nd2 games

[@afshinalijani]

Great lesson

[@cobeferraro3464]

Awesome video! Do caro kann variations plz!

[@alexastaneh]

Just out :)

[@RayT70]

My opponents play 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4 Bf5 7. Bd2 Qc7 Perhaps you can talk about this

[@chessandlattes]

[Date "1997.07.16"] [Round "6"] [White "Psakhis, Lev"] [Black "Shabalov, Alexander"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B01"] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4 Bf5 7. Bd2 Qc7 8. Ne5!? e6 9. g4!? Bg6 10. Qe2 b5 11. Bd3 Bb4 12. f4 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 Nbd7 14. Ne2 a5 15. O-O-O O-O 16. Kb1 Rfd8 and White won , you can also play 9 Qe2 with idea 0-0-0

[@gossedejong9248]

thank you very much!

[@FHUB-thing]

what if black plays 3.Qe5 or 3.Qe6

[@alexastaneh]

Yes, these are other lines that are important. I may cover them in future videos - for now am on an extended break as am working on a Chessable course but once that's done I will try to get back and fill out the theory vids a bit more so there is a chance I will cover these in the future - not sure of the channel direction yet though.

[@FHUB-thing]

@@alexastanehok great i was just wondering because that is what is played in my games.

[@FHUB-thing]

@@alexastanehOk. Ive just seen that played a lot against me Also i would like to know if the moves i usually do after that are good or not. It usually goes something like this after black plays Qe5. Be2 Bg4 D4 Qe6 D5 and after that i usually chase thir queen around and develop my peices while they have to worry about their queen.

[@andrewwilson9123]

​@@FHUB-thing You can also consider 6.f3, with g4 and f4-f5 to follow. It's really fun and black already needs to find 8...f5 to not lose immediately. White wins 70+% of games from these positions (sometimes even 90%) and white is almost +2

[@Saint_Laurent_freak]

Watching this as a Scandinavian defense player.. lol