It's hard to soundly attack White's position from the start in reply to 1.e4. But it doesn't stop many intermediate players from trying!

So, we should be ready for these aggressive attempts by Black to take the initiative. 

The above position is the 'Portuguese Scandinavian', which arises after the moves 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4. Note that this gambit leads to different play to the standard 3...Nxd5, against which White can play the standard Nf3/Be2/0-0/c4/h3/Nc3/Be3 setup for a small edge, in the worst case.

3...Bg4 is a much trickier move (recommended by GM David Smerdon in 'Smerdon's Scandinavian) and we should be ready for it!

The refutation begins with 4.f3! Bf5 5.g4!, kicking the bishop back to gain the initiative. Our general thme is to play against the enemy bishop and keep the initiative, so that Black is not able to exploit his early lead in development! Next move we play c4 to keep our extra pawn on d5 perfectly safe, forcing Black to trade the advanced pawn later with ...c6 or ...e6.

After 5...Bg6 6.c4, we have a critical position after 6...c6 7.Nc3! (we don't have to help Black's development for free by trading on c6) 7...cxd5 8.g5! (this is why it was important to play g4, to kick the knight from f6 and then win back the d5-pawn) 8...Nfd7. What would you play here, with White to move?

The obvious move is 9.Nxd5, but after 9...e6 10.Nc3 Nc6, White's pawns are a bit overextended, and Black's lead in development (along with annoying ideas like ...Nb4-c2) gives him good compensation.

Instead, 9.cxd5! is the key move, stopping Black from developing his b8-knight to c6, while ...Nb6 runs into disruptive Bb5 checks, meaning Black is not really getting back the doubled pawn on d5. You can explore it for yourself but typically moves like Qb3 and Bf4 feature to pressure the queenside before Black can solve the problem of his stuck f8-bishop. 

A trickier try by Black is 6...e6 (instead of 6...c6), but White is better here as well with the best play: 7.Nc3!, and again the idea is to meet 7...exd5 with 8.g5 Nfd7 9.Nxd5, keeping an extra pawn.

As shown in the diagram above, the play is quite complex, but if White is brave and goes after the g6-bishop with h4!-h5!, he will have a pleasant advantage with the extra pawn. 

When I played GM David Smerdon in a blitz game 3 years ago, he played 7...c5!? instead, trying to keep the tension. I responded 8.Be3 and was quite lucky to win after mutual blunders, but instead 8.Nge2! is a better way to keep the tension. The plan is once again to charge the kingside pawns, e.g. with 8...cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bc5 10.h4! (threatening h5, winning the g6-bishop) 10...h5 11.g5 and the Black knight on f6 doesn't have a good retreat square. White is just much better with correct play. 

Did you find this opening overview useful? Are you now confident to crush this Portuguese Scandinavian when you face it in your next game?

Good luck in facing the Scandinavian in your next games!

Regards,

GM Max

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