Scandinavian- Why QD6? (QD8 player)

The brief answer for why Qd6 might have an edge over Qa5 or Qd8 is as follows (from Michael Melts fine book on this line): "The black queen is more active on d6 than on d8 or a5, and Black is able to castle queenside with ease. These factors help Black to equalize and gain counterplay."

Qd8 really not a good move. Why do you play d5 against e4, if you do not want to have the queen on an active square? You just bring the queen out, than bring it back, it already loses 2 tempos.

@DrawMaster- Thank ya, that actually makes sense, and explains it simply. Missed that completely despite having the book.

@xxvalakixx- I know I lose a tempo(I'd argue only one) there doing so, however, the pawn set up is my main goal, and it's really a transposition of the Caro-Kann, which normally displaces the opponents Knight in exchange. A5's never really done much for me, for reasons Melt's describes. Your queen will be chased around while your opponent develops pieces, and it doesn't support the King Bishop there as much as it does on D6/8. Why do I play it? That pawn structure I would kill for. It's by far my best opening, I prefer it a thousand fold over the Sicilian.

Ganryu, you say you want Scandinavian and Caro transpositions? You say you want info about ...Qd6 also?  Look into these move orders and Eric Schiller.  (But don't buy his books.)

@pfren- Thank ya, I think I'll go for that as soon as I am able. Your description of Melt's book is pretty much spot on. 

@GhostofMaroczy- And thank ya, That is exactly what I'm looking for, and it gives me a name to research for past games. 


@All-Thank ya, you're all a friendly lot.

IM pfren, thanks for the recommended DVD by Tiviakov ... alas, the Melts book was the only somewhat comprehensive material a decade ago ... better stuff available now, I'm sure ... and yes, Melts is short on helpful information, especially for club level players.

d6 at least lets you connect your rooks and create pressure on white's d-pawn by castling queenside. 

My reflection would be, if you can't find a better square than d8 for your queen, maybe the premise of your opening is a bit weak. I mean, you're already playing black, and you've just lost another tempo.

In the chess.com master database, after 4. d4, white scores 45/32/23, a statistic that should give pause to any black player (compare to the mainline Ruy Lopez 4. Ba4, 39/37/25).

It looks to me like you're getting lucky, in that your opponents are playing a less aggressive d3 system. 

 

Generally the Queen ends up at c7.  The queen is one move away form c7 from all three squares (a5, d8, and d6).

100% Accurate. Melts book on Qd6 Scandinavian is terrible. 

I've just started a match between Komodo 8CPU and Stockfish 8CPU using a time control of 2 hours and 1 minute increments. I'm testing 54 Qd6 lines from Tiviakov's DVD. The games are being broadcast in playchess. More details here - http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56832