Friday, January 9, 2015

The Scandinavian Defense

     As I mentioned not too long ago, due to the imminent fall of Queen Alice where I played my games without engines, I decided to stay at LSS and play unexplored openings and gambits that have not actually been refuted. I occasionally play some online blitz and usually play some odd stuff there also. 
     One recent game featured the Scandinavian (or as I knew it, the Center Counter Defense), but not the normal Scandinavian. I played 3...c6 making it a real gambit. Blackburne played it once. A few minor masters have games in my database along with a whole lot of games by players in the 900-1400 range. Obviously 3...c6 is not a good move. 
     We reached a position where I was a Pawn down, no weaknesses in my position but no chances of attack...zero. For his part, white had a very nice setup: nicely developed pieces and control of the center. I mean, look at the position after his 10th move. 
     Oddly enough, as so often happens with us amateurs, we can get a nice position, even a winning one, and then we don't know what to do with it! Often we fritter away our advantage and end up losing, baffled as to why.  That's what happened to white here.  Why?  I think it was because there were no tactics in the position so he just started drifting. Has anybody written a book How to Win a Won Position yet?
     About the only good thing I had going for me in the position was I managed to get some pressure on the b and c-files and when he advanced his d-Pawn I was able to put some pressure on it also. Then when we got to the ending with Rooks and Queens on the board things were a little murky (at least to me.) In the end I think white resigned too soon. True, he was lost but anything could have happened.  It could have been frustration at having been a Pawn up with a better position then seeing it go down the drain and finding himself in a bad position that caused him to throw in the towel before all hope was gone.

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