Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with the 4... e5?! Scandinavian? (1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 e5?!)
My book only covers it by half a page, and says that Ivanchuk refuted it with 5. dxe5 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Bg4 8. a3 Nd4! 9. Bb5+!! c6! 10. O-O!! Bxf3! 11. axb4! Bxd1 12. bxa5 Bxc2 13. Ba4!. But considering the fact that those moves he made, for example 9. Bb5+!! and 10. O-O!!, won't be played by any unprepared player, I think it's a good surprise weapon if that's all black should be afraid of.
What's your opinion?

Scandinavian "Chase the Queen Variation I-A-1"

I personally have never experienced this kind of opening, except from 1. e4 d5, which is the Scandinavian opening but never leading to that particular variation. It does feel like a good weapon to use.

By playing the Scandinavian, one already admits that if white plays it like a grandmaster, black has to deal with pressure and a worse position. Considering that, I don't think 4... e5 is bad, if the best white has is an amazing line Ivanchuk made up and is probably known by only a few players.

I don't play this move order anymore, but I've played against it with white.
I should point out that 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. Nf3 e5 is met by 5. Bb5+ c6 6. Bc4 and black is playing a wrong-footed Caro-Kann. But that's another variation entirely.

I think this works fine:
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 e5 5. Nf3 though, this line does end up transposing into the Ivanchuk refutation (unless I miss something).
There is a good chance I will find most of it OTB actually.

I suppose it's dubious but playable. Like Tartakower said: "If an opening is dubious, it is playable".

I like that last quote of Tartakower
Like I said above, the whole Scandinavian is "refuted", so why go for the boring, bad-for-black lines if there's a dubious line that could very well surprise opponents, and gives black good chances if white's not prepared
And yea, I think it transposes after 5. Nf3 Nc6 when white will probably take on e5 after all.

Speaking of the Scandinavian defence, Nisipeanu has beaten Vaselin Topalov in the first round of the Sofia tournament, yesterday, with a variation of the Scandinavian defence!

Full details found here

Yes, I already posted a short game report of round 1 yesterday in this thread. Today wasn't very exciting with three draws.

Indeed, you did post a thread concerning the game, it's unfortunate that I didn't notice it earlier. Anyhow I suppose the Scandinavian defence even threatens the very best, provided a player doesn't really study it very much (Topalov hasn't definitely been confronted with it in the past few years), it can really intimidate and cause mistakes to happen early in the game. But from the reports I read, it appears that Topalov actually blundered at a rather late stage in the game. Still, it was very brave for Nisipeanu to use this opening line and actually culminate it by winning!

Obviously, in the beginning of the game, white was (slightly) better... But white was Topalov, a former world champion, and black was Nisipeanu. Moreover, white always gets at least equality or better play in any opening. I don't think Nisipeanu would have been under less pressure if he played another game.
The biggest blunder was at a late stage in the game, but I think black was already doing very well when he traded the last rooks. It's hard to say where white went wrong, and how white should have done better.

There are some improvements for white, I don't care for the system he used but that's another issue entirely. It wasn't the opening that won black the game at any rate.

Also, to some (at least to me) Topalov has never been a legitimate world champion.