One reply, your structure
1...d5 forces the issue immediately: White's prepared systems against 1...e5 or the Sicilian never appear. From move one, both players are in your opening, and you will know it better.
← Your repertoireSolve them
An opening course for Black (ECO B01)
Scandinavian Defense
After 1.e4 d5 the game is on Black's terms from the first move: every Italian, Ruy Lopez and King's Gambit disappears from White's menu. The classical Scandinavian with 3...Qa5 builds the same wall in almost every game. This course follows the grandmaster repertoire books, Christian Bauer's Play the Scandinavian and the Wahls, Müller and Langrock Modern Scandinavian, with every move re-checked by Stockfish; it drills the wall, the one queen trap you must dodge, and the ways White avoids the main line.
This course is part of your daily work.
Before the moves: the big ideas
The queen pays one tempo
Yes, 2...Qxd5 brings the queen out early, and yes, 3.Nc3 hits it. The Scandinavian's bet is that this single tempo is all White collects, and the queen on a5 stands safe while your pieces get clean squares.
The wall: c6, Bf5, e6, in that order
The light-squared bishop leaves home before ...e6 closes its door. Once pawns stand on c6 and e6 with the bishop outside on f5, Black's position has no soft targets, which is more than most 1.e4 defences can say.
One trick to know cold
Every danger to the a5-queen comes from the same mechanism: a knight jumping to d5 or b5 opens a bishop's path to a5. The trap chapter drills the dodge until it is reflex; after that, the queen is simply safe.
The lines, chapter by chapter
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
Start Here: The Wall
One line, seven moves for each side, and you have seen the whole opening: the queen recapture, the a5 retreat, and the c6-Bf5-e6 wall. Everything else in the course is a variation on this picture.
The Main Line
White develops sensibly, castles long, and asks the b4-bishop the a3 question. Black trades, recycles the queen to c7, and reaches the position the whole opening aims for.
The Queen Trap, Dodged
Club players with White all discover the same idea: bishop to d2, knight jumps to d5, and the a5-queen is suddenly staring down a discovered attack. This chapter makes the dodge automatic.
When White Avoids the Main Line
Not everyone takes on d5. The four usual detours: developing with 2.Nc3, pushing past with 2.e5, defending with 2.d4, which invites the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, and the sly 2.Nf3, which simply lets the e-pawn go. Each has a clean answer.
When Nobody Hits the Queen
The main line assumes White finds 3.Nc3, and at club level half of them never do. When the queen sits on d5 unbothered, you switch from wall-building to active development: pin the f3-knight, lean on d4, castle long. One chapter covers both move orders.
Puzzles from this opening
Club games that started in the Scandinavian Defense produced these tactics, and you solve every one from Black's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.