I've read the article, but to be honest it could have been more thorough in investigating white's chances. However Prie is quite right about a number of the variations on the way to this position, e.g. how to deal the recommendations by Hansen or Wahls. I had worked some of it out myself and had eben wondering why nobody seemed to show these variations (Khalifman is a bit superficial there).

In fact my reluctance to play the Qe5 variation stems from a horrible correspondence chess loss - see this other thread http://altmax.com/cgi-local/cpf/YaBB.cgi?board=1e4;action=display;num=1086033596

For some reason, I have faced one of the topical lines of the Scandinavian twice these last 3 months and wondered if anybody can share some experiences with this line - recommended by Emms and Khalifman for black and white respectively!

The line goes:


1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 
(5. Bc4 Bg4 Emms)  5... Bf5 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bd2 c6 8. Nd5 Qd8 9.Nxf6+ Qxf6 10. Qe2 Bg4 11. O-O-O 

( 11. d5 Bxf3 12. gxf3 cxd5 13. Bxd5 Qxb2 14.
O-O Nc6 15. Rab1 Qxc2 16. Rxb7 Bd6 {Emms} )

11...Nd7 12.d5 Bf3 13.gf3 cd5 14. Bd5 which gives this position:

http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.phpfen=r3kb1r/pp1n1ppp/4pq/3B//5...

Now this was originated in Shirov-Salov, which I watched live! (but forgot) and my opponent played 14...Ba3 15.c3 (forced) but didnot castle short as Salov but long.

My second opponent played the more recommendable

14...O-O-O and since I could win the tournament with a draw I ventured


15. Bxb7+ (15. Be4 {Khalifman} Qe5 Emms in CBM?) 15... Kxb7 16. Qe4+ Ka6  17. Qa4+ Kb7 18. Qe4+ Ka6 *

My interest lies with this Khalifman recommendation of 15.Be4 (he ends here) and Emms recommendation of Qe5. He gives this line in his second edition of the Scandinavian defence.

Any suggestions?


Thanks