9...Qf5! is better than 9...Qd6, of course.. 

Alias wrote on 10/28/11 at 07:26:26:

A kind of overview but nothing new under the sky. 

Well..well..well! 
@CaptainFuture - Hi, Robert! I'm glad to hear from you...here, on this forum.. As you already know ..I appreciate your braveness with this c6!? gambit in the abovementioned game of yours.. A setup far from theory (and soundness  maybe) as long as I know..
Anyway, in the game you published in your post...I wonder why you played this 7...Bb4 (btw, Selby Anderson in his Center Counter, the Portuguese variation, 1997, says about it "This natural developing move has been the main line."  ). And James Plaskett in his Scandinavian Defence book (2004) states: "The usual treatment. Black hurries his pieces out into the world. <inserts a diagram...and continues> After some early spectacular successes, I must say that it is not clear to me that this is definitely Black's best option."... And from all the options that he previously gives in his book my choice has always been for the strange looking and somehow unnatural 7...Qe7!? (Of course, I play 7....Nb4!? 8.Na3 Qe7!?, too..) And here I wonder why you chose 7...Bb4 (to give your proud bishop for such an animal as this one on c3  ) when even 7...fxe6!? and Qd8-d7 next..looks better, imho..
As for 7...Bb4 variation - what to say?! Your opponent's 9.a3 is a good try (Grischuk in 1996 when he was only 2375 ELO rated played it too against Michael Chow at Cala Galdana, Spain) ...trying to emphasize on your Bb4-adventure. While John Emms in his The Scandinavian (2004), 2nd edition (2006) gives a !-mark to another move for white - 9.Bd3.. (Maybe influenced by John Roush/Mark Lance/Mike Cornell's judgement for this one in their Scandinavian Defence, Portuguese Variation, 1998.) Then you obviously went for 10...0-0-0 which seems to be a novelty (I don't have my corr. database on my laptop right now..to be sure), but not successful as it seems. Instead, Guy West (Australia, 2405) in his game with Maher Himdan (Egypt, 2365) played the simple 10...0-0 (yes, Djy!) at Elista, Olympiad 1998 about which game Plaskett simply says "..although white managed to draw." 

I Robert!
With 2450 you 're ahead of me so i give some variations without commentary. I have'nt check the game yet . But the first idea (just a few minute of analyse) is for 10....0-0 the column f look more sensible than the d one and the king safer.


[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Portugaise 5.c4!?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B01"]
[Annotator "Dji"]
[PlyCount "44"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. f3 Bf5 5. c4  e6  6. dxe6 Nc6  7. Be3
Bb4+ 8. Nc3 Qe7 9. a3 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 O-O 11. d5 Na5 12. g4 (12. Bf4 fxe6 13.
d6 Qf7 14. dxc7 e5 15. Bxe5 Rae8 16. f4 Ng4) (12. Qa4 b6 13. g4 (13. Ne2 fxe6
14. Nd4 Bg4 (14... Nd7) (14... Rae8 15. O-O-O Nd7) 15. fxg4 exd5 (15... Nxg4
16. Bg1 exd5+ 17. Be2 Ne3  (17... c5))) 13... Nxg4) 12... Nxg4 13. fxg4 Be4
14. Nf3 fxe6 15. Bg2 Bxf3 (15... Nxc4 16. d6 Qf6 17. Bd4 Bxf3 18. Bxf6 Bxd1 19.
Be7 Bxg4 20. Bxf8 Rxf8 21. dxc7 Rc8 22. Bxb7 Rxc7 23. Ba6) 16. Bxf3 Qh4+ 17.
Ke2 (17. Bf2 Qf6 18. O-O Qxf3 19. Qxf3 Rxf3 20. dxe6 Re8 21. Rad1 Nxc4 22. Rd7
Rxe6) 17... Rxf3 18. Kxf3 Qh3+ 19. Ke2 Qg2+ 20. Bf2 Rf8 21. Rf1 Nxc4 22. Ke1
Ne3 *

  Perputuel check at the moment but to be continued!!! 

No, but if I play a sharp move like 3...Bg4 I don't expect to get a boring version of the Caro-Kann either.

Djy wrote on 10/07/11 at 08:17:26:

Yeah, but play is not very exciting either.

Vass wrote on 10/07/11 at 07:15:50:

Well it has been from 2005 that I had a look at 6...e6 so I don't know how far I can still trust my old analysis. I always try to steer the game to the following keyposition:
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Be2 Bxe2 5.Qxe2 Qxd5 6.Nf3 e6 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Rd1 0-0-0 9.c4 Qh5 10.Nc3 Bd6 (Many transpositions are possible to get to this position and also quite some deviations exist of which only a few I studied a bit.) 11.c5 Be7 12.b4! with a very strong attack. I discovered this move in 2000 and tested it in OTB with success in 2005. I should once redo my old analysis if no improvements can be found on faster and better HW+SW.