The fundamental purpose of Black’s aggressive and provocative move with the d-pawnis to create immediate central tension and to exploit the latent power of thequeen on her starting square. Remember Lasker’s observation: "Black’s idea is tomake use of the great fighting power of the queen in the opening"Black’s audacious pawn move effectively compels White to lose a tempo by capturingthe pawn, creating an imbalance in the center. Black’s strategy seeks the dissolutionof the center, as the immediate asymmetry reduces the significance ofSo, is the Scandinavian, in essence, a ‘refutation’ of 1 e4, asBlack has already activated his queen far ahead of his opponent, while weakeningWhite’s kingside pawn structure? Isn’t White essentially punished for aiming forearly kingside development with his first move?Structurally, Black has achieved an ideal exchange, and the core of the Scandinavianlies in the control of the d5-square. Black must, under no circumstances, allowWhite to support a pawn thrust with d4-d5, as this typically means White has effectivelycountered Black’s pawn structure both technically and psychologically.
