Scandinavian Defense: Valencian Variation with g3 – Play It as Black

The whole point of 4...e5 is to claim your share of the centre immediately. White has just spent a tempo on g3 instead of developing a knight, so you strike while you can. Your pawn on e5 challenges White's space, helps your light-squared bishop develop, and keeps an eye on the f4 square. If White does not respond accurately, you can quickly complete development with ...Nc6, ...Bd6, and ...Nge7, putting pressure on the d4 and f4 squares. Your goal is to reach a comfortable middlegame where your slight lag in development is offset by your solid pawn structure and active piece play.

Stockfish's best move here is Nf3, a natural developing move that attacks your e5 pawn and prepares short castling. The most likely continuation runs 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd6, reaching a balanced position. Notice that White pins your knight with Bb5 rather than fianchettoing the bishop immediately — that tells you the engine does not want to give you an easy game. If you see Nf3 on the board, your job is straightforward: develop naturally with ...Nc6 and ...Bd6, and be ready to recapture on e5 if White takes it.

While the most popular move by far is Bg2 (played in over 12,900 games), the statistics and engine evaluation agree that it is not White's best. In fact, three common moves are outright inaccuracies or mistakes you can exploit: Qe2 (an inaccuracy costing White about 0.5 pawns — the engine says Nf3 was better), Bh3 (a real mistake losing roughly 1.8 pawns — a gift you should gladly accept), and Nge2 (another inaccuracy, costing about 0.6 pawns — better was Nf3). Whenever you see one of these suboptimal moves, you can be confident that you have already outplayed your opponent in the opening. The exact best response depends on the position, but developing quickly and centralising your pieces will usually net you an edge.

Looking at the 13,912 games from this position, White wins 54.9% of the time, Black wins 40.9%, and draws are rare at just 4.1%. Those stats confirm the engine's verdict: White has a small plus, but it is far from decisive. Notice how the White scoring varies by move: Bg2 (55.1% for White) and Nf3 (58.4%) are the hardest for you; d3 (48.9% for White) and Bh3 (48.9%) actually give White a below-average score; and Nge2 (47.5%) is the only line where White scores under 50%. So if your opponent avoids the principled Nf3 and plays something like d3 or Nge2, the statistics say you are already doing better than average.