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Welcome to Scid Daily, a daily newsletter providing Scid users with hints and tips, opening theory ideas and a bit of chess entertainment. Each day you'll find here an opening report (computer-generated by Scid with ScidBase), a recent novelty (a new move in a relatively common opening position), a chess tactic, a classic endgame study, and hints for getting more out of Scid. User feedback and suggestions are appreciated.

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Continuing the theme of the past two days, the opening report today is another popular Scandinavian line.

Regular Scid Daily issues will resume on April 12.

Opening Report B01 Scandinavian 2...Nf6: 3.Bb5+ Nbd7 Opening Report: HTML / PDF format 105 games (PGN), White scores 58% Against the Scandinavian with 2...Nf6 (1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6), 3.Bb5+ has become a popular choice to avoid main lines and while Black usually replies 3...Bd7, I think the less popular 3...Nbd7 (the report position) is just as playable and more interesting. Play usually continues 4.c4 a6, and now 5.Bxd7+ Qxd7 is OK for Black, e.g. 6.d3 b5. Alternatively, 5.Ba4 b5! 6.cxb5 Nxd5 gives Black good play for the pawn if White tries to keep it. White's 5th move alternatives don't offer much else: 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 (6.Ba4 b5) 6...Nb6 leaves White no real edge, and after 5.d4 Nxd5 the Bishop looks a little strange on b5, compared to the main 3.d4 Nxd5 lines.
Opening Novelty C42 Russian Game Drabke 2439 - Seres 2496 Budapest HUN / 2004.03.13 / 1/2-1/2 (59) (Game PGN) The line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nxe5 O-O 5.Be2 Re8 6.Nd3 Bxc3 7.dxc3 Nxe4 8.Nf4 d6 9.O-O Nd7 10.c4 has been reached many times including a few grandmaster games; here Black usually develops the d7 knight (to f8, f6, e5 or c5) and White most often plays 11.f3 to kick away the e4 knight. Seres chose the unusual 10...b6 which looks strange since White is probably going to play f3 anyway. I think Black is better to move the f7 knight and develop the c8 bishop without fianchettoing.
Tactic Alekhine - Rubinstein Carlsbad CZE / 1923 / 1-0 1.? Solution below	Endgame Birnov , 1928 1.? = Solution below
Scid Hint EPD Files Scid is a useful tool for viewing and editing EPD files. When you open an EPD file, you can easily move between all the positions in the file and strip out unwanted EPD fields.

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Tactic Solution

1.Bg6! Qe5 (1...fxg6 2.Qe4 Bxb4 3.Qxg6 +-) 2.Nxf7+ Rxf7 3.Bxf7 Qf5 4.Rfd1!

Endgame Solution

1.a6 Bxc4 2.e4!+ Kxe4 3.a7 Bd5 4.c4! Ba8 5.Kb8 =