Alekhine's Defence

The Alekhine Defense is a hypermodern defense against the ever so popular e4 opening from white. It starts with the moves:

Alekhine's Defence

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Alekhine's Defense

1. e4 Nf6

Black looks to allow white to chase their knight all over the board with tempo gaining pawn moves that will control the center of the board. In exchange for the center control, black will look to undermine the overextended pawns from white.

The one thing black must always remember is that after their knight has been chased around they no longer can play passively and instead need to attack the center that white has built up or they will be crushed by the pressure white can build up.

White has three main lines that they can choose from but all start with 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6. From here things start to change and each variation takes on its on characteristics. White can choose from the very aggressive line of the four pawn attack where white will look to put their four central pawns in the center. They also might look to play the exchange variation that follows the four pawn attack but instead of the last pawn, opt to exchange with the d6 pawn. Black here can choose to play a sharp line capturing with their king pawn or play super aggressive and capture with their c pawn and really open things up.

Unusual Continuations

White's four most common responses are 2. e5, 2. Nc3, 2. d3, and 2. Bc4. Of these, 2. e5 is the most common, but the other three have their own merits as minor sidesteps to mainstream theory.

Scandinavian Variation

White responds with 2. Nc3, defending the pawn. Black typically retaliates with d5, putting more pressure on the pawn (and hence the reference to the Scandinavian Defense). White bypasses with the delayed 3. e5, attacking the knight, forcing Nfd7, and then playing 4. e6 to damage black's defenses immediately.

Maroczy Variation

White responds with 2. d3, defending the e pawn. Whilst not terrible, it blocks the light-square bishop from leaving, as well as allowing black an advantage in development. Arguably, this can be helpful, as the position has more in common with classical positions than the hypermodern positions often found in the main line of Alekhine's Defense.

Krejcik Variation

WHite reponds with 2. Bc4. While this appears to blunder a pawn, white has a plan: after 2... Nxe4, 3. Bxf7+ forces Kxf7, 4. Qh5+ Kg8 5. Qd5+ e6 6. Qxe4 leaves material equal with black's defense messed up. However, black can kick white's queen with d5, and standard development on black's part will leave the position decidedly equal, as black's king is quite safe already.

See list of chess openings for more chess openings.