The Alekhine Defence: Move By Move 2021
Although the 5. ... exd6 structure resembles the drawish Exchange French, black can make several attempts to imbalance the position. First, black should play 6. ... Nc6 against almost any white move to prevent white from establishing an ideal Nc3, Bd3, Nge2 setup. If white attempts this, black can strike the d3 bishop with Nb4. Second, black should castle and maneuver Be7->Bf6. After sufficient preparation, a common black plan is to push d5. If white replies to d5 with c5, black can respond with the unusual-looking Nc8 with the idea to maneuver the knight c8->e7->f5 to strike at the weak d4 pawn.
The Alekhine Defence: Move by Move
Black must play 4...Nd5, whereupon White will usually challenge the knight with moves like Bc4 and Nc3. Black can defend the knight with ...c6 or ...e6, sometimes playing both. Typically, Black then challenges White's pawns on e5 and c5 with moves like ...d6 and ...b6.
2.Nc3 is by far White's most common alternative to 2.e5; in fact Cox noted that he saw this move in over half his games with the Alekhine. It is often played by amateurs and those wishing to avoid a theoretical battle on territory more familiar to their opponents. Cox, however, wrote that many White players are bluffing, and in fact know nothing about either the Vienna Game or the Four Knights Game, to which the game can easily transpose if Black plays 2...e5, citing one book which recommended 2.Nc3 while assuring readers that 2...e5 is uncommon.[7] Another transposition Black may enter is 2...d6, which usually leads to the Pirc Defence.
Alekhine's Defence is a sharp and controversial opening in which Black attacks from the very first move, provoking White into lunging forward in the centre. White is often able to construct an impressively large central pawn formation, but Black's hope is that this becomes over-stretched and disintegrates in the face of a vicious counterattack. Unsurprisingly, Alekhine's Defence has always been a favourite amongst uncompromising players such as Fischer and Alekhine himself, while more recently it's been utilised by the likes of Ivanchuk and Short. In this easy-to-read guide, openings expert John Cox goes back to basics, studying the essential principles of Alekhine's Defence and its numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips and warnings to guide the improving player, while key strategies, ideas and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.
Svitlana Demchenko is an 18-year-old, Canadian WIM and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the Women's International Master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.
Few words about how I have come to the idea of writing this database. One evening dring our team championship, my colleague GM Lucian Miron complained to me that earlier that day, he could not get anything against an older player who had played 1...Nf6 against him. I opened my portable chess set and invited him to analyze a bit this opening, far from engines and books. I was pleasantly surprised that I could remember most of the critical ideas and move orders, even though I had played the Alekhine Defence only a few times two decades ago. Even though he started with the firm belief that engines are smashing Black's opening, Lucian gradually became interested in this opening, since he did not see obvious ways of refuting it.
Welcome into the 6 best chess opening traps in the Alekhine Defense, which happens after the first moves 1.e4 Nf6. The Alekhine Defense is one of the popular opening lines where Black is trying to counter attack as soon as they can.
The game usually continues with 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 and, in this position, the main move for White is 4.d4. After that, there is an extensive theory. But the first trap we are going to learn happens after White keeps pushing the already advanced pawns and goes 4.c5, attacking the knight.
But, in addition to that, White has one more hidden threat which your opponent is very likely to overlook. If Black plays virtually any move, you just go Bc4. And, all of a sudden, there is no way for Black to stop the bishop from capturing the f7-pawn, and the black king is going to be checkmated either immediately or within the next few moves.
Black will need to move away the minor pieces under attack. After you play a3, Black suddenly realizes that there is no way to save their bishop. It is trapped because the pawn on c5 does not allow it to go backwards to retreat to e7. The bishop only can go back to a5, but then you keep chasing it with pawn to b4. Now the bishop is trapped and you are winning a piece!
After the first moves 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 Nb6, your bishop is under attack but, instead of retreating it, you can shock your opponent with a sudden sacrifice!
There is a way for Black to escape, but they definitely need to find it. Very often, they play normal moves and you can deliver a beautiful checkmate! However, among all these traps in the Alekhine Defense, specially this one will be mostly suitable for blitz and bullet. In a long time control chess game, Black could be able to get a good position by finding the precise defensive moves.
With our Opening Explorer you can browse our entire chess database move by move obtaining statistics about the results of each possible continuation. The Opening Explorer is a great tool if you want to study chess openings.
In the above line I gave the usual move 3.d4. This seems like a very good position for white, and an underdeveloped position for black. I am, however, more interested in the less common variation 3. c4:
which is my usual line of play. From my perspective, the aggressive 3.c4 seems like a better move, buying a pawn development move with a tempo (the pawn at c4 is defended by the white bishop after the response 4...Nb6.) In fact, there are over 300 tournament games along this line of play, indicating better chances for white in the final position above.
Furthermore, what does black hope to accomplish by placing his knight in peril so many times? Does the fact that white must overextend himself slightly in order to chase the knight multiple times outweigh the opportunity cost of moving the same knight 4 times in the first 4 moves?
Well, that's when grandmasters play. You're probably not a GM and won't be playing GMs. Amateurs waste tempi all the time and make imperfect moves most of the time. The question for me is, "which player has to excel in order to win the game?" And what I mean is, it's possible to have game positions where white can win if he plays like a monster, but black can win if he's average.
Your position is potentially overextended. Because you have moved the c pawn all the way to c4, it can no longer be put on c3 to create a pawn chain with d4 and e5. This, your d pawn is "weak" because of the move.
One reads that the usual continuation is 2. e5; but, admittedly, the idea of overextending the king's pawn as soon as White's second move does not appeal to me. On the other hand, alternatives like 2. Nc3 or 2. d3 seem too passive, whereas 2. Nf3 Nxe4 does not look promising. Maybe the weird-looking 2. f3 is the answer? But then Black just replies 2... e5, transposing to a kingside open game while sidestepping the Ruy Lopez, the Italian game, Evans' gambit, the king's gambit, etc.; so, no, 2. f3 looks even worse than the other options as far as I can see.
Yet another 2nd move option for White is 2.Bc4 if you don't mind swapping a bishop for a knight, because if Black plays 2...Nxe4 you have to go 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ etc. In the unlikely event that Black plays 2...e5 you won't play 3.Nc3 (since you don't like the Vienna Game) but instead 3.d4 or 3.Nf3 or 3.d3. (Yes, 2.Bc4 is a silly move, but it makes more sense than 2.f3.)
2.e5 is easily the best move in the position. Sorry. (In my database it is the only move that scores better than 50%.) Yes, you have to worry about overextending, but overall the pros outweigh the cons. In chess there is no way to always get the sort of opening position that you're most comfortable with; you have to deal with the fact that sometimes your opponent will get you into his territory. That's life.
If you must play something else, I recommend 2.Nc3. 2...e5 is a transposition to the Vienna, and 2...d5 3.exd5 Nxd5 4.Bc4 is okay and certainly isn't overextended. But you are better off calling Black's bluff and learning to play actual Alekhine positions. For you, I recommend the Modern variation (2...Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3), which keeps a space advantage but avoids (or at least delays) lots of committal pawn moves.
The Sicilian Defence is one of the most popular defensive moves in chess, and it happens to be one of the most reliable of all chess defences. While there is more than one variation of this defensive style, there is a style that is played the maximum number of times.
There is always something new to learn from this technique, no matter how many times you use it during a game. The Sicilian Defence can be applied to a game when the person handling the white pieces moves their pawn to e4.
In most cases, the opponent would counter by moving their pawn from e7 to e5. But in the case of the Sicilian Defence, the pawn on c7 would be placed on the c5 tile. This is a brilliant move as the black pawn proceeds to control a different part of the centre.
Another notable opening defensive move favoured by the black side, the French Defence is ranked as the second most go-to move after the Sicilian Defence. Its popularity stems from the black side throwing the white off-balance with this technique. 041b061a72