Alekhine's Defense: Scandinavian Variation

I've tried out Alekhine's Defense a bit lately as I like the concept of luring the opponent into creating a liability in the form of a large pawn structure. Often, after 1. Nf6, white neglects to do so, playing 2. Nc3. After playing 2. d5, black reaches a very desirable position in the case of an exchange with a centralized queen that doesn't have a knight to kick it around.

But the worst response I've seen so far is when white then decides to push the pawn. This can transpose into the French defense, but I'm not sure what to do or how best to avoid this line:

Should I avoid this altogether by moving my knight to e4 instead of d7? What's the best continuation for black?

In just looking at the database here, the most common line is Nfd7 (473 games) followed by Ne4 (400) and then d4 (278).

I've only played the Alekhine a few times so I don't know what the best lines and ideas would be. I also don't know if more recent game provide any different lines.

The most common line in the DB after the position posted, is 5. d4 c5

yes and the fianchetto is pretty vulnerable to an early h4. this is a theory line and black should be ok, but i don't really like it.

i think 3..d4 is the better (though somewhat boring) option if you enter this line. i'm personally happy to just play 2..e5 having avoided the ruy and some other systems.

You just push your pawn, trade off knights. When he takes your g pawn next you take the d pawn WITH CHECK. You'll automatically enter an endgame as most people take with the queen and you can trade those off too with check, allowing you to take the pawn back with your bishop

1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. e5 d4 4. exf6 dxc3 5. fxg7 cxd2+ 6. Qxd2 Qxd2+ 7. Bxd2 Bxg7 Bare with me if that's wrong. I'm doing this from my phone at work lol

After pushing the pawn and taking with check as Goob63 described, the pawn structure seems to favor white. Some advantageous aspects are the quick attack on the b2 pawn and the ability to castle queenside, bringing a rook immediately onto a semi-open file. The bishop just feels really exposed.

Ne4 seems like the most promising option. The pawn on e4 doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to defend

1 e4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 3 e5 d4 4 ef6 dc3 5 fg7 cd2 6 Bd2 Bg7

has always gotten me excellent positions.

In fact, it is the most likely continuation.

this is called the Spielmann Gambit.Not really a problem for black if you tread carefully.here's a sample line...

@CerebralAssassin19 how should black address his king safety in this line?

Maybe Black plays 7...0-0 with total equality.

That pawn structure though...

@pfren should black consider playing a6 before Nc6 in order to prevent Bb5?

Yeah. Like I said. Total equality.