Some thoughts on piece activity and other things on the Alekhine's Defense
Hello. About a month ago I made a forum post talking about my thoughts on the Alekhine’s Defense at an intermediate level ( here it is if you are interested ) , in which I essentially said that the Alekhine is great because your opponents don't know how to play against it. I still believe that is true and my opponents still make the same mistakes a lot, but now I’d like to talk about the venom and about piece activity on the cxd6 exchange variation of the Alekhine in which you fianchetto your bishop ( That is, for those unaware 1. E4 NF6 2. E5 ND5 3. C4 NB6 4. D4 D6. 5 EXD6 CXD6 6. ( basically any developing move like BE3 ) G6.
This variation of the Alekhine actually resembles a lot a Dragon Sicilian, as it has the exact same pawn structure for Black. I believe that Black’s pieces get so active unless white develops in the absolute best way that this is just completely broken at an intermediate level. The absolute best way ( IMO at least ) for White to continue would be the Voronezeh line in which White puts the bishops supporting the center on E3 and D3, a knight on E2 ( not on F3, as the pin with BG5 is very annoying, so putting it there would be a mistake, which happens a lot btw ), a knight on C3, a rook on C1 to protect the knight on c3 and a pawn on B3 to support white’s center. Having the knight on F3 after playing H3 is also possible, but Black should get a development lead. The Voronezeh line looks something like this:
Almost any other way to develop will make white lose a pawn or make Black have way too much pressure on White’s center. The most common opening mistake is, as I mentioned putting a Knight on F3 with no pawn on H3 on Alekhine positions in which there is a pawn on C4, as once the bishop pins the knight on G5, it`s hard to get out of the pin without destroying white’s kingside structure( which would make the white king incredibly unsafe ), as unpinning by putting a bishop on E2 would be bad as once black castles and plays NC6, black will usually be able to win a pawn by deflecting the bishop from the defense of the C4 pawn by taking the F3 Knight.
That could look something like this:
Furthermore defending the F3 knight with a knight on D2 often allows black to take on D4 with either the bishop or sometimes a knight, exploiting the pin and the fact that the white Queen no longer protects the D4 pawn.
That could look something like this:
Another common opening mistake would be playing b3 and fianchettoing the bishop, instead of putting it on E3 with the rook on C3, as tactics almost always favor black. Regardless of that, the bishop once it goes to G7 is an absolute monster, because that diagonal is very weak, as the c pawn is advanced, so the D4 pawn is a huge target. What are your thoughts on piece activity on the Alekhine's defense and the Alekhine's defense in general? Also please do let me know your thoughts about my writing.
