Help with defences against the Modern Variation in Alekhine's Defence.

Hello everyone!

I have been playing the Alekhines defence for a longer time now, and I have been winning 53% of my 15+10 games and I draw 10% of my games which I am very satisfied with. Although I have been having trouble with the modern variation; 

As of now, I find the "Schmid Variation" to be the most interesting alternative, as it is offbeat, is scoring really well for black, and it may transpose to the exchange variation.

If any of you guys have experience and/or knowledge about these positions as white or black, I would be grateful for your advice.

According to my Stockfish, the best moves are neither 4...Nb6 (Schmid variation) nor 4...dxe5 (Larsen variation) but 4...g6 (Alburt variation) and 4...Bf5.

Black actually scores very well in the Main line Flohr Va

riation

This is a variation that I missed! After doing a little digging however, I find that the opening might not fit my playstyle. The main line;

I don't know if you use another database than me, but in the chess.com masters database, after 5...c6 white is winning 45% while black only score 27%. I mean these are not terrible numbers for a black opening, but I would not say that they look convincing by any means to me.

Anyhow, I thank you for adding another variation into my considerations!

Clearly you do not understand database statistics if White wins 45 percent of the time and you think Black scores 27 percent.

I am going to assume that Black WON 27 percent of the games.  That leaves 28 percent of the games drawn.

Percentage is points scored over total points.  So to make the math easy, if 1000 games were played, White won 450 of them, Black 270 of them, and 280 were drawn, White scored 590 points out of a possible 1000.  Black scored 410 points out of a possible 1000.  That is a 59 percent score for White and 41% for Black.  Still not good, but the Alekhine is not good in the first place, so no shock there.  Better are e5, c5, e6, or c6 on move 1.

The other easy way to calculate percentage:

White = White Win Percentage + Half of Draw percentage

Black = Black win percentage + half of draw percentage.

27 + 0.5(28) = 27 + 14 = 41.

I do get that these are not horrific numbers. Personally, they don't impress me.

I think that for the usual Alekhine player, the opening is to create big imbalances. Although drawish caro-kann structures may be objectively okay for black, I don't think that is what most Alekhine players, including me, wants. I feel like the Alekhine is a highly provocative opening, trying to trick white into going for unsound attacks by overextending. 

In the masters database, the Alekhine (1.e4 Nf6) scores 31.5% for black and 40.2% for white while 28.3% is drawn. While, I understand that white probably get the initiative in a complex position if he know what he is doing, I don't think that 41/100 points is classified as scoring "really well" when the opening itself scores above 45/100. Also the anti main line 3...Nb6 scores 46/100, the Schmid variation scores more than 48/100. All of these numbers I find promising for a black opening.

The Flohr variation does however score slightly better than the old main line, which is one of my main considerations. So I am not trying to trash-talk the stats behind it . It is a solid weapon, but I don't think it suits my playstyle. However, if other Alekhine players are reading this, I defenetly recommend that you check this side-variation out!

Yes! These variations were initially other considerations for me. But I find that 4...g6 generally transpose into other variations in the modern! However with 4...Bf5 this may be up to black if he wants to transpose or not.

I meant black scores well after the main move 6. 0-0 with a 33% win rate. 

The point of an early Nb6 is that 4... g6 is usually met by 5. Bc4. Nb6 stops that but gives White other options.

That makes sense to me. Correct me if im wrong, but in other words, black is trying to play an early g6 but want to avoid the following punishing line;

Because as of my understanding. This variation refutes 4...g6.

Exactly. I don't know if the line is refuted but at least Nb6 prevents it.

The engine say that black is okay, the results also point that way. I'm going to give this variation a try and see how I perform with it.