Scary Anti-Alekhine Line

So I faced a scary anti-Alekhine line today. The computer hates it for white, but it put me on the defensive as black and I had to calculate precise defensive lines and ended up flagging. I wouldn't play it against the Alekhine in anything other than a short blitz game, but here you go.

I think someone played this against my alekhines defense at some point... can't remeber if i won or lost but i like these kinda crazy positions... and even though blacks king is awkwardly placed blocking the rook and white has the psychological factor of sacrificing a piece it seems to me black's position is quite playable winning some tempos on the queen and developing faster, maybe even playing h5 with rook lifting ideas to attack if white castles short

I was better, but I lost on time. Apparently it has a name: the Krejcik Variation. It's not even losing for white with best play since after queen takes knight, the eval is -0.9. It puts a lot of pressure on black and likely will drain a lot of clock. It's definitely a good blitz/bullet option against the Alekhine.

Yeah the flagging makes sense... most alekhine players are not used to that... it's usually e5 or Nc3 (when they don't premove Nf3 John tracy gambit) so white has the advantage of being more familiar with the position resulting in more time spent by black (also exposed kings are harder to play as well) so even though the computer says black is slightly better, in practical terms white has an easier game... i might actually look it up and try it next time I face alekhine... seems like a fun position to play on both sides tbh

And on a side note, this Krejcik dude sure likes some off-beat openings, he has a gambit in the dutch as well after 1. d4 f5 he plays g4

I looked to see if the variation is in my chessable course, and it is. This is best play for black according to the analysis.

Arthur Bisguier vs Alexander Zaitsev, Tallinn 1971 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1028549

1.e4 Nf6!?

What's this? Zaitsev is not known to play the Alekhine. He must have something "prepared".

2.Bc4!?

Bisguier wasn't born yesterday! He reaches into the bottom of the barrel to pull out a variation Zaitsev could not possibly have studied.

2...e5!?

The very experienced Russian GM avoids the issue, simply transposing to an opening he has studied. Of course 2...Nxe4 must be the move, but he prefers to fight on "equal" territory -- where he knows as much as his opponent.

One virtue of playing the same opening over and over is that eventually you have seen and studied all the sidelines. It's like going into a gunfight with a helmet and bullet-proof vest, you can afford to be much more brave. Amateurs are afraid of sidelines. Masters are afraid of mainlines.

@yetanotheraoc - well, i've been playing the Alekhine since giving up on the dragon about halfway through my high school team experience. I've played it maybe 1000 times and had never seen it. Lots of times after white premoves Nf3 and I snag the pawn, white just resigns, so I just saw this as just another in a long line of premove blunders (which happens probably one game in 10). Little did I know that I was in for a fight, but I'm glad it happened.

Yes, precisely, playing the best moves in an unfamiliar opening takes a lot of time off the clock. The second time around you will play the best moves without using a lot of time, and then your opponent will regret the rash 2.Bc4 sideline.

Speaking of premoves, white's second move is a particularly bad one to premove, because in the Alekhine black simply *cannot* premove on move two! White can never "get away with" a bad premove there, because black *has* to look at white's move, in order not to lose a piece!