Why play the Alekhine?

Okay, now I am possibly dipping into the MOST hypermodern choice Black has against 1. e4 - ...Nf6.  This idea has some TOTALLY promising potentials - it really "pushes" or provokes White to push the pawn to e5.  If not, Black can easily play ...e5 and seize the center on the next move, with ...Nf6 being played first, which appears very favorable to me concerning quick kingside castling and development.

For instance, if 1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3, Black has two "main" ideas that he can pursue, plus various alternatives - 2...e5, which would be my choice, or even 2...d5, once again inviting White to push his pawn to e5.  If not, it appears that Black has "equalized from move 1"!

Another anti-push idea for White is 2. d3, playing a reversed Philidor, but this is not terribly aggressive.  Black can play 2...e5, 2...d5, or many other ideas. 

But considering the test - 2. e5... 

Black has a few options at his disposal, and I don't want to claim one better than another, except that I believe Alekhine would have had more insight to the truth in the positions by playing 2...Nd5, seeing how strong of a player he was.

But besides my opinion, Black can choose 2...Nd5, ...Ng8!? (Brooklyn variation), or even ...Ne4 (Mokele Membe variation[forgive me if this is spelled incorrectly]).  But the idea is clear.  Black believes that White's center is now prone to counterattack.  And he is correct!

But White has cards in his hand also - the knight can be chased, White's development schemes can be played quickly, and f7 is a target if Black is not careful.

I have read that White's best idea is to play the Modern approach with 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3, with quick development and an advanced pawn.  But there are four main defenses I have read that Black can play against this line (if I am correct) - ...c6, ...dxe, ...g6 and ...Bg4.  So White has to be on his toes.

White has more space.  Black has chances to collapse White's center from move 1.

Who is better?  If you are searching for a choice of defense against 1. e4, I would definetely give this opening a serious look, as you may find it to be a surprisingly strong weapon against an unprepared player.

I always got a good game against the Alekhine, but I always hated playing against it.  The Alekhine looks horrible to me.  This is what I see all the time played by patzers.  I am white.  e4 Nf6 e5 Ne4 d4 d5 f3 and I win the knight.

lol.  It looks like they misunderstood the purpose of the opening! 

I tried this opening once against my GM teacher, and resigned in 10 or less moves.  It is an opening you have to understand! :-)  Of course, that was a while back.

cause alkenine is awesome and white pawns will become weak and targetable and nd5 and d6 are safer than ne4 and d5

I beleive the underrated move 3. e6!? THEN followed by ...d6 gives more chances for black

what's the alekhine?  sorry, i'm newbie here, still trying to learn all the openings...

Okay, a friend of mine had wrote me that the Alekhine defense was "refuted".  I asked him what line refuted it?  I remember reading that there are still GM's today who venture this adventurous defense from time to time.  When he wrote me back, he said it "equalizes" the Alekhine.  Well, that is a tricky statement, since one of Black's goals is to equalize pressure from White, but the Alekhine is a risky way to play to equalize. 

The line he spoke of is the Four Pawns attack -

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4

White has gained a large amount of central space, but his development is behind.  Of course, Black has to prove that the development is behind.

I found a very interesting link that promotes 5...g5, a truly hypermodern extension of the Alekhine. 

Now, I am not saying that everyone would agree with playing that line.  However, Silman himself is bringing arguments to the table - here is the link.

http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_opng_anlys/072003_alekhine_def_4_pawn.html

I will do a bit of research and see what are popular replies to the Four Pawns Attack.  Maybe Black can attack back! :-)

 Would you like to provide some personal analysis to the forum concerning your idea, or even an article on it?  I will research the idea and see what I find.

Okay, I have found on the internet two other articles with info concerning the Alekhine Four Pawns Attack...

http://www.chesspub.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1115848518/0

http://hem.passagen.se/tjmisha/quattrocujones.html

Maybe these will help people gum up some discussion.  So far, it looks like people are maybe a bit scared to generate much feedback on the Alekhine - so maybe we conclude that Alekhine was simply INSANE for venturing this defense...or was he? MUWAHAHAHA! :-)

Anyway, soon I will look for some feedback on the internet on some quieter lines in the Alekhine.

The Alekhine is my main defense against 1.e4 and it has served me quite well.  I think most Alekhine players enjoy playing against the four pawns attack.  My reasons as to why I play AD would be summarized as:

- It's not seen often, most white players seem to play a lot of the same things against it, so there is the psychological aspect.

- It's an early deviation at move 1, so you don't have to wait too long to play your pet opening.

- Black fights for the initiative on move 1, you're playing to win :)

Honestly, I have totally considered the Dutch as my official reply to 1. d4 - I just like it too much to deviate.  But I have never yet felt at home with a 1. e4 defense.  I have played ...b6, ...d6, ...e6, ...c5 (don't like it), ...e5 (don't like it as well either).  I personally like assaulting the pawn-chain, and if I could get enough of the Alekhine in me to breathe it, I may take it up - you never know.

If you wouldn't mind PeskyGnat, I could use your help in this forum to provide some ideas from the Black and White sides of the board after 1. e4 Nf6.

Have you tried center-Counter?

I'll write a 'report' on ...e6 when I'm not under the time restraints of auto-sutdown internet systems

I have rarely tried it, but that is another ballgame!  If you are interested, we can work on a forum for it as well...

Ieeee , Yes I am afraid they are following my first tournament game Schizazz-Collister 1972. Um, I gave up the Alekines right soon after. But know a friend who went over 2500 FIDE and became Chess champ of Japan using it thruout his tournament life. Must be something okay there Er, not to say THAT particular "variation" , ha~!

Thank you for the analysis, that's very illuminating.  This part seemed curious to me, though... if the Alekhine is one of your favorite defenses to e4, why are you recommending against people picking it up?

hi people sorry for my lateness as i havent logged on to chess.com for a while.

i know this forum is all about the alekhine defence. i have studied the alekhines defence and i think its a fantastic opening in tournaments for players on the black side who have a trick up their sleeve. I have done alot of work on the ng8 line which i  am very famous for playing as my main opening as black it goes :

e4 nf6 e5 ng8 . its very simple. black hasnt moved with no weakness and white has a weak pawn on e5 i have seen this opening played before by many players as black , however i see it played very poorly as black players dont really know how to respond to the weak pawn on e5 and after white plays 3.d4 then black must stop him from gaining space so 3..d5 is mostly forced and then the struggle for e5 beggins. the game can turn into an interesting french defence with an advantage that black can develop the light squared Bishop outside the pawn chain or it can transpose to a normal variation of the qd6 scandinavian. let me know what u think of this opening. i plan to write a book possibly in the future on this opening which is unknown to 99 percent of the chess world . its called the brooklyn defence.

Thanks guys for the impressive inputs!  If I get enough interest in this forum, we will have an Alekhine defense group! :-)

I just created one.

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/alekhine-defense

I like the Alekhine defense very much but not against The Four Pawns Attack;If theWhite  side plays it correctly ,Black swifftly gets into troubled waters,that's why I play it most in rapid games.

How about this, (I usually try it, someone will probably know how to refute it I imagine)