Welcome to chessopenings.com. Today is all about Alekhine's Defense, which is a dangerous reply to the king's pawn opening. Alekhine's Defense begins with the moves pawn to e4, and knight to f6. With this move knight f6, Black is trying to lure White's central pawns forward in order to make them into targets for his own attack. Let's take a look. Alekhine's Defense begins with the moves pawn to e4, and knight to f6. Now, for a long time no one considered this move, knight to f6, as a serious reply to the king's pawn opening. "After all," they asked, "doesn't this just allow White to gain extra space with tempo by kicking the knight around?" Indeed, White is already guaranteed an opportunity to bring both of his pawns into aggressive placement in the center after the common moves, pawn to e5, knight d5, and pawn d4. So literally, for almost nothing White already gets two central pawns, one of the main goals of the opening.

And so, for a long time this position was thought to just clearly favor White thanks to this big advantage in central control, and I also want to point out that in this position, White can increase his space advantage with even more gain of time with the move, pawn to c4. So it really looks like Black is kind of off his rocker to play the Alekhine's Defense, but in the 1920s, a vocal set of players known as the Hyper-Modernist suggested the idea that it wasn't necessary to occupy the center with pawns, but that instead you could develop your pieces to attack the center from afar.

It was with these ideas in mind that Alekhine, and a group of other leading players at the time developed this defense, which we now call the Alekhine's Defense. In the Alekhine's Defense Black has three basic objectives. First, he wants to lure the White pawns forward. Secondly, he wants to complete his development, and only third does he want to begin a direct counterattack against the central squares. So now, in this position Black's standard move is pawn to d6. It didn't take long for White to discover three main methods of playing for the advantage in this position. He can play pawn to c4 chasing the knight back to b6, and then he can choose between two setups here. He can either aggressively try to build an attack with the move, pawn to f4, which is known as the Four Pawn's Attack, or he can simply reply with pawn takes pawn on d6, and this relinquishes a portion of his space advantage, but he aims for a more solid position, which he can gradually strengthen, and this is known as the Exchange Variation.

In this position, Black can recapture with either pawn leading to different sort of positions which are generally thought to a little bit better for White, but nothing too overwhelming. But after much practice, White players have more or less settled on this simple move, knight to f3, and this is called the Modern Variation. With the Modern Variation, White is simply adhering to classical principles of development, and is remaining flexible about whether or not he want to play c4, or whether or not he wants to capture on d6, and he's going to remain flexible about these decisions until the proper moment.

Now, there are some unexpected benefits to delaying this move, pawn to c4, which is that Black also needs to take into account White's ability to transfer a bishop to the square c4 if he decides that that's going to be the most appropriate option. In fact, this sets Black a funny little problem, because if you would just simply glance at this position you'd probably suggest that Black play the move, pawn to g6, just preparing to bring out his dark-squared bishop, complete castling, put pressure on the center. However, White actually has a very interesting and very strong approach to this. In this possession, he can now play bishop to c4, since he's left that square available for his bishop, and now after the natural retreat, knight b6, bishop b3, bishop g7, it was discovered in this position that White has an outstanding game after this move, knight to g5, starting an attack on the f7 point.

Now, ordinarily, Black would simply castle in the event of something like this, but in this position White has a way to add that extra bit of pressure to f7 by playing the move, pawn d6. Of course, I want to point out very quickly that ordinarily it would not take twice on f7. Giving up two minor pieces for a rook and pawn is normally favorable for Black in this situation. So it's not...this is not the idea that White is counting on when he plays knight to g5. Instead, what's he's counting on in this position is e6, bringing another attacker to the f7 point, and in fact, if Black captures the pawn, pawn takes pawn, but he has no way to avoid material loss after the move, bishop takes pawn on e6, and now certainly if Black would capture on e6, then knight would arrive on e6 with a fork, and after king h8 White has two excellent options; knight f7 would win material, but probably even stronger would be h4 trying to crack open the H file with a very, very strong attack in this position.

Of course, Black does not have to take the pawn on e6, but he is kind of short on options. The only other strong move would be pawn to f6, but of course, the knight will appear on f7, and this is a really, really, unpleasant situation for Black with this knight sitting in the heart of his position, and this pawn on e6. This is not how Black would like to see this position play out. So, it turns out in this position that Black really can't afford to castle king side in this position, and he's got to do something to block up this attack by the knight to the bishop on f7. Now, the move, pawn to d5, is probably a little bit too submissive, as this is just takes the pressure right off of the center. Now, you even lost some of the utility of this bishop development here, and ordinarily White would just play something like the typical f4, and he'll always be ready to retreat the knight, keep his center very well consolidated, and this is not exactly Black's most aggressive option here, or his most challenging option for White.

Instead, Black normally plays the move, pawn to e6, if he knows the traps of non- castling. Then now after this move e6, a typical method for White to keep his initiative going is probably going to be some move like queen f3 attacking on f7, and now after the move, queen to e7, White plays knight e4. Excellent move, which is preparing to bring this bishop to g5. We're just not giving Black any moment for a breather here. Whereas, if instead Black castles here, the idea wouldn't be to play simply queen to h3, an aggressive pulse for the queen, and now after h6, knight f3 with an attack on h6, and Black is forced to weaken his king side, and White has some prospects of attacking this position.

The variations we've just looked at are interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we've shown that there is no end in sight to the hassles that Black can expect if he plays the move, pawn to g6, and White knows about this idea of rapidly attacking f7. Secondly, we've also shown one of the key advantages of this advanced pawn on e5, which is its ability to make its way into the attack with the move, pawn to e6, at a moment's notice if necessary. So for a long time in this position, players on the Black side focused mostly on this move, bishop g4, in this position. With this simple pin, Black threatens to capture an important defender of the central pawns, the knight on f3, and it's through this means that he hopes to slightly increase his pressure on the center.

Now, White usually continues with development, and the interesting thing is that Black still can't really get away with this move, pawn to g6, as White still gets a sudden and overwhelming attack after the move, knight g5, a very strong move here, and now after bishop takes e2, queen takes e2. The threat of e5 to e6, there's that pawn that we just talked about is a real bummer in Black in this position. So Black must submit himself, actually, to a combination in this position in order to just avoid just being completely squashed with this move e6. He's got to play h6 here, but now White has no problems sacrificing a piece. Knight takes f7, king takes f7, queen f3 check, king e6, and now just the move, pawn to c4, and here he hasn't exactly said that White is winning in this position, but again, I think there is no question that this is not what Black was looking for in the opening. White certainly has at least enough compensation for his piece.

Instead after this move, bishop to e2, instead of playing pawn to g6, Black ordinarily plays pawn to e6. Then now after castling, and bishop to e7, White will play something, for example, pawn c4, knight b6, and knight to c3, and I think it looks pretty good, that White's play has gone pretty smoothly, and it's gone harmoniously, and Black is not developed much counterattack on the center for the space advantage that he's conceded to White. So this is looking, once again, pretty nice for White. Backing up, it's safe to say that White is looking forward to some sort of advantage if Black plays the moves, pawn g6, or bishop to g4 in this position, and I think it's due to some of these factors, that the modern Alekhine's Defense players of today have begun preferring this move pawn takes pawn in the center.

Now, White has an option about how to recapture this pawn, but it's generally been found that if White takes with the pawn, pawn takes pawn in the center. Now, Black plays bishop g4, bishop b2, and knight d6, and because of this pressure on the e5 pawn, which is already very uncomfortable to defend, Black already gets a very comfortable game. So the major battleground of this line occurs after the move knight takes pawn. With this move, White still keeps a space advantage in the center, and he's keeping Black's options for development somewhat restricted. Here also it's important to keep in mind that White preserves both options of either bishop to c4, or pawn to c4.

There are a couple of ways he can develop his position from here. On the other hand, the position is not too scary for Black, since he can always look for moves, like knight d7, trying to exchange off knights at some point, and can generally just develop his pieces pretty solidly here. So he shouldn't run into too many difficulties, if he's careful. So a standard way is to go, for example, would be pawn to g6, and now bishop c4, of course, and playing pawn to c4 immediately would also be an option in this position, and now pawn to c6, castling king side, bishop g7, rook e1. All very natural moves here, and castling king side, and now White's typical plan that he selects here is generally bishop to b3 looking to play the move, pawn to c4, knight to c3, and this is all very natural, and there are a lot of games that should have been playing in these positions, which are very interesting.

Black has definitely developed some very interesting ways to get counter- play. Whereas, there is some very instructive examples of how White can use his spatial advantage, and it's important to keep in mind that Black does have a dark-squared bishop bearing down on the long diagonal, and so the position is asymmetrical, and if White makes any sort of misstep, it's very easy for the game to be become very active, and very loaded, and Black could very quickly get some counter-play in these kinds of positions.

And this is what still attracts some players to plays the Alekhine's Defense. I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of the Alekhine's Defense. In this video we have taken a look at some of the key ideas in the Alekhine's Defense, but we've also taken a look at the modern variation. This is White's most solid way to gain a slight advantage against the Alekhine's Defense, and I highly recommend this if you find yourself on the White side of the Alekhine's Defense. On the other hand, if you play this opening with Black, you're taking on some big risk, but you may be rewarded handsomely, since if you play courageously, you may be able take White down in these asymmetrical positions which arise. You may also find that your opponent is less well prepared for the Alekhine's Defense as opposed to something like the Sicilian, or the King's Pawn game, and thirdly even if you find yourself in a few uncomfortable positions by studying those positions, you'll definitely learn a lot about chess, and these can be a tremendous source of learning in the Alekhine's opening.

Thank you for watching, and I can't wait to see you again.

Dereque Kelley - Copyright © 2013 ChessOpenings.com