tracke wrote on 09/18/06 at 15:25:02:
In my opinion Alekhine can be a good second and surprise weapon but not a good first defence to 1e4.
On a 1700++ level you can learn much about pawn structures and dynamic play.
On a 2100++ level many white players know what to do (especially when directly prepared for you!)
and then Black has a hard time to defend += positions though he may hold against every variation.
I agree with Markovich that from a certain level this defence is
very theoretical ! If White is willing to learn the theory of the sharp (and good!) theoretical recommendations in 4Pawns, Exchange or 4Nf3 then Black
must learn much theory, too, simply to survive!
I worked quite a lot about the 4Pawns and in my opinion 9...Be7 is the one and only sound system, anything else will be punished by a strong and booked player. With 9...Be7 10.Be2 Black has more or less equal positions, but Black must be well prepared for 10.d5?! what is really a mess (maybe Black is slightly better, maybe White has a perpetual somewhere at move ~35).
For a very long time I used the Alekhine (4.Nf3 g6) as my second weapon against 1e4 (first choice: Caro-Kann) and I scored very well (~60% as Black, but ~90% when playing white. Tip: Don´t play Alekhine against 1e4 players who play Alekhine on their own!!).
One year ago I decided to give up the regular use of Alekhine (and to concentrate on C-K, sometimes experimenting with 1...e5 -> Berlin, but also generally using less time for chess!) . One concrete point was that my older systems against 4Pawns (9...Bg4?!, 9...Qd7?!, 6...c5??!) proved unsound and it looked easier to learn 1...e5 than to prepare 9...Be7 10.d5 for higher levels)
tracke
@MNb: Of course I still play 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 Nf6!=
If 9...Be7 is the only sound system versus the 4 pawns, then Black indeed does have a mountain of theory to learn. I recently purchased Thomas Luther's ChessBase lectures on the Alekhine (I know just enough chess German to be able to understand him), and I notice that he recommends (and has played) 5...c5. That, of course, is also quite theoretical, but at present I don't trust it.
I hope I will be permitted to stray somewhat offtopic here and ask you if you think Black's position is tenable after 9...Be7 10. d5 exd5 11. exd5 Nb4 12. Qf3 c5 13. dxc6 bxc6 14. Be2.
Another offtopic issue that I can't resist raising is that I'm not sure that 9...Qd7 is unsound. 9...Qd7 10. Be2 0-0-0 11. 0-0 Bg4 12. c5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 Qxd5 14. b4 Qe4 15. Qd2 (I believe that Black is O.K. in the complications that arise after 15. Qb3 Nxd4) 15...f6 16. Bd3 Qd5 17. exf6 gxf6 18. b5 Ne5 19. Nxe5 fxe5 20. c6 (20. b6 Bxc5! 21. bxc7 Rd7 22. Bb5 exd4 23. Bxd7+ Qxd7! is unclear but I believe Black has compensation for the exchange in his mobile pawns and his two active bishops) brings up a critical position that I've discussed before on this board.
<img src="
http://www.france-echecs.com/diagramme/imgboard.php?fen=2kr1b1r/ppp4p/2P1p3/1P1q..." alt="" title="" border="0" />
(What html magic is necessary to get this image to display in line?!)
I came to the conclusion that Black's attack comes in second after 20...e4, ...Bd6 and so forth. Also 20...Bh6 21. Bxh6 Qxd4+ 22. Kh1 Qxd3 23. Qa5 is good for White. But lately it seems to me that 20...Kb8!? holds out hope of strong Black counterplay, e.g. 21. cxb7 Bh6! (only now) 22. Bxh6 Qxd4+ and so forth. White's advantage is not so unambiguous in this, and in closely related alternative lines, in view the great difficulty of playing major pieces plus opposite-colored bishops with no particular initiative and an insecure king.
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Alekhine as a club weapon (Read 37817 times)
