Viking wrote on 09/03/08 at 19:28:29:


Yeah, I have that book and I forgot to mention it.  I think that it is of marginal value, but I agree that it's worth having.  It's not a very good edition; you can never tell where one variation leaves off and another begins.  Also I just bought the Eales and Williams 1973 book, but haven't yet received it.  I will report when I do.

Another source, not yet mentioned, is the alekhine defence book by Videki (and some other author I dont remember at the moment). Poor english, but it does cover some (important) ideas I have not seen mentioned elsewhere (as in the more recent Cox book for example).

I forget what Burgess exact wording was, but basically he said that the Capello game was more along the lines of how white should play, rather than as in the Fogarasi game (he didn't say that white had any advantage in Capello). Instead he showed up to the point where Bagirov had reached an equalish looking rook & pawn ending. 

Anyway I was just pointing it out because I think it's a reasonable way for black to play the chase and it probably hasn't gotten a lot of coverage in books.

there is also an interesting chase line that is only a side note in the old burgess book: 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. c4 Nb6 4. c5 Nd5 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Nc6 7. Nf3 e6 8. Be3 b6. A sample of black doing very well was: 9. cxb6 axb6 10. a3 f5 11. exf6 Qxf6 12. Bg5 Qf7 13. Bd3 Ba6 14. c4 Bd6 15. Qc2 Qh5 (Fogarasi-Bagirov 1989).  Instead the game Capello-Bagirov 1979 was cited as a better way for white to play, i.e. 9. Qa4 Bxc5 10. Bxc5 bxc5 11. 0-0-0 f6! (I'm going to stop here but Burgess gives maybe 10 more moves from that game..this is pages 45-46 if you have the book & are interested).

Like I said, I think Luther still plays it. I think the line he plays is 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. c4 Nb6 4. d4 d6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 c5 7. d5 e6 8. Nc3 c4 9. d6 Be6 (instead of Nc6). 

Also 5. ...Bf5, with a basic plan of e6, Na6, Be7, c5 is ok if I remember right.

with respect to the 4 pawns...you can always play the ...c5 line instead. I think Luther still plays this way. I've never ran across anyone (at my level) who plays the critical line against it anyway. 

There is also some ok-ish side lines of the 4 pawns where black plays Bf5, Na6, e6, d6, c5 that worked for me on a few occasions. I don't play the alekhine anymore so sorry I don't remember the name or the move orders. But it's in the old red alekine book by Burgess.

thibdb13 wrote on 09/02/08 at 11:00:51:


I've been playing this defense for just a few years.  I'm not "addicted" to it; I just decided to take it up so as to learn more about chess.  My systems have always been rather classical, so I wanted to expand my horizons.  What attracted me is that this is a tough, fighting defense that confronts White from the very first move.   

This is not a defense to take up lightly.  Black gives up a lot of space.  I think my results might have been a little better if I had just stuck with 1...e5, but I think that has less to do with the objective deficiencies of the Alekhine than with my taking on positions about which I have less understanding. 

I have prepared an extensive set of notes on Alekhine's and I am still expanding and ramifying them.  My very latest project is a fairly deep study of a critial line of the Four Pawns Attack, 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 dxe5 6.fxe5 Nc6 7.Be3 Bf5 8.Nc3 e6 9.Nf3 Be7 10.Be2 0-0 11.0-0 f6 12.exf6 Bxf6. Personally I don't think that Black has equalized yet, but the play from here is very interesting.  Ultimately I think that Black is probably O.K., but others may disagree.  In any case this position is very critical for Alekhine's, since 6...Nc6 followed 9...Be7 is the only well-reputed answer to the Four Pawns.

If you want to study this defense very deeply, Cox's excellent introductory book is not really adequate (it wasn't intended to be a catalog of variations).  There are two books by Burgess that you should get ahold of, The Complete Alekhine and New Ideas in the Alekhine.  The former is easily the most comprehensive treatement of this defense in the English language, though it is out of date.  There is also Alekine's Defense by Nigel Davies.  I also have Alekhine's Defence, With Additional Material on Owen's Defence and the Nimzovich Defence by Hort and Keene (Hort wrote the part on the Alekhine, which is most of the book.  Further I have a 1989 edition of Zashchita Alekhina (in Russian) by Vladimir Bagirov, which is good if you can read a little chess Russian.  All these works are out of print but most can be obtained on the internet.  NIC Yearbook 87 contains an article by Czech GM Tibor Karolyi in which he advocates 4...Nb6 in reply to 4.Nf3.  There will be a second part in Yearbook 88, which is not yet in print.      

John Watson's updates here are very good on this defense.  Also if you search down this part of the forum, you'll see that various people have contributed some ideas.

Theoretically the Alekhine's is under pressure both in the Four Pawns Attack and in the Modern (4.Nf3).  You will discover, however, that the latter is played nine times out of ten.
     
Among the games to study are those of Bagirov and Baburin.  Since Bagirov died in 2001 (of a heart attack in the middle of a tournament game), Baburin has been the only GM that consistently relies upon this defense.