Markovich wrote on 03/06/11 at 16:06:00:
I consider this continuation to be, well, umm, not very challenging. But lately while building a MySQL database to support a website for the Alekhine Defense Working Group, I've had to take a hard look at transpositions into the defense. And I've been struck by how many of transpositions into the subject variation, which is classified as Alekhine's in the ECO schema, come via 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Nc3!?. Does White, contrary to my preconception, actually have anything? It seems quite remarkable to me if he does. Maybe it's just that I'm working with a very big set of raw data and I'm including games with player ratings as low as 2000.
But even so the rate of occurrence of this seems surprisingly high.
In my Alekhine playing days which are long done for I'm afraid I always regarded this line as completely harmless, mainly due to the fact it kept being played by very low rated players I suppose. I suppose objectively though it must be ever so slightly easier for White to handle, and there is no theory. Mamedov (2660) won a recent game just by "playing chess" - Nf3 followed by d4:
Mamedov-Kovalenko 2011:
1. e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. exd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3 c6 5. d4 Bg4 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. Ne4 O-O 9. h3 Bf5 10. Ng3 Bg6 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Nxg6 hxg6 13. c4 N5f6 14. Bf4 Re8 15. Bf3 Qb6 16. c5 Qd8 17. Qb3 .....1-0 in 60 moves
Another idea I noticed was 4.Bc4 Nb6 5.Bb3 Nc6 6.a4!? a5 7.d3 when I prefer to play White even if he has no theoretical advantage, but 5...c5!? might be a spanner in the works so maybe the simplest is the 4.Nf3 idea and depending on Blacks reply d4 or g3.
Having said all that.... 3.e5! must be best.