I think the opening is sound but it's generally easier for white to get an edge than other black defences.
Alekhine's Defense = questionable?
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According to my database alekhine's defense scores better than 1...e5 and the french and caro kann. If its not sound then I guess they arent either? I played it myself for some years until my rating went over 1800 and I started facin experts and titled players with it. Only then did I have to change to something else as I was getting slaughtered with it.
Nov 20, 2009
0
#4
Opening statistics need a bit of digging. I would look at rating differential to start with or check the percentages when unrated and players under 2400 are excluded. In addition, since opening are very susceptable to new discoveries rendering them good or bad you might want to do a limit on the time frame. Try a search with players rated 2400+, rating differential of 150 or less, years 2000 - 2009 and see what you get both for results and number of games played. You might even run this with different decades and see what comes up.
What are the current fashionable Alekhine lines then? Stuff with ...g6 or something?
When I used to play the alekhine's defense I sscored very well with it espeaccially when I castled queen side and attacked whites d pawn
Nov 20, 2009
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#7
I did a search in the past 5 years and got the following.
Decisive games: 73%
White Wins: 52%
Black Wins: 48%
I searched master level games during the same period and got
62%
57%
43%
So at master level white scores a bit higher than average. I think the thing is perfectly sound.
After all, it does go against the opening principle "Not to move a piece more than once in the opening" but it carries the threat of over-extending White's pawns in the centre. I think if White can hold back and develop at the start for example: 1.e4 - Nf6 2.e5 - Nd5 3.d4 - d6 4.Nf3 etc then White can maintain a slight advantage.
aakev wrote:
After all, it does go against the opening principle "Not to move a piece more than once in the opening" but it carries the threat of over-extending White's pawns in the centre. I think if White can hold back and develop at the start for example: 1.e4 - Nf6 2.e5 - Nd5 3.d4 - d6 4.Nf3 etc then White can maintain a slight advantage.
This is true if white just pushes his e and d pawns out and use the c pawn to help protect the d pawn white would be fine.
I play the Alekhine on occasion with good results.
The only reason i think Black scores well with it is because White doesn't know how to take advantage of his space advantage. To quote from a book I read.
"White can acheive a small edge, but only in the main line"
The only thing I know is the mainline can someone post more lines which aren't the mainline
@ timeless_thoughts
with regard to post #10:
8. .... Nb6?? 9 c5 1-0
Prawn sorry about that the move I messed the diagram up imma post another one later
PrawnEatsPrawn wrote:
@ timeless_thoughts
with regard to post #10:
8. .... Nb6?? 9 c5 1-0
Probably the Alekhine provides both sides with more opportunity for original play than any other opening in chess. Here are some of my games: 1.e4 Nf6 2.Qe2 & now there are at least three good replies, 1) 2...d6 & we can have a Pirc after an eventual g6/Bg7. One possible move order would be 2...d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3?! (f4!) Bg7 5.d4 O-O & GM Lev Alburt thinks Black is fine,
2) 2...d5! (N?); I faced this in a postal game when the game continued 3.e5 Ne4 4.d4! h6 5.Nd2 Bf5 6.Qb5ch Nc6 7.c3 Nxd2 8.Bxd2 Qd7 9.Bd3 with a complex position,
3) 2...e5 3.f4 & we enter the King's Gambit Accepted with:
3...exf4 4.e5! Nd5 5.Nf3 Be7 6.c4 Nb4 7.d4 Bh4ch 8.Kd1 O-O 9.g3! & GM Alburt thought that White was better because Black has nothing better than 9...Be7 and White regains his gambit pawn with 10.gxf4.
or we can enter the Falkbeer Counter Gambit by transposition where in a postal game I tried, 3...d5 4.d3 c6?! 4.f5 (To stifle the Queenside) Bc5 5.Nc3 d4 6.Nd1 & Fritz thinks Black is okay after either 6...O-O or g6, but after the natural 6...O-O, I intended 7.g4/g5/h4 with a pawn storm. Black still has difficulty getting his Queen Side untracked after 8.g5. White can reorganize with 9.Bd2/Bg2/O-O +/=
sloughterchess, are you systematically trying to play 2 Qe2 in king's pawn games?
Dec 24, 2011
0
#16
chessoholicalien wrote:
One-time SuperGM Nigel Short doesn't like Alekhine's Defense.
As an example he cites his match against GM Lev Alburt (US vs UK Challenge, 1985). Short beat Alburt's Alekhine every time he tried it (3-0) (Short won the overall match 7-1).
Short is a much stronger player. It is hardly a competition of equal strenght. It's not surprisingly Short won and it has hardly anything to do with the opening.
Actually, if white plays accurately and rapidly develops, his spatial and time advantage soon outweighs his isolated pawn(s).
Well, as in any opening, in Alekhine it is White that is pushing for the advantage, but the defensive resources are quite sufficient and Black can easily get some counterplay if White is not prepared...
I am an e4 player and I didn't have anything in particular prepared for the Alekhine, as I do not see it so often in practice.. I just went with the suggestion of
But now I'm trying to play the main line, since I've invested some time into reading one book on the Alekhine... of course, all the lines are still mixed up in my head, but I hope to untangle them before actually playing and OTB game with it. :)
Reb wrote:
According to my database alekhine's defense scores better than 1...e5 and the french and caro kann. If its not sound then I guess they arent either? I played it myself for some years until my rating went over 1800 and I started facin experts and titled players with it. Only then did I have to change to something else as I was getting slaughtered with it.
Counter play againts Alekhine's Defense
http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=657439005
One-time SuperGM Nigel Short doesn't like Alekhine's Defense.
"I do not rate this defence very highly at all..." (Nigel Short's Chess Skills; p.10)
Short then goes on to list Alekhine's Defense in the section entitled "Black openings: Bad and indifferent".
Short explains later in the book that he doesn't like the opening as Black because it allows White "...a free advantage in space."
As an example he cites his match against GM Lev Alburt (US vs UK Challenge, 1985). Short beat Alburt's Alekhine every time he tried it (3-0) (Short won the overall match 7-1).
Senior IM Jon Edwards also seems not to think too much of it (Teach Yourself Visually: Chess; p.122). Edwards apparently never played it once between 1968-2006.
According to the Mega 2009 Database (ChessBase), of 53,604 Alekhine Defense games:
- Black scores above average (48%).
- White wins: 20358 (=38%), Draws: 14998 (=28%), Black wins: 18236 (=34%)
That looks quite reasonable for Black.
In the same database, Short has played 8 games with the Alekhine, drawing with Kasparov, Polgar and Adams, plus drawing two other games. In the remaining 3 games, he won 1 and lost 2. Overall, Short scored 3.5/8.
In the same database, Bobby Fischer has played 7 games with the Alekhine, drawing 4 and winning 3 (one of the wins and one of the draws were against Spassky!). Fischer thus scored 5/7.
So in the right hands, it looks like the Alekhine is quite a useful defense. Alekhine himself certainly seemed to think so. He played it 16 times between 1921 and 1933, scoring 10.5/16 (including wins against Bogoljubow, Maroczy, and Mieses, plus draws against Sämisch, Nimzowitsch (2), Aurbach, Znosko-Borovsky and Yates).
Does anyone else agree with the views of Short (and Edwards) or is it just a matter of personal bias by Short because he has not had much success with this defense?
How have you scored playing the Alekhine? :)