An introduction to the hyper-aggressive Alekhine (or Aljehin) Defense with plans and setups for both colors.
The eight main variations of the opening are going to be covered in depth in separate videos.
The Alekhine Defense is part of the modern school of chess. It neglects the classical principles and openly provokes white to take up central space and chase the lone black knight to the edge of the board (a knight on the rim is dim). On the other hand, by doing so, black is also provoking white to weaken his center, overextend his pawns and turn them into a potential liability black could later exploit.
The goal for black is to strike at white’s overextended pawn center and either break through it with equality, or even emerge slightly better with targets to attack.
The opening was named after Alexander Aleksandrovič Aljohin (known as Alekhine), the fourth world champion and one of the best players of the 20th century. He introduced it in the 1921 Budapest Tournament. Alekhine managed to defeat Capablanca, retain the title for 20 years and was great in all areas of chess, so the defense he invented was taken seriously even though it must have seemed absurd at first.
The opening starts after the moves 1. e4 Nf6. Black is developing his knight and just begging for e5, the lone central pawn advancing forward into enemy territory, where it’s going to be much weaker than on e4, and where black will be able to attack it at once with d6.
White can decline the challenge though. Two variations which bypass e5 are possible. White can opt for Nc3, the Scandinavian Variation or d3, the Maroczy Variation. Neither is considered as challenging as the main lines with e5.
The great thing about the Alekhine is that it gives tons of counter play to black and it’s great to use as a fighting defense when gong for a full point. You can be certain that it will not lead to equal middlegames without imbalances.
If you would like to support the channel and my quest to chess improvement, you can donate here: https://www.paypal.me/HangingPawns
Any support is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
#chess #alekhinedefense #chessopenings