Alekhine's Defence
B02 · 1. e4 Nf6
Invite the pawns forward and hope they overextend.
Analysing from a photo?
This page needs a FEN or a board you set up by hand. The app reads a position straight from a photograph of a real board or a screenshot, and keeps your saved positions between sessions.
The idea
Nf6 attacks e4 on move one and invites e5, then d4 and c4, driving the knight around the board. Black spends several tempi retreating while White builds a huge centre, and the entire opening is a bet that the centre will become a liability rather than a strength. It is the purest hypermodern idea in chess.
Typical plans
- As Black, attack the centre with d6 and c5 once the knight is settled on b6.
- As Black, aim to trade off White's advanced pawns and leave the squares behind them weak.
- As White, play the modest Exchange or Four Pawns lines according to how much risk you want.
What goes wrong
- As Black, letting White consolidate the centre. If the pawns are never challenged, Black is just cramped.
- As White, pushing the pawns further than they can be supported.
- As Black, moving the knight more times than the position justifies.
Using the board above
The board starts at the position after 1. e4 Nf6. Play the continuation you normally meet, then ask the engine what it would do. That is more useful than reading a line, because it answers the question you actually have, which is what happens in the position you keep reaching.
One caution worth carrying into it: an engine evaluates an opening on the assumption that both sides then play perfectly. A line rated a tenth of a pawn better whose middlegames you have never played is worth less to you than a line rated slightly worse that produces positions you understand. More on that here.