Alekhine's Defence

1.e4 Nf6

The Alekhine defence has a provocative strategy of tempting the White pawns forward, and as we all know pawns cannot go backwards! Black hopes to be able to exploit the weaknesses and vacuum that White creates by advancing her pawns. White has to prove that the extra space is advantageous and often demonstrates this by easier manoevering of forces for example for king attacking, and a space advantage which can be nurtured and carried to the endgame. Black often demonstrates the effectiveness of the provocation strategy by winning material tactically based on the weak squares and pawns that White has been tempted into creating.

Example games

 

 

A Brief Survey of the Openings

Back to Tutorial Index