Quick win in the Alekhine Defense (ft. transposition & blunders)

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MikeGS27

Hi there! Today I want to show you an interesting way to punish this transposition which happens quite often in the Scandinavian Defense at 1300-1450 level. After 2.exd5, I always premove Nc3(bad habit), expecting Qxd5, which is the standard Scandinavian. In this game that I'm presenting, my opponent played 2.Nf6, transposing to the Alekhine Defense: Scandinavian Variation. Having premoved, I now had to come up with a solution. And I did.

This happened a few times in my blitz games and I've never thought of a plan against it until today. Now I will try to do this every time. It's not that good and it only works against low rated players but I don't care. 

 

 

After 3.Nxd5 I already saw the way to proceed. I played 4.Bc4, provoking my opponent to take the knight on c3. He did take but I instantly played 5.Qf3, creating a double attack (hitting his knight and threatening Qxf7+). 

I was pretty certain that his next move was going to be 5.Nd5, trying to save his knight and the f7 pawn. I guess he didn't see that I could then take with the bishop. His next move 6.e6 seems a bit strange to me, even though the engine says it's the best move.

At this point, white is already better and is about to grab a free b7 pawn. I was hoping he'd blunder Nc6 next but he didn't sad.png. He played 8.Nd7, logical wink.png. After this, I saw an opportunity to take advantage of the pin by bringing my knight to e5. The plan was Nxd7, forcing him to take back with the queen, then Qxa8, quite a simple trick which eventually happened. He resigned after that.

blueemu

I've been recommending this line (including 5. Qf3) against the Scandinavian for months.

Against an Alekhine move-order, my pet line is in the Alburt variation:

 

MikeGS27
blueemu wrote:

I've been recommending this line (including 5. Qf3) against the Scandinavian for months.

Against an Alekhine move-order, my pet line is in the Alburt variation:

 

 

Those white pawns look amazing! I never have that in my games. sad.png

blueemu
rares495 wrote:
blueemu wrote:

I've been recommending this line (including 5. Qf3) against the Scandinavian for months.

Against an Alekhine move-order, my pet line is in the Alburt variation:

 

 

Those white pawns look amazing! I never have that in my games. 

The idea is NOT to try for a quick mate on f7... Black can defend against that. The idea is to play for a slower, more positional attack:

... and White will swing the a3-Rook over to the King-side, play some moves like b3 and Bd3 to solidify the position, and then take advantage of the fact that Black's King has only a couple of pieces defending it against an attack by White's entire army.

Of course, White is a piece down...

MikeGS27

Those queen side pieces are practically non-existent. It's difficult for black to break that pawn chain & activate his pieces without sacrificing at least a minor piece. I'd play this as white all day long, seems like an easy path to victory. I think I'll give it a try someday.

blueemu

Here was my most recent attempt (as White) to get that Knight-sac line vs the Alekhine's. Black didn't cooperate, though. Curiously, my b1-Knight ended up on f3 and my g1-Knight ended up on c3.

https://www.chess.com/daily/game/200865886

It was my other game (as Black) against the same opponent that was really spectacular, though.

https://www.chess.com/daily/game/200865884

Elkapan11

Don't Alekhine players typically play 4... Bg4 before playing g6? 

blueemu

Both variations are played, but yes, 4. ... Bg4 is roughly twice as common (5800+ games vs 2900+ games in the database).

That's why I mentioned "my pet line is in the Alburt variation"... the Alburt variation is 4. ... g6 instead of 4. ... Bg4.