Alekhine Defence

Alekhine’s Defence is a chess opening beginning with the moves

1. e4 Nf6

It is named after Alexander Alekhine, who introduced it in the 1921 Budapest tournament in games against Endre Steiner and Fritz Sämisch. Four years later, the editors of the Fourth Edition of Modern Chess Openings (MCO-4) wrote, “Nothing is more indicative of the iconoclastic conceptions of the ‘hypermodern school’ than the bizarre defence introduced by Alekhine … . Although opposing to all tenets of the classical school, Black allows his King’s Knight to be driven about the board in the early stages of the game, in the expectation of provoking a weakness in White’s centre pawns.” White’s imposing mass of pawns in the centre often includes pawns on c4, d4, e5, and f4. Grandmaster Nick de Firmian observes of Alekhine’s in MCO-15 (2008), “The game immediately loses any sense of symmetry or balance, which makes the opening a good choice for aggressive fighting players.”[4]

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