alekhine's defense Modern Alekhine Revisited
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ALEKHINE'S DEFENSE
The modern Alekhine revisited
THE MODERN ALEKHINE REVISTED
By Jeremy Silman (game notes by Kerim Soley)
In my early 20s I gave Alekhine’s Defense a try (quite successfully, I should add). As the
years rolled by, though, it was clear that this opening never gained complete respectability
(Grandmasters Alburt and Bagirov seemed to be the only ones who continued carrying the
Alekhine torch), and some titled players I talked to simply said, “It’s unsound. White gets an
edge without too much trouble.”
Lately I’ve been eyeing Alekhine’s Defense again and it seems that Black is uncovering
many new ideas that make this opening extremely interesting. After 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4
d6 4.Nf3 I don’t completely trust either of the main line moves 4…Bg4 and 4…g6. Any
Alekhine aficionado that wishes to assuage my doubts concerned 4…Bg4 and 4…g6 are
welcomed to respond.
A SOLID SYSTEM
However, both 4…Nc6!? (A crazy line brought back from the dead by the German players
Fleck and Haakert) and the solid 4…dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6 (and what’s going on with 5…Nd7!?.
The sacrifice 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qh5+ Ke6 may or may not be good, while it’s not clear if White
can really claim an advantage with 6.Nf3) show that it’s far too early to claim an easy ride for
White.
A THRILL A MINUTE
The game below, annotated by the winner (though I’ve made slight adjustments to his notes),
is a good illustration of why I no longer have faith in the old main line with 4…Bg4.
Kerim Soley (TUR, 2212) - Robert McCorry (ENG, 2188)
IECG, CA-2004
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6 6.0-0 Be7 7.c4 Nb6 8.h3 Bh5 9.Nc3 0-0 10.
Be3 d5
10…a5 11.b3 Na6 12.Qd2 Nd7 13.Rad1 Bg6 14.Bf4 dxe5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.
Bxe5, White is slightly better – Hubner.
11.c5 Bxf3 12.gxf3 Nc8
12…N6d7 13.b4 a6 14.f4 Nc6 15.Rb1 Kh8 16.a4 was slightly better for White in