Alekhine Defense: Normal Variation with 3.Bc4

Your knight has been kicked from f6, but instead of wasting time, you've forced White to push e5 — a pawn that may become a target. By retreating to b6, you develop toward the queenside and keep an eye on key dark squares. Your immediate plan is to challenge White's centre with ...d5, breaking open the position while your knight can later reroute to c6 or d7. If White plays calmly, you'll aim to undermine the e5 pawn with ...c5 or ...f6, and your bishop on c8 will have a clear diagonal once the centre clears. The position is asymmetrical and unbalanced — exactly what you want when playing Black against 1.e4.

The top engine line is 4.Bb3, keeping the bishop safe and preparing to support the centre. After Bb3, your best reply is 4...d5, hitting the e5 pawn immediately. Then 5.exd6 exd6 leads to a structure where you have a solid pawn chain and easy development. White scores 48.1% from this line across nearly 350,000 games — meaning you, as Black, still win a slight majority of the time in practice. The position is playable, with your d6 pawn controlling e5 and your light-squared bishop free to develop. You've traded White's early space advantage for a clean, flexible setup.

Three wrong moves appear frequently in the database. Spot them and you gain an edge quickly. 4.Bxf7+ is the most dramatic: a bishop sacrifice on f7 that loses roughly 2.9 pawns in evaluation. You simply take with your king — 4...Kxf7 — and after White's follow-up, you have the bishop pair and a safer king than they do. 4.d3 (played over 18,000 times) loses about 1.2 pawns. Here you can play ...d5 immediately or ...g6 and ...Bg7, building a comfortable position with no risk. 4.Qe2 (played 15,754 times) is an inaccuracy costing about 0.8 pawns — the engine prefers 4.Be2 instead. After Qe2, you can again respond with 4...d5, and White's queen may later become a target. In all three cases, remember the key theme: strike in the centre with ...d5 whenever possible.

Across 465,312 games from this exact position, Black outscores White by nearly 4 percentage points despite the engine giving White a +0.27 edge. That gap between evaluation and results is a signal: this position is harder for White to play than the computer suggests. White's most popular move (4.Bb3) gives them their best score at 48.1% — still below a draw. Every other main continuation scores below 45% for White. If you know your ...d5 break and stay alert for the Bxf7+ trap, you're already playing better than the majority of White players who face this line.