Alekhine Defense: Normal Variation with 3.c4 Nb6 — Playing Black

In the Alekhine Defense, you provoke White's central pawns forward, inviting them to overextend. After 3.c4 Nb6, White has advanced three pawns in just three moves — impressive but committing. Your knight on b6 is temporarily misplaced, but your plan is clear: strike at White's imposing centre with ...d7-d6 as soon as possible. The engine's top move for White is d4, which would create a massive pawn centre on e5 and d4. Don't let that intimidate you. Your job is to challenge it immediately with ...d6, forcing White to either exchange or push further. Every pawn move White makes creates potential weaknesses behind it. Your counterplay in the centre and on the queenside starts with that single ...d6 break.

White's best move is d4, appearing in over a million games — about half of all positions reached here. The engine's suggested continuation runs d4 d6 exd6 exd6, which clears the centre and leads to an open, dynamic game. At first glance White's centre looks intimidating, but after the exchange on d6 you get easy development for all your pieces. Your king will castle kingside quickly, and you'll have good piece activity to compensate for White's extra central space. The score after d4 is remarkably balanced: White scores 49.0%, Black 47.6%, with 3.4% draws. That tiny edge for White confirms that if you handle the resulting middlegame well, your practical chances are excellent.

Not every White player will find the best move. Two common inaccuracies stand out in the statistics: a4 and b3. The move a4 (played over 116,000 times) loses about 0.6 pawns compared to d4, while b3 (48,135 games) loses about 0.7 pawns. Against a4, you can simply continue your standard plan with ...d6, since a4 doesn't threaten anything immediately and weakens White's queenside. Against b3, White neglects the centre — strike quickly with ...d6 and consider following up with ...c5 to challenge White's space advantage. When White plays something other than d4, you've already gained a small edge. Trust your central break and don't overcomplicate things.

This position has been reached in over 2,090,000 games on Lichess — a gigantic sample that tells a clear story. The most popular moves for White are: - d4 (1,109,790 games, White scores 49.0%) - c5 (517,954 games, White scores 47.9%) - Nf3 (131,861 games, White scores 48.8%) - a4 (116,324 games, White scores 48.2%) - Nc3 (92,706 games, White scores 49.0%) - b3 (48,135 games, White scores 46.0%) Notice something surprising: 3.c5 — the immediate push of the c-pawn — is the second most popular choice, and here White actually scores worse than after d4 (47.9% vs 49.0%). That's a clear signal that White's overextension can backfire if you respond accurately. Across all continuations, White's winning percentage never exceeds 49.0%, meaning Black's practical chances are virtually equal. The engine may prefer White, but real humans struggle to convert that abstract advantage.

Once you've played ...d6 and the centre clears, develop your bishops actively, bring your knights toward the centre, and castle kingside. Your knight on b6 is oddly placed but useful — it can later retreat to d7 to support ...c5. Your long-term trumps are White's potentially weak pawns on c4 or e5 after exchanges, and the possibility of playing ...c5 or ...f6 to undermine White's centre. Don't rush. The Alekhine Defense rewards patience: let White push, you undermine, and then your pieces spring to life in the open lines that result.