Alekhine's Defense: Lecture by GM Ben Finegold

Check out Ben's Chessable courses here! www.chessable.... This NEW lecture was recorded July 24, 2023, in Roswell, Georgia.
6:30 Endre Steiner vs. Alexander Alekhine, Budapest 1921
17:42 Nigel Short vs. Jan Timman, Interpolis 1991
32:52 Jüri Vetemaa vs. Alexander Shabalov, Haapsalu 1986
43:33 NN vs. Patrick Davenport, Blitz 2017
Signup or gift a chess.com Premium membership to get access to their lessons, remove ads, improve your chess, AND help Ben at the same time!! Upgrade your chess.com membership or join! - go.chess.com/fi....
Buy Merch today! ccscatlmerch.com/
Watch live at / itsbenandkaren
Donations are appreciated at: streamlabs.com...
Follow me on Twitter: / ben_finegold
#benfinegold #chess #Alekhine'sDefense

[@patrickdaly1088]

New GM Finegold content? Heckyea!

[@andrewferguson6901]

Nope. Same GM Finegold as before

[@3xarch]

@@andrewferguson6901 finegold type reply

[@DablesG]

42:18 After pawn takes its Qb1#. Not Nb3+. I wrote that then continued watching. Someone even commented during the lecture, and Ben went back, but not far enough. "Could I have played it last move?" Nope, but you could have two moves ago.

[@bobbyfischer6786]

Crawl back under your 1400 on a good day rock and let the big boys get juicy

[@DablesG]

@@bobbyfischer6786 Bold underestimation of my rating.

[@elcid451]

So RIGHT!!!

[@bobbyfischer6786]

1400 on lichess

[@adamanonymous6885]

@@bobbyfischer6786 not sure why you feel this is necessary - the guy is right - its not a big issue that Ben glosses over it, because in that position black is winning so much its almost unimportant how they actually deliver the mate, but I don't really see the need to abuse someone just for pointing out an M1 that wasn't mentioned in the video?

[@KancerKowboy]

Great lecture! Vetemaa vs. Shabalov is now one of my favorite games. Not sure I've ever seen that one before. I have seen a game with very similar tactics but think it was out of another opening. I used to play the Alekhine's Defense some when I first started playing chess online. Its a fun opening to play and seems to freshen up the game a bit. Takes people out of their comfort zone really quickly. Similar to how people react to the King's Gambit and the Vienna. You can tell you have successfully surprised your opponent on move 1.

[@Fip91]

I sometimes play the Alekhine as black in online blitz games. About 75% of the time it leads to self-loathing and terrible positions. But the remaining 25% of games are pretty cool!

[@KancerKowboy]

Would like to see more of the 4 pawn attack against this opening. Especially all the possible pawn moves black could face in that position.

[@richards_256]

In that band is on the field football game, John Elway was the QB of the losing team. He completed a first down pass on a 4th and 17 from his own 13 yard line to keep the drive alive and set up the "winning" field goal. It makes the kickoff return that much more impressive

[@ScottMorgan88]

at 42:17 you have Qb1 # immediately.

[@Everything_I_Like]

Here are some ideas for an one hour Finegold lecture. I am listing them here. If any of you like any of these, feel free to sponsor. Great players of the present : Daniil Dubov Great players of the present : Wei Yi Great players of the present : Baadur Jobava Great players of the present : Baskaran Adhiban Great players of the present : Levon Aronian Great players of the past : Topalov Best wins against Magnus Carlsen Openings : Halloween Gambit Openings : Muzio Gambit

[@12jswilson]

Woah! I haven't seen this one yet. Very unusual for videos on this channel

[@Ostaf52]

Thanks for posting this lecture. This is my main opening as black.

[@louiscypher6919]

Games of Alekhine, nice!

[@patrykapiezo1650]

Capablanca was literally throwing pieces at him, so he had to defend himself. No wonder he didn't wanted a rematch.

[@arvinm6291]

eh... the lecture is not about that sorry

[@NoobSharkey]

Omg one of my favourite openings gets a lecture video

[@Crooky0]

I feel like the ability to play openings like this show kind of a matured chess ability. I remember as a kid I'd see this opening and think why the hell would you move your knight out only to have to move it a couple more times right away and help your opponent build a strong center? But in reality it's not THAT easy to maintain that strong center, especially this day and age if you're not familiar with the opening but your opponent is. I used to play aggressive openings in bullet chess as a teen in the early days of online chess and now as a 40 something looking back on it, any strong player wasn't afraid of the openings I'd play because they'd see my aggressive play and just see weaknesses created and could pick them apart. I'd still win some games on the strength of being speedy and thinking decently on the fly, but any IM/GM level player would win 85+% of the time because my aggressive opening was actually shooting myself in the foot most games. Good lecture and example games.

[@wmbriggz]

This, and the French , were my favorite defenses… not very successful, but fun.

[@canonjean-mignon4985]

Favorite openings change. I used to like the scandi, now I hate it. Against the french and alekhine I score rather well.

[@Crooky0]

@@canonjean-mignon4985 As someone who predominantly played bullet and now plays vicariously through YT vids, I still like Scandi as black for the reasons Finegold highlights the Alekhine as a periodic opening to use. People are obviously a bit more familiar with it than the Alekhine and aren't particularly afraid of it, but if you play it enough to where you're 3-5x more used to it as black than they are as white, it can still help with avoiding losing much ground in the opening. I think the problem with the Alekhine today is it's probably mostly kids throwing it out there randomly who don't really know how to play it as black but didn't feel like playing a pawn move right then, so it's not hard to be positive against it as white, while I'd be kind of scared shitless if I was in a serious tournament and a GM played it against me, because I know probably 20 moves in I'll be down and not know how it happened.

[@TrueBlueAndrew]

Thank you for the video

[@afganitia]

Interesting video!

[@Tx66]

NEW LECTURES!!!!!

[@vibovitold]

I play 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 and then instead of 3. c4 - 3. Nc3. After exchanging the Knights I'm building a nice center, I can play f4 shortly, and I'm getting pretty good results against Alekhine defence with this setup. Black can easily end up without activity, while it's easy to play for a Kingside attack with white.

[@Socrates...]

thank you so much

[@bobbyfischer6786]

1) e4... Nf6 CONFUSING HIS OPPONENT

[@danjeory3659]

"Let's get back to Black - as Amy Winehouse, RIP, would say". Legend.

[@pschneider1968]

Great lecture. In fact, I didn't know the Short game. Now I know it! 😀 I like to play against the Alekhine with White. I always play the four pawns attack, and mostly, I get very good positions.

[@pfiffigstesshabby1722]

Most beautiful video.

[@nunyabusiness8538]

Can u do a Benoni defense lecture?

[@shahlinh]

22:00 Bg4 actually loses the game cause of Bxf7 Kxf7 Ng5+ and after king moves u take the bishop

[@pedronetomoreira]

At 42.17 minutes, you play Qb1 mate, no need for Nb3+.

[@dinushikaidampitiya4805]

can you do a lecture of the '' Magnus Carlsen Gambit

[@arnoldoalonso4005]

You are my spirit animal. Love your humor daddy.

[@elcid451]

In the Shabalov? game you missed after Bxc4 Qb5!! ...Rd2 NxNc3... after bxN black has the immediate Qb1 mate! Not Nb3ch???

[@KipIngram]

I claim the sky is blue on clear days.

[@Freiheit_Faring]

Alekhine's Defense is one of my favorite openings! The best defense is attack, right? ;)

[@SevenTheJester]

Come on, now, let's be fair...Timman didn't *have* to resign until move 35, which is when he resigned. The checkmate wasn't forced until the move 34. Kf4, Bc8. Before the move Bc8 Timman could've avoided mate by sacrificing his queen and a pawn to make room for the rook to come in and kick out the opposing queen. I mean...he would have only been around 17 points behind in the evaluation, give or take; I think he would have had a fighting chance, based on his stellar performance throughout the rest of the game. 😂

[@marshalltrucking2064]

in the Sabalof game after black's Bh8, then he plays Bishop back to g7, why not Bxe5 , as Nxe5 allows Qg2 ## ?

[@sublimeade]

Can we have a political lecture?

[@ElectrocutionHazard]

c4, which is explosive.

[@Kuribohdudalala]

Just play Nc3 and go into a vienna. So much less of a headache

[@paulsavin2901]

2)Nc3…. I quite like the four knights though.

[@SevenTheJester]

Okay, story time. I *have* to share this, because it sounds like it *can't possibly* be true, but I swear it is. And if anyone can explain it to me, I would surely appreciate it. I'd be shocked, but I'd appreciate it. *Here's what happened:* After watching the beginning of this video, I decided to do some independent analysis of the opening myself, to see if I want to learn and play it. So I went to Lichess and opened an analysis board, and my first step when looking at a new opening is always the same, I turn the engine on and play the first 10-15 moves that Stockfish recommends as the best in the position. Then I go back and look at other lines, the masters' database and et cetera (mostly et cetera, of course). So I played the first 12 moves for both sides according to the "Best Move Arrow." Then I turned the arrow off and tried to play the moves again from memory, to see how well I was picking it up. I actually did manage to remember and play all twelve moves, but I played moves 5-8 in the wrong order. That's not a huge deal, since I got all the moves right, it just means that I have to play through them a few more times to get the order down a little better (though I don't really think it makes a difference in this particular case). The crazy thing is, though...I did play the right moves, they were just in the wrong order, so after move 12, I had (obviously) the *exact same* position. But Stockfish says one of them is +1 and the other is +1.2. ...but they're identical positions, with white to play after 12 moves. It's baffling to me. I was so nonplussed that I had to take a screenshot of the evaluation, or I wouldn't believe it myself. 😂

[@konigsrustung8115]

Oooooh 😮

[@dinushikaidampitiya4805]

[@williamblake7386]

30:00 why not ..Bxe5?

[@kmarasin]

Qe7!! is devastating. I think the best black has at that point is Bg7 but he's going to lose the exchange, at least.

[@kmarasin]

Computer announces mate actually, it's even worse than I thought.

[@dinushikaidampitiya4805]

🩲

[@TalsBadKidney]

Hey waddya know, this looks like just enough rope!

[@noambm6969]

first one here before it's too late

[@loum5254]

Question: Who would win in a game of chess, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?

[@TalsBadKidney]

The answer is fries

[@-dash]

Kissinger

[@fireballxl-5748]

Kinda dull presentation Ben but everyone can't be on top of their game all the time.

[@HUNTERYOUGAF]

Ben's eye bags are the same color as his shirt in this one. No offense... I love you, GM Ben Finegold.

[@lolKbgTgm6621what]

Ben, I (and lots of other people!) really appreciate your lectures on chess, but why do you think anyone would be interested in hearing you lecture on Thursdays?