Alekhine Defense: what should White play?

In this irregular variation of the Alekhine Defense, White's most decisive and objectively best continuation is exf6, capturing the attacked knight on f6. Black has wasted a tempo on the defensive push h6 rather than relocating the knight, leaving White with a commanding engine evaluation of +3.73 after taking the free piece. With 1,694 recorded games in the database reaching this position, White achieves a winning material advantage by simply accepting the piece.

Winning Material with exf6

The tactical refutation of Black's setup is direct: exf6 secures a full minor piece for White. Rather than retreating the threatened knight, Black chose an unnecessary flank pawn move, completely abandoning the piece on f6. The engine's illustrative main line demonstrates Black recovering a pawn with exf6 gxf6 d4 d5 c4 e5, but White emerges from the sequence with decisive material superiority and central control.

Suboptimal Alternatives

Ignoring the hanging knight yields far lower evaluations, though White still maintains a comfortable advantage due to Black's misplaced knight. Moves such as d4 (evaluated at +1.32), Nf3 (+1.30), and f4 (+1.27) support White's center and development, but they allow Black the opportunity to retreat the knight to safety via the illustrative reply g8. Similarly, developing with Nc3 (+1.18) leads toward lines like Nc3 Ng8 d4 d5 Bb5+ c6, giving Black breathing room. Taking the piece immediately remains the premier choice.