Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4

The Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO B03, reached after 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4. It is a line of the Alekhine Defense. Black is to move. 6 named lines continue from this position.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 1,871 times by this move order. White won 45%, 4% were drawn and Black won 51%. The most popular continuation is 5… dxe5 (65% of games).

Engine evaluation: +0.64 (Stockfish, depth 55; best line 5… Bf5 6. Nf3 dxe5 7. fxe5 e6 8. Nc3)

ECO: B03
Moves: 9 plies
FEN: rnbqkb1r/ppp1pppp/1n1p4/4P3/2PP1P2/8/PP4PP/RNBQKBNR b KQkq - 0 5
PGN: 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
0-1499	58	64%36%
1500-1999	926	45%51%
2000+	887	42%52%
All	1,871	45%51%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
5… dxe5	1,218 (65%)	42%53%
5… g6 Four Pawns Attack, Fianchetto Variation	323 (17%)	45%52%
5… Bf5 Four Pawns Attack, Trifunovic Variation	182 (10%)	55%42%
5… Nc6	47 (3%)	43%55%
5… g5 Four Pawns Attack, Cambridge Gambit	44 (2%)	55%39%
5… c5	17 (1%)	53%47%
5… e6	13 (1%)	38%16%46%
5… c6	7 (0%)	71%29%

Master games

748 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 47%, draw 11%, Black 42%). The strongest:

LCZero 0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-61 (3631) – Stockfish dev-20240728-2343f71 (3662) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 26 Balanced Lines · 2024-08-02
Stockfish dev-20240728-2343f71 (3662) – LCZero 0.31-dag-5350a2e-BT4-61 (3631) 1/2-1/2 · TCEC 26 Balanced Lines · 2024-08-02
GM Hikaru Nakamura (2736) – GM Magnus Carlsen (2863) 0-1 · Carlsen Tour Final 2020 · 2020-08-18
GM Erigaisi Arjun (2797) – GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2783) 1/2-1/2 · TechM GCL 2024 · 2024-10-08
GM Hikaru Nakamura (2787) – GM Naroditsky, D. (2619) 1-0 · Bullet Chess Winners 2023 · 2023-07-19

Search all games of the Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

Tempstream (2720) – FM dclasby (2784) 0-1 · 2026-09-06 · 180 + 0s
apollothedog (2694) – TregubenkoKolya_2010 (2635) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-02 · 180 + 0s
Meatloaf927 (2724) – BlackRakoun (2550) 1-0 · 2026-09-03 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Alekhine Defense (3… d6 4. c4) 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4

Continuations

Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Cambridge Gambit B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 g5
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Fianchetto Variation B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 g6
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Trifunovic Variation B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 Bf5
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Main Line B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 Nc6 7. Be3
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Ilyin-Zhenevsky Variation B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 Nc6 7. Nf3 Bg4 8. e6 fxe6 9. c5
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack, Korchnoi Variation B03 · 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 Bf5 7. Nc3 e6 8. Nf3 Be7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O f6

More Alekhine Defense lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.