Few openings in the game of chess can be said to arouse as much interest as the Alekhine defence. Can White just crush Black, or are White's pawns simply weak? Is the Black Knight dancing triumphantly round the board, or being kicked from pillar to post? 50 years have passed since Alekhine's death, yet the debate is still raging over the defence that bears his name. This book, by an authority on the Alekhine, examines current treatment of this ever-evolving opening. It introduces and explains new systems and contains original analysis of hitherto neglected lines for Black and White. Burgess provides material drawn from a wide variety of traditional and electronic sources, and also games by Anand, Shirov, Morozevich, Adams, Miles, Nunn, Shabalov and Yermolinsky.