Alekhine-Chatard Attack

The Alekhine-Chatard Attack arises in the Classical French after 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7. The quieter alternative is the bishop trade 6. Bxe7. With 6. h4, White leaves the g5-bishop to be taken. Capturing is the most frequent choice in practice, and 6...Bxg5 7. hxg5 Qxg5 is the Albin-Chatard Gambit. Black is a pawn up, but White's rook gains the half-open h-file and White leads in development. The e5-pawn also restricts Black's kingside pieces, so Black's king has no easy shelter.

Black can instead decline. 6...h6 puts the question to the bishop at once. 6...a6, the Maróczy Variation, is a useful waiting move that keeps a white knight out of b5. 6...c5, the Breyer Variation, strikes at d4 immediately, and 6...O-O, the Spielmann Variation, castles directly into the coming attack. The rare 6...f6, the Teichmann Variation, challenges e5 straight away. On Lichess White scores well across these lines, while the engine rates the position as roughly balanced. Much of the line's value therefore lies in the practical problems it sets.