Paleface Attack

The Paleface Attack, 1. d4 Nf6 2. f3, meets the Indian defenses by preparing to build a full center with 3. e4. The cost is considerable. An early f-pawn advance loosens the white kingside and occupies the square the g1-knight normally develops to. The move is rarely an end in itself. Its usual purpose is to reach the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, an opening that otherwise needs 1. d4 d5 and so cannot be forced against a player who answers 1. d4 with 1...Nf6.

The most common reply is 2...d5, which adds a second attacker to e4 and is also the engine's first choice. Pushing 3. e4 at once still loses a pawn outright if White recaptures with the pawn, since 3...dxe4 4. fxe4 Nxe4 leaves Black a clean pawn ahead. The consistent follow-up is 3...dxe4 4. Nc3, which transposes into the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit: White gives up the pawn for open lines and quick development, and Black can choose among the usual defenses to that gambit. White can instead stay with conventional development, but after 3. c4 e6 the game turns into a Queen's Gambit Declined in which f3 is merely a weakness and a lost tempo.

Black has other popular options. 2...g6 and 2...e6 each account for a sizable share of games and leave White free to occupy the center with e4, so Black heads for a different structure instead of cutting across White's plan. On Lichess the position yields almost even results, with Black slightly ahead. The engine gives Black a small edge, a verdict reflecting the concessions made by 2. f3 rather than any forced refutation. Practical outcomes therefore turn mainly on whether Black knows how to deal with the Blackmar-Diemer structures that White is aiming for.

The name plays on the Indian defenses. "Paleface" is said to be a Native American word for white Europeans, so a white offensive against an "Indian" opening became a Paleface Attack. The Indian defenses themselves are named after Indian masters such as Moheschunder Bannerjee, whose games against John Cochrane brought these setups to Western attention. The label appears in Eric Schiller's 1986 book on the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, and Schiller is possibly its originator. The move itself is far older: it occurred as early as 1931 at the Copa Geniol in Buenos Aires.