€29.90 After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Black can spoil White's intentions to play the Ruy Lopez, the Scotch Game, the Giuoco Piano or the Evans Gambit by answering with 2. ... d6. In a first article on this topic I described that the former World Champion Alexander Alekhine (1892 - 1946) played the Philidor Defence several times and was very successful with it. Since the article met with lively interest and some ChessBase readers also provided interesting hints, I would like to go into some more details and present some more exciting games with this opening. Edward Lasker vs Alekhine - a positional masterpiece The 15-year-old Alexander Alekhine played an interesting game against Edward Lasker in Dusseldorf (Germany) in 1908. Again he chose the Hanham variation, in which Black defends e5 by 3. ... Nd7 instead of giving up the the centre by exchanging pawns or risking Philidor's hazardous counterattack 3. ... f5?!. Through skilful manoeuvring Alekhine reduced the white KB to an extra and won easily by sacrificing a knight to crush White's weakened King's flank.