Against Alekhine's defense, can White avoid 2. e5? An opponent I have heretofore easily beaten has started playing Alekhine's defense against me.  I am no longer easily beating my opponent, and indeed would be repeatedly losing to him, if only he had more skill and blundered less.

[Title "Alekhine's defense"]
[StartPly "2"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]

1. e4 Nf6


Like any chess player who enjoys sharp competition, I am most pleased that my opponent is somehow fighting better than he used!  Apparently however, I do not understand Alekhine's defense.  Alekhine's defense is perplexing me.

One reads that the usual continuation is 2. e5; but, admittedly, the idea of overextending the king's pawn as soon as White's second move does not appeal to me.  On the other hand, alternatives like 2. Nc3 or 2. d3 seem too passive, whereas 2. Nf3 Nxe4 does not look promising.  Maybe the weird-looking 2. f3 is the answer?  But then Black just replies 2... e5, transposing to a kingside open game while sidestepping the Ruy Lopez, the Italian game, Evans' gambit, the king's gambit, etc.; so, no, 2. f3 looks even worse than the other options as far as I can see.

Wikipedia's entry on the topic is pretty good, but does not persuade me.  What does persuade me is that Alekhine's defense is repeatedly giving an otherwise weak Black opponent good chances to beat me.  Of course, I could cravenly avoid the whole problem by opening 1. d4; but still, eventually, one would like to confront the problem rather than avoid it, if one could.

What am I misunderstanding, please?  Is the distasteful 2. e5 really White's only good, active response to Alekhine's defense?
A very correct answer to the Alekhine Defense is 2.d3. Strange looking, but after the Nf3,g3,Bg2,Nbd2,O-O, you get a full KIA setup, a favourite of Bobby Fischer, among others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Indian_Attack

Not only is this setup easy to learn, but a great answer to almost everything you don't fully know. The transpositions from other openings aren't rare, so it is a good thing to learn. Also, you don't have to learn lines by heart, but rather middlegame plans.

Also one last thing. Since your opponent already has a knight on f6, this makes him go on a mainline in the KIA, so you will find even more examples of games. 

Hope this helps.