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Tango! A dynamic answer to 1.d4 Reviewed by Rick Kennedy
Six years later, Orlov’s book-length The Black Knights’ Tango (Batsford, 1998) appeared. Enterprising Masters and Grandmasters had jumped upon the BKT bandwagon, and the author was able to update his analysis, add games, and lay out the four main variations: 3.d5 (the Advance Variation, previously called “the Center Grab”); 3.g3 (the Fianchetto Variation); 3.Nc3 (the Queen’s Knight Variation, formerly known as “the fluid 3.Nc3”); and 3.Nf3 (the King’s Knight Variation, or main line). Even thought it involved possible trips through various Indian (Bogo-, King’s- and Nimzo-) set-ups – as well as sojourns into uniquely Black Knight Tango territories – the defense was considered food for players of all strengths. Orlov wrote:
So it is a bit surprising that it took another seven years before a new book on 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 appeared. International Master Richard Palliser’s Tango! A dynamic answer to 1.d4 is very much worth the wait, however. In short, hang on to the early BKT monograph for historical reasons, keep the newer BKT’s book for comparison, but grab this latest Tango with both knights, er, hands! As an Everyman Chess book, Tango! is well laid out, with good use of fonts, bolding, italics and space, as well as sufficient diagrams (2-3 to a page) and easy readability.
Orlov (1992) gives 7…Ne4 8.cxd5 Qh4+ 9.g3 (see why the Tango is called “dynamic” and “exciting”!?) 9…Bb4+!! 10.Bd2 (10.Nd2 “eventually loses”; 10.Nc3 Nxc3 11.bxc Bxc3+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Qxd2 Qe7 14.Nf3 d6 “Black is fine”) Nxg3 11.Nf3 Nf4!!
Palliser has his own as well as some of Orlov’s analysis, to whom he gives credit, with lucid explanations as each line develops (Chapter Three The Lunge: An Ambitious Early Advance.) The author notes that the variation under discussion was explored in Elburg – Simmelink, correspondence 1999. He suggests that 10.Bd2 deserves a “?” – White is “cracking under pressure” – and he prefers the 10.Nc3 line shrugged off by Orlov as after 10…Nxc3 11.bxc Bxc3+ 12.Bd2 Bxd2+ 13.Qxd2 Qe7 14.Nf3 d6 White has “some practical chances for the pawn after 15.Bb5+!”
In evaluating the move 7.e5?!, Palliser says it is “tempting” but “too ambitious.” There is plenty more “ambition” for White after 3.d5, if he wishes to go in that direction, as in 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.d5 Ne5 4.e4 e6 5.f4 Ng6 6.e5!? (instead of 6.Bd3) or 4.f4!? – enough so that fools may rush in, brimming with overconfidence – but in each case Tango! gives enough for the second player to feel comfortable when facing this “ambitious early advance.” If you like this rock ’em, sock ’em kind of play, the preparation you can find in this book (for Black or White) will give you quite an edge. A more sedate first player might cautiously answer 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 instead with 3.g3, avoiding all excitement. You would think. After the thematic 3…e5 4.d5 Bb4+, though, Black achieves an even game after either 5.Bd2 or 5.Nd2, as Palliser shows:
Interestingly, Orlov (1992, 1998) has only one game example of the 3.g3 line, and Palliser, who puts the variation into Chapter Four The Menagerie: Offbeat Tries for White, along with 3.e3, 3.Bf4, 3.Bg5 and a transposition to the English Opening after 3.Nc3 e5 without White’s d4-d5, has only two. Still, Tango! has a 3.g3-line suggestion for Black: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.g3 e5 4.d5 Bb4+ 5.Nd2 Ne7 6.Nf3?! e4 7.Nd4 c6! which “gives Black strong play in the center and White must be careful.” More frequently played is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.d5 Ne7, which is covered in Tango! in the first and second chapters – The Dark-squared Centre: White Develops Classically and The Dark-squared Centre: White Develops Dynamically. The titles reflect, in a way, how Palliser organizes his chapters: he will have several thematic statements, such as The power of the dark-squared bishop, each followed by a game position diagram and a discussion. He will then move on the Theory, with games, analysis and suggestions appearing in outline form according to variation, e.g. line A142.) In the Classically chapter, Black gets his knights to f6 and g6, and his bishop to either b4 or c5. Typically his play is on the kingside, White’s on the queenside. Palliser summarizes:
In the Dynamically chapter, where White focuses upon g2-g3 (followed by Bg2) – with or without e2-e4 and/or Ng1-f3 – or h2-h4 (or both), Black has more difficulty. He must, Palliser says, “remain flexible and react according to the needs of the position.” If so, then Black “develops good counterplay and appears to be fine from a theoretical point of view.” One idea (amongst many) for the second player is to transpose into the King’s Indian Defense with …d6 and his own kingside fianchetto. Alternately, he could get his dark square Bishop to b4 and exchange if for White’s knight at c3, breaking up the pawns and making queenside play more difficult for his opponent. An example of the latter that Tango! gives is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.d5 Ne7 5.e4 Ng6 6.g3 Bb4 7.Bg2 Bxc3+! 8.bxc3 d6 9.Ne2 0-0 and Black is doing well.
White can counter this idea with 7.Bd2, although after 7…0-0 8.e3 d6 9.Nge2 a5 Black has grabbed some space on the queenside and hopes to hold his own. Palliser prefers a knight on g6 in the 3.Nc3 lines, but one idea of White’s challenges this immediately 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.d5 Ne7 5.h4!? Tango! has very imaginative analysis of both Orlov’s 5…g6!? and Chebanenko’s 5…Neg8!? White may get a slight edge in these lines, but Black has plenty of play for himself. Chapters Five, Six and Seven (about a third of the book) of Tango! look at Black’s transposition into a NimzoIndian Defense after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 followed by 3…e6 4.Nc3 Bb4. Black’s underlying idea in almost all variations will be to play …d7-d6 followed by …e6-e5.
As for 5.Qc2, preventing the doubling of pawns by …Bxc3, the game has then reached the Zurich Variation of the NimzoIndian Defense. Drawing on Nimzo as well as Tango sources, Palliser has more games and analysis to work with, but he still maintains that Black has a solid game wherever the variations take him. This late in the book, as the author finishes up with an “odd” and a (dead?) "end”, there is still much adventure to be had. Chapter Eight The Fianchetto: Countering the Catalan suggests that while 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3 can certainly be met by the Bogo-Indian 4…Bb4+ with Tango-like play (as suggested by Orlov), a practical approach is to transform the game into a Catalan Opening, instead, with 4…d5 followed by 5…dxc4, where Black has “just as much fun as White.” Chapter Nine The Flexible King’s Indian: Countering the Crafty 4.a3 is “a critical test of the Tango” that is “especially common at grandmaster level” having “received Kasparov’s stamp of approval, while also gaining Khalifman’s nod." Is 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.a3 a dead end for the Tango??
Kasparov – Yermolinsky, Yerevan Olympiad 1996 (1-0, 51), continued 4…d5, a move accepted by Orlov (“positionally correct” and “a logical response”) but distrusted by Palliser who reports its frequency in play has been dropping lately. He prefers instead 4…d6 5.Nc3 g6, an idea of Chebanenko championed by Bologan. This unusual King’s Indian can continue 6.e4 Bg7 when after 7.Be2 (7.h3!?) 0-0 8.0-0 Re8 we see Black again preparing for the thematic …e6-e5, preferably at a time where the loss of tempo (the pawn going to e5 in two steps instead of one) will not prove significant. It should be mentioned that in addition to all of this content, Tango! includes a Table of Contents, a significant Bibliography (!), a short set of Acknowledgements, and an Introduction, as well as an Index of Variations. If you are looking for an offbeat defense to 1.d4 that has relatively less “theory” to study, if you are willing to look for dynamic play at every opportunity, and if you don’t mind some variation in your defensive variations (see paragraph 2, above), I suggest you take a Tango! while it’s still available. By the way, if you are interested in 1…Nc6 as an all-around defense, against both 1.e4 and 1.d4, often transposing into the Black Knights Tango, you would do well to check out Michael Goeller’s very helpful 1…Nc6 bibliography. Of particular significance for Tangoers is Grandmaster Joel Benjamin’s four-part series on the defense. Another Michael Goeller set of articles covers “The Panther” 1.d4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.c4 e5 4.Nc3 Nf6 which can arise from the Black Knights Tango after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 e5.
Of course, if you’d like to try the Black Knights Tango as an opening for
White, you could have a lot of fun looking into Harald Keilhack’s recent
Knight on the Left: 1.Nc3.
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