The explosion in chess theory and opening books has led to a notable convergence of interest in what I'll call "anti-theory" openings and books written about them. Recent books on the Trompovsky (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5) fit this category, and THE BLACK KNIGHT'S TANGO falls into that class as well. If you're a player who relishes the thought of putting a lot of white players on their own devices as early as move three, this book may be for you.

Orlov's book deals with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6. This line, which has also been called the Mexican Defense (because of Carlos Torre's use of it in the earlier part of this century), provides both players with ample opportunities to determine their pawn and piece placement. Actually, I would view this book as more of a repertoire than a single defense, because in many instances black should be willing to enter into a variety of other openings, including the Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian, and King's Indian Defenses.

In fact, that may be the variation's undoing for the average player. Black probably has to know a lot of different formations and the way to play them to do well with the Tango.  That is no easy task. I should note that this is in no way a criticism of the book – Orlov provides plenty of explanation of the key ideas for both sides in the variety of set-ups encountered.

This book is obviously a labor of love. Orlov has been playing this defense for many years, and the book contains examples of his praxis against the likes of grandmasters Browne, Seirawan, Christiansen, Van Wely, Speelman, Akopian, Rohde, etc. The Tango has started to catch on with others as well. Notably, Alex Yermolinsky has scored some fine wins with it and even had the temerity to venture it against Garry Kasparov.  

Orlov fills the 128 pages with lots of new analysis and untested suggestions. He also generally provides more than one approach for black in key lines (often a choice between adopting a King's Indian/Old Indian approach or a Nimzo-Indian/Bogo-Indian scheme of development). While Orlov is obviously a champion of the defense, his evaluations are generally pretty fair. I compared his evaluations with those found, for example, in Talbut's THE NEW BOGO-INDIAN, Kosten's THE NIMZO-INDIAN DEFENSE, Sokolov's NIMZO-INDIAN DEFENSE CLASSICAL VARIATION, and Burgess and Pedersen's BEATING THE INDIAN DEFENSES. While Orlov has a generally more favorable impression of the Zurich Variation (which arises after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qc2) for black than the others, he also has more coverage of it than the others.

It's also notable that there is precious little information about this defense in the types of “White to Play and Win with 1.d4” books that many players use in building their 1.d4 repertoire. Keene and Jacobs' AN OPENING REPERTOIRE FOR WHITE doesn't even mention the defense, while Burgess and Pedersen's previously-mentioned book does so in passing, in their chapter on the Nimzo-Indian. Soltis' WINNING WITH 1.d4 offers barely a paragraph, suggesting 3.Nc3 d5 transposes to the Chigorin Defense and 3...d6 4.d5 Ne5 5.f4 Ng6 6.e4. No mention is made of Orlov's suggested line with 3.Nc3 e5.

While I have a generally favorable impression of the book, I do have a couple of complaints. First, this book screams out for the need for a bibliography. Because this defense touches upon so many other openings, it would be extremely useful to know exactly which ones the author consulted. Second, this is the second recent Batsford book that uses the annoying feature of putting side variations in underlined text. Underlined text is notoriously hard to read; many in the field consider this type of layout unprofessional. It's notable that both of these books (Vaisser's BEATING THE KING'S INDIAN AND BENONI is the other – click to see Silman's review of this book) were typeset by First Rank Publishing and printed by Redwood Books, but I'm surprised that Batsford would allow such a format.

Beyond the problems with the underlining, I also found it a bit difficult to follow the sidelines. In cases where more than one alternative was included in a note, these choices were not clearly delineated.

In the end, however, this book's pluses outweigh its minuses. Orlov has created a fresh book with a fighting perspective for black to take white out of his game at a very early stage. Unless, of course, white outfoxes him and plays . . . the Trompovsky.

Click to see Silman's review of THE BLACK KNIGHT'S TANGO.

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