The Black Knight Tango

The Great Tango

I recently played a game that was a bit of a tango. In this game, I was playing the white pieces against a 1968 from Turkey in the standard 10 minute rapid game. But this game was nothing standard.

I would start the game off with d4, to which black responded with Nf6. I played c4, taking more control of the center, but he played a bit of a peculiar move. He played Nc6. Now, when you play on chess.com, you can see the name of the opening as the game is played and sometimes you can get the weirdest opening name. As simple as the setup looked with two pawns and the two developed knights, I had never seen the name. It was called the black knights' tango.

Now, bringing out both knights is a little skeptical because I could play d5, which displaces black right away. But I decide to play Nf3, which is still a completely fine move. Black plays e6 to prevent me from advancing, and it helps prep development of his bishop and potentially playing d5 himself. 

This is when my opponent starts making some strange move. He decides to reroute his knight to e7 and play c6. Now both of these moves are defending the d5 square, but I could argue that this spends too much time and over defends d5 because I am able to fianchetto my bishop and castle, while black has blocked off his squares for development and castling. 

However, black is able to find quick counterplay by moving his knight once more to g6 and lashing out with d5, the move he has been building up to. I take on d5, but this is actually a mistake because it permits black to equalize the position. I should have simply developed my knight and kept the tension to take advantage of the momentum I had in terms of development. 

I try to regain momentum by rapid development. I bring out my bishop, pinning black's knight to his queen. But he threatens my bishop by playing h6. I am pretty much forced to trade my bishop for his knight, giving up the bishop pair because if I retreat, I will lose the pressure and momentum. Black recaptures with his queen, and I develop out my knight. In this position, I am looking for e4 to control of the center. 

Black develops his bishop, permitting me to play e4. Now, I have the threat to continue with e5 and fork his bishop and queen. Black could try to take on e4, but this allows my knight to completely dominate the center. Black opts to retreat his bishop, however, the better option was to get his queen out of danger first because the bishop now blocks the queen's main diagonal of escape and is in a fairly tight and awkward position. 

I decide to try and open the queen side by taking on d5, leaving the c file open and the diagonal to black's king open. I give a check, but black blocks with his bishop. But I quickly counter by placing a fork on black's pawns. Now, the best option for black is rotate his queen to the queenside in order to trade my queen because my queen is capable of doing a lot of damage in an open side of the board with vulnerable pawns. 

Black is able to find an alternative, by closing down the diagonal and protect both of his pawns with Bc6. I place my rook on the semi-open e file, but black quickly castles into safety, but this gives me time to plop my knight in the center of the board. 

We have an exchange in the center of the board. This exchange does place black's queen in a peculiar spot, but it gives black an important asset. Black now has a passed pawn, so I try to block that pawn's square of advancement. Black will have to support this isolated passed pawn down the center of the board in the long run, which will require simplification. 

In this position, black makes a bit of a slower move with Rb8, allowing me to barricade black's passed pawn and hit both queen and bishop. Black sidesteps his queen. Now, taking the bishop isn't a terrible option, but I didn't like how it would open up black's rook and justify Rb8. So I decided to play a bit more aggressively

We have an exchange of pawns, and black decides to threaten my knight by rook lifting with Rf6. I move my knight and I target black's passed pawn. Black is unable to advance his pawn because the exchange left his passed pawn pinned to his king. Black will have to find a way to defend it or take a sacrifice. 

Computer thinks that black should get the king out of the pin and sacrifice his pawn. But black plays the more human move with Rd6. The problem with this is that it allows my pieces to rotate onto black's king with momentum, starting with Bh3 and Be6+, pushing black's king into the corner. After Qd3, black is in serious danger of checkmate or a windmill threat. 

Black decides to sack his rook for my bishop in order to give his king ample breathing room, and I end up with a material advantage. 

However, black begins focusing his pieces onto advancing his passed pawn. He places his rook behind the pawn and uses his bishop to control the next square of advancement. I try to counter with my knight, but black easily forces it back. 

And this is where I start making some mistakes. When black hits my queen with his bishop, I should have tried to go for a queen trade, so that black wouldn't have such a heavy weight escorting his pawn. But I simply sidestep by one square, allowing the passed pawn to walk forward with momentum on my queen. Black's bishop pair begin working together, controlling the path for black's passed pawn. 

I try to dislodge black's bishop, but black is able to keep hitting my queen. I try to counter-attack with Qb4, hitting black's rook and cover d2. After black moves his rook to attack my queen, I end up using my queen to barricade black's passed pawn. Not the best piece to use for a barricade. Black has an advantage, but black is getting low on time and makes a slip up. 

And perhaps in a bit of an anti-climatic fashion, the tango ended with a victory. But what are your thoughts on this game? What strange opening names have you seen? Let me know!

by shoving my pawn forward.