Book review: Play the Orangutan 1.b4! by Carsten Hansen

Play the Orangutan 1.b4!

By Carsten Hansen

CarstenChess 2021, 181 pages.

Introduction

Since I'm very interested in the opening 1 b4, this is a relatively long review. It includes a few of my own investigations.

For readers who only want a quick recommendation: if you play 1 b4, or if you simply want 'a fresh, fun opening repertoire for White', as the subtitle puts it, this book is definitely worth getting. It is the best publication on this opening.

As for the opening, 1 b4 gains queenside space and prepares to control the centre from the flank. It immediately gives up any hope of proving an opening advantage. But below IM level, or in rapid and blitz games, how much does that matter?

From Orangutan-curious to Orangutan-devotee

The Danish FM and prolific author Carsten Hansen is self-publishing an 'Opening Hacker Files' series, which includes this book. The back-cover blurb begins: 'When the author started the project of putting a repertoire together for White, he had no idea the journey he would take: from Orangutan-curious to Orangutan-devotee.' Hansen has been very successful with the opening in online blitz, and includes a couple of pages of his wins (unannotated).

Thanks to this book and to my own modest blitz experiments, I've made a similar journey. One of my first chess books as a junior was Batsford Chess Openings. I opened it and started to read from the beginning. 1 b4 caught my eye. When I tried it some of my opponents blundered on move two: 1 b4 e5 2 Bb2 Nc6? 3 b5 and if 3...Nd4 4 e3 winning the e5-pawn. Just a beginner's trap? Not necessarily: the great American player Frank Marshall once fell into it.

I then received coaching and took up 'proper' openings. I remained Orangutan-curious partly due to IM Mike Basman's audio cassettes, produced in the 1980s. There was one on the Polish Defence (1 d4 b5). Basman himself has contributed a foreword to Hansen's book.

Lately I've tried the Orangutan in online blitz. I've found that even quite highly rated (2450+) players have nothing prepared against it.

More newsworthy: Magnus Carlsen has been playing it in rapid and blitz games (see below).

History and nomenclature

As Edward Winter notes, the name was bestowed by Savielly Tartakower in his article 'L’ouverture de l’Orang-Outang’, Les Cahiers de l’Echiquier Français, September-October 1933, and Tartakower explained again in CHESS, 14 August 1938, that it was inspired by a visit to Central Park Zoo during the New York tournament of 1924. Tartakower's writing on 'hypermodern' chess was influenced by modernist currents in art and literature. The imaginative absurdity of the name must have appealed to him.

1 b4 has also been named the Sokolsky Opening, after its greatest twentieth-century practitioner, Alexey Sokolsky (1908-1969). Sokolsky was not an International Master (as Hansen states), but was a Master of Sport of the USSR, twice Ukranian Champion and the first Soviet Correspondence Chess Champion. He wrote several chess books, including this one for beginners, and one on 1 b4.

Carsten Hansen begins his book with a historical section, annotating key Orangutan games from the past. This is an excellent idea, since it was around the mid-twentieth century that high-level players used the opening regularly.

Hansen includes a couple of games with the gambit 1 b4 e5 2 Bb2 f6 3 e4. He rightly recommends 3 b5 for the repertoire, but this dubious sacrifice is still interesting and good for blitz.

Learning from Sokolsky

Let's see Sokolsky in attacking mode, using the gambit just mentioned:

In Hansen's shoes I would have liked to make even more of the historical feature. Some of Sokolsky's games are very instructive. For example, Sokolsky's positional masterpiece against Andreev is worth studying in full:

In games like this the Orangutan has a structural affinity with the English Opening.

The book

The book is clearly presented and organised. The repertoire summary at the end is helpful.

Because 1 b4 is a non-forcing first move, a transpositional jungle often ensues. Hansen deals with this well. His chapters are divided according to Black's replies. Rather than use full illustrative games, Hansen presents variations, which are reader-friendly and never excessively long.

There are some typos and other minor slips. For example, an image of Schiffers's book on 1 b4 is promised, which never appears. I only spotted one case in which this is a significant problem: on p. 54 the game Stefanov-Mlynareik, email 2008, is mangled. The game actually has nothing to do with the line discussed on that page. For the record, here it is:

Hansen's thoroughness extends to coverage of minor lines like 1 b4 e5 2 Bb2 e4!? and the relatively common 1 b4 c6. Now 2 Bb2 Qb6 3 a3 a5 4 e3 (White 'falls into' Black's trap, but has a cunning idea in mind) 4...axb4 5 Bd4! is tempting, when 5...c5? 6 Bxc5! favours White. However, retreating the queen with 5...Qc7 gives Black a pleasant position. For that reason I agree with Hansen that White should either prefer 2 e3, or try 2 Bb2 Qb6 3 a3 a5 4 c4, as favoured by IM Mark Timmermanns.

Bibliography

Hansen's thorough bibliography reflects his knowledge of the opening's history. A few online resources might be added to his list:

• Shane Bonetti's Sokolsky Opening site, which includes a large database up to 2008.
• Marek's 1 b4 Encyclopedia, which includes a further bibliography by Peter Markus.
• Hikaru Nakamura's 'banter blitz' commentary to rounds 2, 4 and 5 here.

Learning from Carlsen

One of the most popular and critical lines in the Orangutan is 1 b4 e5 2 Bb2 Bxb4 3 Bxe5 Nf6. White has gained a central pawn majority, but Black is ahead in development. The old approach of retreating the bishop to b2 has now been superseded by the move 4 c3. White often follows up by swapping the dark-squared bishop for a knight and placing pawns on dark squares (c3, g3, e3, d4). I like Hansen's treatment of this line and suspect it provides a promising way for readers to score points. It is inspired by none other than the world champion link to YouTube video (video of a Carlsen-Giri encounter in which the commentators speculate about the opening's name).

Saving the Orangutan

Carsten Hansen's book ends off-topic, in a sense - but surely in the Orangutan spirit. Real orangutans are endangered by human cruelty, and the author has partnered with several charities to encourage donations to this cause. This is a fine end to a very fresh, inspiring book.