Tango and chess, international espionage, fraud and theft, dark alleys, dark sides of the soul, and love — doomed and lasting a lifetime. Two people from different worlds — a former soldier, now a gigolo, an unwilling spy and a clever pickpocket with not a penny to his name, Max Costa, and the impenetrable socialite Mercedes Insunza, accustomed to luxury — play out a worthy Hitchcockian drama of fateful love and betrayal. These two experienced three brief encounters: in the 1920s, in the exquisite interiors of a transatlantic liner and in the slums of Buenos Aires; in the 1930s in Nice, when the shadow of everything to come was already looming over Europe; and in Sorrento, during the fierce clash of Chilean and Soviet grandmasters for the chess crown in the 1960s, when life had already passed by and all that remained was to watch with a bit of envy the young, clear-eyed, and persistent, helping them where possible. This is a story of the passion of tango and the cold calculation of chess — but not only that. It is a story of great love — but that's not the whole point. Arturo Pérez-Reverte — a former war journalist, celebrated author of brilliant historical, military, adventure novels translated into forty languages, creator of the Captain Diego Alatriste series, holder of the most prestigious literary awards. His «Tango of the Old Guard» — a black-and-white film about the true passion of tango, which resonates within you until the end of your days, about nostalgia for the bygone times when life was full of adventures, unpredictable, and with everything that came into your hands, you parted easily because you were young and feared nothing, and about old age, which is full of regrets, yet can change neither a seasoned crook nor a true knight.
