Anand’s crisis

A disturbing pattern has emerged in the games of world champion Viswanathan Anand. As White in the Ruy Lopez he has begun to disregard in serial fashion the precept that ownership of the bishop pair, against two opposing knights or knight and bishop, tends to confer a major advantage. Not only do the bishops act together as a scything weapon, they also permit the player in possession to decide if and when to trade for an opposing minor piece. The power of the bishops has been known since the days of Steinitz. It was Dr Tarrasch, I believe, the great Praeceptor Germaniae, who opined that the player with the bishop pair holds the future in his hands, while even Tarrasch’s great rival Nimzowitsch, a knight man if ever there was one, included a section on the bishop pair in his famous book My System.

Anand has taken to flouting this guideline and as a result has already lost games this year to Caruana, Nakamura, Hammer and our own Michael Adams.

Anand-Adams: Alekhine Memorial Paris 2013; Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 In the game Anand-Nakamura, Tal Memorial 2013, play went 3 … g6 4 0-0 Bg7 5 c3 a6 6 Bxc6 dxc6 when Black went on to make good use of the bishop pair and won the game. 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 a4 b4 9 d4 The exchanging strategy introduced by this move leads nowhere. The consistent continuation is 9 d3. 9 … d6 10 dxe5 dxe5 11 Qxd8 Rxd8 12 Nbd2 Bc5 13 Bc4 Ng4 14 Re2 Na5 15 Bd5 Rb8 16 Nb3 Nxb3 17 cxb3 h6 Black’s position is highly satisfactory and he could already introduce favourable complications with 17 … c6 18 Bg5 cxd5 19 Bxd8 Bb7.