Book Reviews

Vishy Writes Again

Taylor Kingston

Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (2nd

edition), by Viswanathan Anand (with John Nunn),
2001 Gambit Publications, Figurine Algebraic
Notation, Paperback, 336 pp., $24.95.

Most readers are surely already

Previous reviews are available familiar with the name of
in The Chess Cafe Archives. Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand.
Born 1969 in Madras, India,
Anand has for the last ten years
been one of the most active and
successful chess players in the
world, arguably second only to
Kasparov over that span. At this
writing he stands 3rd on the FIDE rating list
(behind Kasparov and Kramnik) at Elo 2770.

The first edition of this book was published in

1998, not long after Anand just missed dethroning
Orders? Inquiries? You can Karpov in the finals of the new knockout-format
now call toll-free: FIDE world championship. In our review (see the
1-866-301-CAFE Chess Café archives) we noted that “Rarely has a
games collection by an active player come out at a
more opportune time.” Considering that since then
Anand has continued with stellar tournament
performances and has won the FIDE title, while
Kasparov and Karpov have fallen some from their

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former heights, that statement fits this 2nd edition

even better.

This book simply adds new games to the 1998

edition: 17 of them, dating from 1997 to 2000,
increasing the total to 57 from the original 40, and
bumping the page count from 240 to 336. The
format is the same: a very brief autobiographical
introduction, followed by the annotated games
(presented chronologically with short prologues
and epilogues), a 19-page section of 30
combinational quiz positions, and indexes of
opponents and openings.

For those interested in statistical breakdowns, some

numbers. All 57 games are wins by Anand. He
plays White in 40, Black in 17. Anand usually
plays 1.e4 as White. The most common opening in
the collection is the Sicilian (21 in all, 8 Najdorfs, 5
Richter-Rauzers, 4 Scheveningens, 4 others),
followed by the Ruy López (12), French (4),
Petroff and Pirc (3 each). There are few queenside
openings: 3 Semi-Slavs, 2 QGAs, a Dutch, a
Grünfeld, a Trompowsky and miscellaneous others.
Anand’s most frequent opponents are Ivanchuk and
Kamsky (5 games each), followed by Adams,
Karpov, Kasparov, and Topalov (3 each), and
appearing twice each are Bareev, Beliavsky,
Benjamin, Gelfand, Kramnik, Lautier, Nikolic, Oll,
Piket, J. Polgar, and Shirov. In all there are 37
different opponents — most of the current FIDE
top 20 plus many others among today’s best
players.

Our opinion of the 1998 edition was quite high, and

we see no reason to revise that now, except to note

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that the new portions of the book may not appeal to

quite the same readers as the old. Rather than
rehash everything we said then, we encourage
readers to consult the archives. This review will
now concentrate on the new material.

The 17 new games are, like the original 40, from

very high-level events, starting with Lautier-
Anand, Biel 1997, and ending with Anand-Shirov,
FIDE world championship final, Teheran 2000.
They generally feature sharp, deeply prepared
The Chess Cafe
openings which evolve into very tense, double-
E-mail List:
Each week, as a free service
edged struggles decided by complicated tactics in
to thousands of our readers, the middle game. Typical is Reinderman-Anand,
we send out a brief e-mail Wijk aan Zee 1999:
newsletter: This Week at The
Chess Cafe. To receive this
free weekly update, send us 24…h5! The h8-rook
your e-mail address. You can joins in a kingside
remove your name whenever
you wish and we do not
attack from where it
make the list available to stands. 25.Nb6 h4
anyone else. 26.Bd5 Bg5
Yes, include me on the e- Threatening
mail list!
27…Ng3+ 28.hxg3
hxg3+ 29.Kg1 Be3+.
27.Rf3 h3! 28.Bxc6
— If 28.g3 Rxb6!
28…Qxc6 29. Qe2 Bf4! 30.Kg1 Be3+ 31.Kh1
Re8 32.Qc4 Nf2+ 33.Rxf2 Qxc4 34.Nxc4 Bxf2
35.Nxd6 Re2 36.b4

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36…Bg3! 37.gxh3
Bxd6, 0-1.

Another combinative
finish is Ivanchuk-
Anand, Linares 1998:

19…Bg5! 20.Qd1?
— Anand presents
lengthy analysis
indicating White
might have held after
20.Qd3. 20…Qa5
21.Nd5 “There is no
defence: 21 Qd3 b4
22 Nd5 b3! wins for
Black, while 21 Bd3
Rxc3 22 bxc3 Bc8!, followed by …Be6, gives
Black a decisive attack.” (Anand) 21…Bxd5
22.exd5
22…Rxc2! 23.Kxc2
Qxa2 “Simple –
White can’t do
anything to stop
24…Rc8+.” 24.f4
Rc8+ 25.Kd2 Bxf4+
26.Ke2 Qxb2+
27.Kf3 Rf1, 0-1.

Due to the ferocity of

the middlegames, endgames are relatively few,
one rare example being Topalov-Anand, Linares

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1999:
37…g4! Avoiding
37…Nf4+?? 38.Nxf4
gxf4 39.Kf3, draw.
38.Ng5 Nc1+ 39.Ke3
Nxb3 40.h6 a5
41.Kf4 Nd4!
42.Kxg4 a4 43.Kh5
Nc6 “It’s still not too
late to be careless –
after 43…a3?? 44
Kg6 White would even win. However, after the
text-move 44 Kg6 Ne5+ 45 Kf5 a3! 46 Kxe5 a2
wraps it up.” 0-1.

In 1998 we noted that the first edition “usually

keeps itself accessible to the average player.”
That is less true of the new material. The new
games get about the same space as the old, on
average about 5½ pages each, but there is a shift
away from verbal exposition and toward more
analytical detail, of the kind likely to appeal only
to advanced, serious players. An example is this
position,
from Game 42,
Kramnik-Anand,
Belgrade 1997, where
Kramnik played
17.Ne4. To the
alternative 17.Qc2,
Anand devotes a total
of 2½ (!) tightly-
packed pages, a mass
of nested variations
(1, 1a, 1b, 2, 2a, 2a1, 2a11, 2a12, 2a2, 2a21,
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2a22, 2a221, 2a222, 2a2221, 2a2222, 2a2223,

2a2224, 2b, etc. etc.), finally to conclude,
somewhat anti-climactically, “Thus 17 Qc2
would have been good for White, but there is no
reason to criticize the text-move.” The greater
detail may be due to more computer assistance
(Fritz is mentioned frequently in the notes), or it
may be Anand’s idea of how a World Champion
is supposed to sound, or it may simply reflect his
increasingly sophisticated understanding of the
game. However, we’re not sure anyone but a
prospective opponent of Anand or Kramnik
would ever actually play through all this.

Yet just when one thinks Anand is about to

drown his readers in reams of soulless Informant-
style computer read-out, his engaging personality
surfaces. A few moves later in the same game,
we again see some of the amiable, informal tone
that prompted us in 1998 to liken his annotations
to a friendly club post-mortem. After 22.Qd1-c2,
he writes “Here I saw
that he wanted to
‘triangulate’ his
queen to e4. I then
saw a variation which
led to White playing
26 Nxg5. I didn’t see
a defence to this and
was about to play
22...Nf8 when a crazy
idea occurred to me – was it actually possible to
allow his knight to take one of my pieces on g5
and then ignore it?” This is an aspect of Anand
that is so appealing, as both a player and a writer

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— despite being one of the best carbon-based

calculating machines ever to push a pawn, he
talks about “crazy ideas” — and they usually
work. The game continued 22…Rg7 23.Qe2 Ba8
24.Qxh5 Rf8 25.Ne4 c5 26.Nxg5
26…Bd5!! — The
“crazy idea.” The
bishop defends e6
and supports a
decisive advance of
queenside pawns.
27.Nf3? “White
should have tried 27
Bxe6+! Bxe6 28
Rxf8+ Nxf8 29 Ne4
Rh7 30 Qd1 (30 Qe2 cxd4 is similar) 30…Rxh2+
31 Kxh2 Qh7+ 32 Kg1 Qxe4. Black has a clear
advantage but White is not quite dead.”
27…cxb4 28.axb5 axb5 29.Nh4 Qg5 30.Rxf8+
Nxf8 31.Qe8 Rf7 32.Nf3 Qg6! 33.Qxb5 b3
34.Rf1 Qd3 35.Kg1 Qe3+ 36.Kh1 c3 37.Bxe6+
Bxe6 38.d5 Rxf3 39.gxf3 Bh3 40.Qc4 Bxf1
41.Qg4+ Kh7 42.e6 Ng6 0-1.

As mentioned before, Anand, like most top-level

GMs today, makes deep and extensive opening
preparation, of the sort the average player can
only dream of. An example is Anand-Kramnik,
Tilburg 1998: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6
4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Re1
Bg4 9.c3 f5 10.Qb3 0-0 11.Nbd2 Na5 12.Qa4
Nc6 13.Bb5 Nxd2 14.Nxd2 Qd6 — So far as in
Anand-Yusupov, Linares 1993.

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15.h3!! The TN.

Anand explains: “My
second, Ubilava,
suggested interposing
this before continuing
Nb3-c5. After some
time, I realized that
Black’s attack loses a
lot of its force as a
result of this
interpolation. There are two main reasons for
this; the first is that the bishop no longer controls
e6, so White can play Re6, and the second is
revealed later in the game ... So five years after
the Yusupov game, I managed to play the right
move!”. Play continued 15...Bh5 16.Nb3 Bh4
17.Nc5 Bxf2+? The “second reason.” This works
with the pawn on h2, but not with it on h3, as
Anand explains at length. 18. Kxf2 Qh2 19.Bxc6
bxc6 20.Qxc6 f4 21.Qxd5+ Kh8 22.Qxh5 f3
23.Qxf3! Anand says
“In my preparation I
had analysed 23 Qxf3
...”. OK, that tears it.
We are undecided
here: do we profess
our admiration for
someone who can
plot his opponent’s
demise by a queen
sacrifice on the 23rd move before he even plays
the game, or do we just give up chess? Reading
this kind of thing can make us woodpushers feel
like tortoises watching an eagle, but Anand’s
unpretentious wit (‘After five years I finally
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found the right move!’) takes the edge off. The

analysis has become more sophisticated and
complex, but Anand’s humor, enthusiasm and
love of the game still come through and keep the
reader engaged. Oh, yes, Vishy also analyzed a
win via 23.Bh6 fxg2+ 24.Ke3 Qg3+ 25.Kd2
g1=Q 26.Bxg7+! Kg8 27.Rxg1 Rf2+ 28.Qe2
Rxe2+ 29.Kxe2 Re8+ 30.Be5 “with two extra
pieces.” The game ended 1-0, 35.

The title page describes this as a “revised and

expanded edition,” but, aside from the introduction
we could spot few if any revisions to the old
material (though admittedly we are working from
memory there, having donated our copy of the
1998 edition to a library). If our memory is correct,
the 30 combination quiz positions are the same in
both; there are no post-1997 additions there.
Readers who already own the first edition may see
little reason to buy the second; they would pay the
same price over again for only about a 40%
increase in content. Conversely, if you did not buy
the 1998 edition, the 40% increase at the same
price makes the new release a much better value.

A disappointment is the lack of any match records

or tournament crosstables. These are traditional in
single-player collections, and would be especially
helpful for historians in Anand’s case, since he has
played so much at such a high level. These are not
too difficult to generate from today’s databases, so
one wonders why Gambit neglected them.

It is interesting to compare the pictures of Anand

on the covers of the two editions. The 1998 photo

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is nothing special; Anand just sort of stands there

with a slightly nerdish “I’m just glad to be here”
grin on his face. The new edition’s photo is clearly
from a game — Anand, sharply dressed in suit and
tie, stares calmly but intently at the board, looking
very much the confident grandmaster. The new
photo reflects Anand’s growing stature.

The main problem with this book is that, like its

predecessor, it is likely to be obsolete fairly soon.
Anand is playing so much and so well that any
collection of his “best games” quickly becomes
outdated. At age 32, he is just now reaching his
prime, and should remain a major force in the chess
world for another decade at least. As we said in
1998, many of Anand's best games have yet to be
played, and if subsequent editions follow the same
procedure of simply adding on, the final edition,
whenever it comes out, could have several hundred.
For now, though, the 57 games of the second
edition of Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess
constitute an outstanding collection we recommend
highly.

Order Vishy Anand: My Best Games of Chess (2nd

edition), by Viswanathan Anand

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