Of course, but I would add that some of Anand's notable wins in the Ruy are no less "tactical" than anything you'll find in the Sicilian (e.g. Anand vs Adams, 2005) - or combine great maneuvering with brilliant tactical play in the highly complex positions that arise (e.g. Anand vs Carlsen, 2007).

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...

although Mateo's notes on this page also look excellent. Unless you're a very strong player (much stronger than I am), a human annotator will help you much more than a machine as you play over this great game. In fact, if I remember correctly, computer evaluations were in Black's favor for a long time.

Symbolically, the knight in question moves to b4 in move 15 and it's still there when the game ends at move 50.

Nah, he'd beaten Kramnik in Mtel, 20 moves.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.a4 b4 9.d3 d6 10.Nbd2 Na5 11.Ba2 c5 12.c3 Nc6 <Seems new, instead of 12...Rb8.> 13.d4 bxc3 14.bxc3 exd4 15.cxd4 Nb4 16.Bb1 <Unexpected. 16.Bc4 was natural, but it seems that Anand prefers to keep this square for a Knight.>

Bb1 was actually my first thought in the position, i have seen bishops on b1 and c1 coordinated with a rook lift to a3 in many closed ruy games i've looked at, for example, Kasparov vs Karpov, 1986, also many others.

grischuk couldn't get the queenside counterplay that karpov got in some of his spanish games with black against kasparov, though.

16...Bg4 17.h3 Bh5 18.g4! <Like Capablanca against Bogo in a famous game! Black’s Queen Bishop cannot move.> Bg6 19.d5! <And now it is Black’s Queen Knight which cannot move. By the way, White impedes d5 which would free the ‘g6’ Bishop.>

check out Capablanca vs Bogoljubov, 1922

anand's c4 knight also reminds me of Capablanca vs Yates, 1919 and Capablanca vs Vidmar, 1927. black seems to have great problems with holding d6 in these kinds of positions, anand also plays Bf4 to hit d6.

the rook lift to a3, the threat of the e5 break, often exposing the bishops on b1 and c1, the c4 knight, the imprisonment of the g6 bishop, the kingside pawn advance, all remind me of classic closed ruys. the strategy of stranding black's knight on the queenside and advancing in the center and on the kingside is always impressive to me.

the next dude that writes a textbook on the closed ruy might want to mention this game. if he writes about what to do if someone pulls out the marshall attack, he might also want to mention Anand vs Svidler, 2007

btw first kibitz

Position after 46 d6-d7:

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<34.h5!!

[A fantastic move. All White's pieces (with the exception of the e1-rook) were placed on optimal squares already, but the attack did not seem strong enough yet. For instance, after the immediate 34.Ref1 Bxa4 35.Rxf6 Bb5 the situation is not entirely clear. The intervention of the modest h-pawn radically inclines the balance to White's favour.]

34...Bxa4

[If Black blocks the h-pawn with 34...h6 , the weakness of the g6-square would make itself felt after 35.Ref1 Bxa4 36.Rxf6 Bb5 37.Rg6+ with decisive attack.]>

Variation with omission of 34 h4-h5!!, unclear:

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Variation with inclusion of 34 h4-h5!! h7-h6?! , winning White attack due to <WEAK SQUARE> g6-square:

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