List Of Chess Games
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chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
games sorted chronologically.


Pre-1800

* 1475: Francesc de Castellví vs. Narcís de Vinyoles, Valencia 1475. The first documented chess game played with the modern queen and bishop moves; the moves were described in the poem
Scachs d'amor ''Scachs d'amor'' (, meaning "Chess of Love"), whose complete title is ''Hobra intitulada scachs d'amor feta per don Francí de Castellví e Narcis Vinyoles e mossén Fenollar'', is the name of a poem written by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fe ...
. * 1623: Greco–NN, London 1623.
Gioachino Greco Gioachino Greco ( – ), surnamed Cusentino and more frequently ''il Calabrese'', was an Italian chess player and writer. He recorded some of the earliest chess games known in their entirety. His games, which never indicated players, were q ...
mates on the eighth move with a
queen sacrifice In chess, a queen sacrifice is a move that sacrifices a queen, the most powerful piece, in return for some compensation, such as a tactical or positional advantage. Queen sacrifice: real versus sham In his book ''The Art of Sacrifice in Ches ...
. * 1788: Thomas Bowdler vs Henry Seymour Conway, London.
Thomas Bowdler Thomas Bowdler (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician known for publishing '' The Family Shakespeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. The two sought ...
offers the first example of a famous double rook sacrifice. * 1790: Andrew Smith vs François André Philidor, London.
François-André Danican Philidor François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. ...
, who was quoted as saying "Pawns are the soul of chess", demonstrates the power of a superior pawn formation.


1800s

* 1834: Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais vs Alexander McDonnell, 50th Match Game, London.
Reuben Fine Reuben C. Fine (October 11, 1914 – March 26, 1993) was an American chess player, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the mi ...
in ''The World's Great Chess Games'' describes it as the first great immortal game of chess.
Alexander McDonnell Alexander McDonnell may refer to: * Alexander McDonnell (chess player) (1798–1835), Irish chess master *Alexander McDonnell (engineer) Alexander McDonnell was an Irish locomotive engineer and civil engineer. He was born in Dublin on 18 Dece ...
sacrifices his queen for two minor pieces. * 1834: La Bourdonnais–McDonnell, 62nd Match Game, London. Perhaps the most famous win of the match (considered an unofficial
world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
), Louis La Bourdonnais shows how a rolling pawn mass can overwhelm all of his opponent's major pieces, winning thereby against Alexander McDonnell. * 1843: Pierre de Saint Amant vs Howard Staunton, 5th Match Game, Paris.
Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant (12 September 1800, Monflanquin – 29 October 1872) was a leading French chess master and an editor of the chess periodical '' Le Palamède''. He is best known for losing a match against Howard Staunton i ...
resigns in this unofficial world championship match game with
Howard Staunton Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-A ...
, in which Staunton remarked, "The latter portion of this game is conducted with remarkable skill by both parties." * 1844: Alexander Hoffmann vs Alexander Petrov, Warsaw. Alexander Petrov wins with a queen sacrifice and a king hunt, in a game known as "Petrov's Immortal", against Alexander Hoffmann. * 1851: Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritzky, London. "The
Immortal Game The Immortal Game was a chess game played in 1851 between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky during the London 1851 chess tournament, an event in which both players participated. It was itself a game, however, not played as part of the to ...
"
Lionel Kieseritzky Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky (; – ) was a Baltic German chess master and theoretician, known for his contributions to chess theory, as well for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, known as the "Immortal Game". Kieseritzky's ...
neglects his
development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...
and
Adolf Anderssen Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (6 July 1818 – 13 March 1879)"Anderssen, Adolf" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 385. was a German chess master. ...
sacrifices Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks ...
his queen and both rooks for a win. * 1852: Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, Berlin. "The
Evergreen Game The Evergreen Game is a famous chess game won by Adolf Anderssen against Jean Dufresne in 1852. This was probably an . At the time, there was no formal title of "World Champion", but the German mathematics professor Anderssen was widely consider ...
". Adolf Anderssen mates with what
Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...
termed " combination second to none in the literature of the game." * 1857: Louis Paulsen vs Paul Morphy, New York.
Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s, Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. A prodigy, Morphy emerged onto the chess scene in 1857 ...
gains an advantage in development and transforms it into a powerful kingside attack with a queen sacrifice. * 1858: Paul Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris. "The Opera Game" Morphy shows the virtue of quick development and wins by sacrificing much material, mating on the 17th move with his last two pieces. * 1862: Steinitz–Mongredien, London.
Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...
won the tournament's brilliancy prize for this game. * 1872: Carl Hamppe vs Philipp Meitner, Vienna. The " Immortal Draw" between Carl Hamppe and Philipp Meitner, involving a queen sacrifice. * 1874: Victor Knorre vs Mikhail Chigorin, St. Petersburg. White's premature castling on the king side combined with an ineffective pin allows
Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a ma ...
to strike back with a violent counterattack culminating in a brilliant queen sacrifice and subsequent checkmate. * 1883: Johannes Zukertort vs Joseph Henry Blackburne, London * 1889: Emanuel Lasker vs Johann Hermann Bauer, Amsterdam. This
game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...
between
Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...
and Johann Hermann Bauer was the first famous example of the double bishop sacrifice. * 1895: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Siegbert Tarrasch, Hastings.
Harry Nelson Pillsbury Harry Nelson Pillsbury (December 5, 1872 – June 17, 1906) was a leading American chess player. At the age of 22, he won the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, one of the strongest tournaments of the time, but his illness and early death prevente ...
's kingside attack breaks through by a single tempo against Black's queenside play, against
Siegbert Tarrasch Siegbert Tarrasch (; 5 March 1862 – 17 February 1934) was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century. Life Tarrasch was born in Bresla ...
, then one of the strongest players of the world. * 1895: Steinitz–von Bardeleben, Hastings. This game is famous for its ten-move mating combination in the final position, which Steinitz demonstrated after the game. The peculiar circumstance of the conclusion of this game has been subject of scrutiny. * 1895: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Isidor Gunsberg, Hastings. In the final round of this prestigious tournament, Pillsbury secures overall victory by triumphing in an instructive endgame. * 1896: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Emanuel Lasker, Saint Petersburg.
Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...
won the brilliancy prize for this game by exposing Pillsbury's king with the sacrifice of both rooks on the same square.


1900–1924

* 1904: Emanuel Lasker vs William Ewart Napier, Cambridge Springs. Both players show great ingenuity. After a complicated web of tactics, Lasker simplifies into a winning endgame. * 1907: Rotlewi–Rubinstein, Lodz. Akiba Rubinstein wins this game with one of the most famous combinations ever played. * 1909: Akiba Rubinstein vs Emanuel Lasker, Saint Petersburg. Akiba Rubinstein's brilliant play culminates in 18.Qc1!! subsequently forcing Emanuel Lasker to enter a rook endgame down a pawn which Rubinstein wins in masterly fashion. * 1912: Levitsky–Marshall, Breslau. The final move of Frank James Marshall (matched against Stefan Levitsky) places his queen ''en prise'' in three different ways. The spectators are said to have showered the board with gold coins. * 1912: Edward Lasker–Thomas, London. With a queen sacrifice, Edward Lasker exposes Black's king and with a series of checks drives it all the way to the other side of the board before checkmating with an advance of his king. * 1914: Emanuel Lasker vs Jose Raul Capablanca, St Petersburg. Lasker defeats
José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...
in a positional game where his winning strategy seemed to flow right out of the opening to the end. Capablanca, himself renowned as a master of simple positions, was sufficiently rattled to lose in the next round as well, handing the tournament victory to Lasker. * 1918: Akiba Rubinstein vs
Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (; 22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, chess theorist, and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugural recip ...
, Berlin. Vidmar surprises Rubinstein by playing the
Budapest Gambit The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defence) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, d4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6, Nf6 :2. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4/1...Nf6/2. c4, c4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d ...
, leading to a brilliant victory. * 1918: Jose Raul Capablanca vs Frank Marshall, New York. In the main line
Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez remains one of the most popular chess openings, featuring many variations. In ...
, Frank Marshall surprises
José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...
with a bold pawn sacrifice. Capablanca accepts the challenge fully aware of the fierce attack he is about to face. * 1920: Edwin Ziegler Adams vs Carlos Torre Repetto, New Orleans. Likely composed by Carlos Torre as a tribute to his benefactor E. Z. Adams, this game features the most famous back-rank mate combination in chess literature, involving six consecutive offers of the queen. * 1922: Alekhine–Bogoljubov, Pistyan. This game is referred in the famous novella '' The Royal Game'' by
Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig ( ; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world. Zweig was raised in V ...
, which inspired multiple movies, theater plays and musical performances. In the story the position after 38. d6 is being reproduced in a game between the fictional world chess champion and a group of outmatched amateur players who are on the verge of promoting their c-pawn, when an unknown spectator frantically intervenes and explains how white will beat them in 9–10 moves after 38... c1Q 39. Bxc1 Nxc1 40. d7. He proposes 38... Kh7 instead, correctly predicting that 39. h4 will follow and after 39... Rc4 he maneuvers the game for 7–8 more moves until the world champion settles for a draw. * 1922: Efim Bogoljubov vs Alexander Alekhine, Hastings. Irving Chernev called this the greatest game of chess ever played, adding: "Alekhine's subtle strategy involves manoeuvres which encompass the entire chessboard as a battlefield. There are exciting plots and counterplots. There are fascinating combinations and brilliant sacrifices of Queens and Rooks. There are two remarkable promotions of Pawns and a third in the offing, before White decides to capitulate." (''The Chess Companion'', Chernev, Faber & Faber Ltd, 1970). * 1923: Sämisch–Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen " The Immortal Zugzwang Game". * 1924: Richard Réti–José Raúl Capablanca, New York. The game that ended Capablanca's eight-year run without a single loss in tournament play. * 1924: Jose Raul Capablanca vs Savielly Tartakower, New York. One of the most famous and instructive endgames ever played. Capablanca sacrifices two pawns with check to support his passed pawn.


1925–1949

* 1925: Richard Reti vs Alexander Alekhine, Baden-Baden. Alekhine initiates a stunning combination and foresees the final position resulting more than 15 moves later. * 1929: Glucksberg vs Miguel Najdorf, Warsaw. In this game, dubbed the ' Polish Immortal', Black sacrifices all four minor pieces for victory. * 1932:
Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tournam ...
vs
Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...
, first game of a match held in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam). Textbook example of the . * : Albert Einstein vs Oppenheimer, recorded game in playbooks, said to have been played between physicists
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
(or his son
Hans Albert Einstein Hans Albert Einstein (May 14, 1904 – July 26, 1973) was a Swiss-American engineer, the second child and first son of physicists Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić. He was a long-time professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of Cal ...
) and
J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World ...
. No conclusive evidence supports the historical accuracy of this game. * 1934: Canal–Unknown, Budapest. "The Peruvian Immortal", sees Peruvian master Esteban Canal demolish his amateur opponent with the sacrifice of two rooks and queen. * 1935: Max Euwe vs Alexander Alekhine, 26th Match Game, Zandvoort. This decisive game from the 1935 match for the world championship was dubbed 'The Pearl of Zandvoort' by Tartakower. * 1938: Mikhail Botvinnik vs Jose Raul Capablanca, Rotterdam. In this game from the AVRO 1938 tournament, Botvinnik obtains a strong initiative against Capablanca and brings the victory home with a long combination. * 1938: Frank Parr vs George Wheatcroft, London. Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld described this as "one of the greatest combinative games on record!" (''Fireside Book Of Chess'', Simon & Schuster, 1949, pp. 392–93) * 1943: B Molinari vs Luis Roux Cabral, Montevideo. This game from the 1943 Uruguayan Chess Championship, dubbed the " Uruguayan Immortal", sees Luis Roux Cabral sacrifice the exchange twice, followed by sacrifices of two minor pieces. After 33 moves, all three of his remaining pieces are en prise—and his opponent cannot stop checkmate. * 1946: Gusev–Auerbach,
Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk; , is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, seventh-largest city in Russia, with a population ...
. Not to be confused with the late
centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...
grandmaster and theorician Yuri Averbakh, this game, dubbed "Gusev's Immortal", was a game contested between the relatively obscure players Yuri Gusev and E Auerbach in an equally obscure minor tournament. It involved a sound positional queen sacrifice from Gusev, which was blind to
chess engine In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or List of chess variants, chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest. A chess software engine, engine is usually a Front ...
s for 74 years, requiring
Stockfish Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...
11 six hours and 48 minutes at Depth 73/49 to recommend the queen sacrifice in 2020; Gusev went on to win. The game has been studied extensively online. National Master Sam Copeland ranked it the second-best game of the 1940s. Grandmaster Simon Williams termed the queen sacrifice in Gusev's Immortal one of the most beautiful ideas that he had ever seen.


1950s

* 1953: Efim Geller vs Max Euwe, Zurich. Geller's attack seems to be sweeping Euwe off the board but the former World Champion has everything under control, uncorking an amazing sacrifice on move 22 to begin a counterattack that wins the game in only four more moves. * 1954: Mikhail Botvinnik vs Vasily Smyslov, 14th Match Game, Moscow. Smyslov sacrifices his queen for three minor pieces and coordinates them superbly to force Botvinnik's capitulation. * 1956: Donald Byrne vs Bobby Fischer, New York, " Game of the Century". Donald Byrne makes a seemingly minor mistake on move 11, losing a tempo by moving the same piece twice. Bobby Fischer uses accurate sacrificial play, culminating in a queen sacrifice. After the maneuver, Fischer has a winning material advantage – a rook and two bishops for a queen, and coordinates them to force checkmate. Fischer was 13 years old; his opponent was 26. * 1957: Bogdan Sliwa vs David Bronstein, Gotha. "The Immortal losing game" between Bogdan Sliwa and
David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in World Chess Championship 195 ...
. Black has a lost game but sets some elegant traps in attempting to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. * 1958: Lev Polugaevsky vs Rashid Nezhmetdinov, Sochi. In one of the most celebrated games of all time, Nezhmetdinov sacrifices his queen on move 24, and goes on to win the game with a king hunt. * 1959: Mikhail Tal vs Vasily Smyslov, Bled. Tal initiates complications early in this game and obtains a strong attack. Smyslov defends well, but eventually stumbles with one erroneous move and Tal delivers the winning tactical blow. * 1959: Bobby Fischer vs Tigran Petrosian, Zagreb. The only prominent game in which four queens were on board for seven moves. Match ends with draw by agreement.


1960s

* 1960: Boris Spassky vs David Bronstein, Leningrad, "The Blue Bird Game". Boris Spassky plays the
King's Gambit The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the black e-pawn. If Black accepts the gambit, White may play d4 and Bxf4, regaining the gambit pawn with domination, or direc ...
and defeats David Bronstein with a sacrificial attack. * 1960: Mikhail Tal vs Mikhail Botvinnik, 1st Match Game, Moscow. Tal's critics said his daring, complicated style couldn't possibly work against the ironclad logic of the Father of Soviet Chess, but it did and Tal became the youngest World Champion ever. * 1961: Milunka Lazarevic vs Nona Gaprindashvili, Candidates Tournament, Vrnjacka Banja. On her way to a 16-year reign as Women's World Champion, the future queen of women's chess constructs a mating net with, appropriately, her king and queen. * 1962: Eduard Gufeld vs Ljubomir Kavalek, Marianske Lazne. Kavalek sacrifices a piece, then one exchange, then the other exchange to push his avalanche of pawns down the board. By the end of the game he has lost all seven of his pieces but kept all eight of his pawns, which roll over White's remaining rook. * 1963: Robert Eugene Byrne vs Bobby Fischer, New York. Fischer executes a deep sacrificial attack to win in this miniature. Many of the players in the press room thought Fischer's position was hopeless and were surprised when they heard Byrne had resigned. * 1964: Lajos Portisch vs Mikhail Tal, Amsterdam Interzonal. One of Tal's most famous games doesn't end in victory: he over-presses and finds himself a rook down in a lost position, but keeps setting problems until Portisch makes a mistake and allows the Magician from Riga to escape with a draw. * 1965: Efim Geller vs Vasily Smyslov, 5th Match Game, Moscow. Though he never managed to play for the World Championship, Efim Geller had a lifetime plus score in over 200 games against World Champions, here crushing Smyslov with a queen sacrifice that the former champion can't accept. * 1966: Tigran Petrosian vs Boris Spassky, 10th Match Game, Moscow. Petrosian, the master of the exchange sacrifice, does it twice in one game with the World Championship on the line. * 1968: Poole versus HAL 9000. A fictional game from the movie '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', based on a tournament game between A. Roesch and W. Schlage, Hamburg 1910. Astronaut Dr. Frank Poole plays against the supercomputer HAL 9000. The computer executes a strong sacrificial attack and wins in 15 moves. * 1969: Boris Spassky vs Tigran Petrosian, 19th Match Game, Moscow. Having fought his way to a World Championship rematch with Petrosian, Boris Spassky wins the match decisively.


1970s

* 1970: Bent Larsen vs Boris Spassky, Belgrade. Spassky finds immediate punishment for Larsen's opening experiments, sacrificing a knight and a rook to create a
passed pawn In chess, a passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth ; i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on either the same or adjacent files. A passed pawn is sometimes colloquially called a passe ...
, winning the game in just 17 moves. * 1971: Bruce Harper vs Bob Zuk, Burnaby. The famous "Tomb Game" sees Black exploit two pins to drive his opponent's pieces into a corner and toward a position where White's only legal move will help Black to checkmate him. * 1972: Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky, 6th Match Game, Reykjavik. Game 6 of the highly publicized World Championship Match. Bobby Fischer surprises by opening with 1.c4 instead of his favorite 1.e4. Boris Spassky joined the audience in applauding Fischer's win and called it the best game of the
World Chess Championship 1972 The World Chess Championship 1972 was a match for the World Chess Championship between challenger Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The match took place in the Laugardalshöll in Reykja ...
. * 1972: Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer, 11th Match Game, Reykjavik. In Game 11 of the highly publicized World Championship Match, Boris Spassky destroys Bobby Fischer's Najdorf, giving Fischer his only loss in the poisoned pawn variation. * 1972: Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer, 13th Match Game, Reykjavik. Game 13 of the highly publicized World Championship Match. Bobby Fischer wins this complex contest, defeating Boris Spassky. * 1973: David Bronstein vs Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Petropolis Interzonal. Bronstein, who played a match for the World Championship before his grandmaster opponent could walk, turns back the clock, sacrifices both rooks and wins through sheer sorcery. * 1974: Anatoly Karpov vs Boris Spassky, 9th Match Game, Leningrad. Former World Champion Boris Spassky can't cope with future World Champion Anatoly Karpov's subtle, seemingly effortless positional mastery. * 1977: Stefano Tatai vs Anatoly Karpov, Las Palmas. World Champion Karpov dominated tournament chess in the 1970s with his signature style of elegant positional play crowned by crisp tactics, like in this game where he places his queen en prise to a pawn. * 1978: Liu Wenzhe vs Jan Hein Donner, Buenos Aires. "The Chinese Immortal"; at China's first
olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...
, the little known Liu Wenzhe defeats the experienced Dutch grandmaster Jan Hein Donner in 20 moves with a spectacular king's side attack. * 1979: Igor Ivanov vs Anatoly Karpov, Moscow. A literally life-changing game: This spectacular victory over the World Champion earned Igor Ivanov the opportunity to play in an international tournament. On the way back, he seized a chance to defect from the USSR and start a new life in Canada.


1980s

* 1980: Anatoly Karpov vs Tony Miles, European Team Championship, Skara. England's iconoclastic first grandmaster uses a provocative opening to score his most famous win. * 1981: Garry Kasparov vs Viktor Gavrikov, USSR Championship, Frunze. One of Garry Kasparov's dynamic, attacking wins from his first Soviet Championship victory at age 18 that heralded the arrival of a new contender for the World Chess Championship. * 1982: Lubomir Kavalek vs Garry Kasparov, Bugojno. By 1982 Kasparov was already ranked #2 in the world and was dominating the world's best players, winning 15 consecutive tournaments between 1981 and 1990. * 1983: Anatoly Karpov vs Efim Geller, USSR Championship, Moscow. Although Kasparov's star was rising in the early 1980s, World Champion Karpov was still at the top of his form, here using a queen sacrifice to checkmate a veteran grandmaster on the way to his second Soviet Championship title. * 1984: Lajos Portisch vs Jozsef Pinter, Hungarian Championship, Budapest. Jozsef Pinter plays the game of his life against his famous opponent, sacrificing a piece in a queenless middlegame to draw Lajos Portisch's king into a deadly crossfire. * 1985: Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov, 16th Match Game, Moscow. Garry Kasparov employs a daring gambit and obtains a dominating position for his knight, stifling Anatoly Karpov's forces and finishing off with a mating attack. * 1985: Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov, 24th Match Game, Moscow. Needing a win to retain his title, Karpov builds up an attack but falls victim to a blitz counteroffensive that makes Garry Kasparov the 13th World Chess Champion. * 1986: Garry Kasparov vs Anatoly Karpov, 16th Match Game, Leningrad. The most spectacular game of their third World Championship match hangs in the balance until Garry Kasparov's diabolical 37th move blows Karpov's defence away. * 1987: Garry Kasparov vs Anatoly Karpov, 24th Match Game, Seville. Trailing by a point before the final game of their fourth World Championship match, Garry Kasparov surprises Karpov by beginning quietly in Anatoly Karpov's own style. With Karpov running low on time, Kasparov ratchets up the tension by sacrificing a pawn for an attack. Karpov fails to find the best defence and is finally forced to resign, leaving Kasparov the champion for another three years. * 1988: Carsten Hoi vs Boris Gulko, Thessaloniki Olympiad. Representing Denmark at the biennial Chess Olympiad, Hoi fulfils the dream of every unknown player by crushing a former Soviet and future US Champion with a beautiful mating attack. * 1989: Jeroen Piket vs Garry Kasparov, Tilburg. A typically devastating performance by Garry Kasparov, whose dominance of super-tournaments in 1989 increased his rating to 2800, the first to reach that number.


1990s

* 1990: Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov, World Chess Championship, Lyon, 23rd Match Game. The 5th World Championship match between the two dominant players of the 1980s ends with Karpov winning the last decisive game but Kasparov winning the match to remain World Champion. * 1991: Vassily Ivanchuk vs Artur Yusupov, Brussels, 9th Match Game. Yusupov sacrifices his knight in his quest for the attack and breaks through after Ivanchuk's inaccuracies. In 1996, a jury of grandmasters and readers, voting in the ''
Chess Informant Chess Informant () is a publishing company from Belgrade, Serbia, that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces volumes of a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'', ''Encyclopaedia ...
'', chose this game as the best game played in the years 1966–96. * 1992: Mikhail Tal vs Joel Lautier, Barcelona. In his final tournament before his death at age 55, the Magician from Riga produces one last masterpiece against a Grandmaster from the next generation. * 1992: Vasyl Ivanchuk vs Viswanathan Anand, Linares, 1st Match Game. Anand breaks all principles of positional chess by getting doubled pawns, trading his good bishop only to reveal the deep idea later in the game, managing to create 2 passed pawns and eventually winning the game . * 1993: Nigel Short vs Garry Kasparov, PCA World Championship, London, 8th Match Game. Although the match was one-sided, the games were hard fought. In this game Short exposes Kasparov's king with a shower of sacrifices but can't land the knockout blow. * 1994: Alexey Shirov vs. Judit Polgar, Buenos Aires. The attacking prowess of the strongest woman chessplayer of all time is on full display as she rips White's position apart with her pawns and routs his army with her knights. * 1995: Roberto Cifuentes Parada vs Vadim Zvjaginsev, Wijk aan Zee. Black wins with a series of sacrifices that force White's king up to the 6th rank. Known as "The Pearl of Wijk aan Zee". * 1995: Veselin Topalov vs Vladimir Kramnik, Belgrade. Foreshadowing their bitter rivalry a decade later, two future World Champions refuse to draw and throw everything at each other until only one is left standing. * 1996: Deep Blue versus Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, the first game in which a chess-playing computer defeated a reigning world champion using classical
time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...
s. * 1997: Deep Blue versus Kasparov, 1997, Game 6, the last game of the 1997 rematch. Deep Blue won, making it the first computer to defeat a world champion in a match. * 1998: Veselin Topalov vs Alexey Shirov, Linares. Though known for his attacking play, Alexey Shirov produces "The best move of all time" on move 47 of a quiet endgame to score a seemingly impossible win. Tim Krabbe ranked Shirov's bishop-h3 move as the 2nd greatest move in chess, only being behind Spassky's knight-c6 against Averbakh in 1956. * 1999: Kasparov–Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999. "Kasparov's Immortal" features a rook sacrifice with a sacrificial combination lasting over 15 moves. One of the most commented chess games ever, with extensive press coverage. * 1999:
Kasparov versus the World Kasparov versus the World was a game of chess played in 1999 over the Internet. It was a , in which a World Team of thousands decided each move for the black pieces by plurality vote, while Garry Kasparov conducted the white pieces by himself. Mo ...
, in which
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
, the reigning world champion, faced a group of players in consultation, who decided moves by vote. This group included 50,000 individuals from more than 75 countries. Kasparov won.


2000s

* 2000: Kasparov–Kramnik, Classical World Chess Championship 2000, 3rd Match Game, London.
Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
revives the Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez (which had fallen out of favor), in which the queens are exchanged on move 8. The queenless endgame is difficult for Kramnik to defend but limits
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
's options, and the game ends in
draw by agreement A game of chess can end in a draw by agreement. A player may offer a draw at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. In some competitions, draws by agreement are restricted; for example draw offers may be subject to the d ...
. * 2004: Vladimir Kramnik vs Peter Leko, Classical World Chess Championship 2004, 14th Match Game, Brissago. Needing only a draw to win the World Championship, Peter Leko plays too passively and pays the price. * 2005: Viswanathan Anand vs Veselin Topalov, Sofia. Amazing in its complexity, this game finally ended in a hard-fought draw and was called "23rd-century chess" by Kramnik. * 2006: Sergey Karjakin vs Viswanathan Anand, Corus chess tournament, Round 1, Wijk aan zee. Viswanathan Anand played a brilliant combination against Sergey Karjakin, beginning with the sacrifice of a knight followed by sacrifice of a bishop and finally a rook mating with just a rook and a queen. * 2006: Vladimir Kramnik vs Veselin Topalov, World Chess Championship 2006, 16th Match Game, Elista. After 13 years of a divided World Chess Championship, the reunification match comes down to a final tiebreak game.


2010s

*2013: Anand's Immortal. In this game reigning world champion
Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
exhibits a combination with a rook sacrifice and two more offered sacrifices to beat
Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former world rapid and blit ...
, then ranked No. 3 in the world.
ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...
wrote that " tmight surely go down as the game of the year", and ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described it as "a game for the ages". *2013: Anand–Carlsen, World Championship 2013, Game 9, Chennai. Two games down with only three to go in the match, Viswanathan Anand develops a dangerous kingside attack only to make a fatal blunder on move 28. One game later,
Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
becomes the 16th undisputed World Chess Champion. *2015: Wei Yi–Bruzon, Danzhou. In this game, chess prodigy
Wei Yi Wei Yi (; born 2 June 1999) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. Wei became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the 9th youngest in history. He is the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, accomplishing this feat ...
plays a rook sacrifice that forces Black to take a king walk. Several quiet moves eventually force Black to concede defeat. This game has been compared to Kasparov's Immortal and the Game of the Century, and described as the "21st-century Immortal". *2016: Carlsen–Karjakin, World Championship 2016, Game 16, New York. Magnus Carlsen retains his title with the most beautiful move ever to end a World Chess Championship match. *2017: Bai Jinshi–Ding Liren.
Ding Liren Ding Liren ( zh, c=丁立人; born 24October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion, was a member of the Chinese chess teams that won the Chess ...
creates a stunning tactical crush of his young compatriot
Bai Jinshi Bai Jinshi (; born 18 May 1999) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. Career Born in Jilin, Bai won the Under 10 section of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2009. He played for China A team in the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad in 2013. Bai w ...
in just 32 moves with the black pieces, sacrificing his queen and culminating in a spectacular king hunt. *2019: Alireza Firouzja–Murali Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan sacrifices his queen on move 9 in a known position for a knight and a bishop against prodigious Alireza Firouzja, leaving the latter's pieces uncoordinated and without decent squares.


2020s

*2021: Carlsen versus Nepomniachtchi, World Chess Championship 2021, Game 6. In this game, reigning world champion
Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
(as White) exchanged his queen for two rooks to enter into an unbalanced endgame—which was drawn, according to the
endgame tablebase In chess, the endgame tablebase, or simply the tablebase, is a computerised database containing precalculated evaluations of chess endgame, endgame positions. Tablebases are used to analyse finished games, as well as by chess engines to evaluate ...
s, after only seven pieces remained on the board—but challenger
Ian Nepomniachtchi Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi ( rus, Ян Алекса́ндрович Непо́мнящий, r=Yan Aleksandrovich Nepomnyashchiy, p=ˈjan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈpomnʲɪɕːɪj, a=Ru-Ian Alexandrovich Nepomnyashchij.ogg; born 14 J ...
(as Black) committed a decisive mistake on move 130 and resigned after Carlsen's 136th move. It was the first decisive classical game in a
World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
in more than five years, ending the longest-ever streak of 19 draws in consecutive World Chess Championship classical games, and the 136-move game became the longest in the history of the World Chess Championship. *2023: Nepomniachtchi–Ding, World Chess Championship 2023, Game 18. In a winner-take-all tiebreak game, Ding Liren avoids a draw with a risky self-pin on move 46. Both players make errors in the subsequent play but Nepomniachtchi makes the last one as Ding breaks through to become the 17th undisputed World Chess Champion.


See also

* List of chess games between Anand and Kramnik * List of chess games between Kasparov and Kramnik


References


Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chess games
Games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...
History of chess