Immortal game
Posted by Nicholas Gruen on Sunday, May 10, 2009
The finish of this game is pretty cool. I would in fact go so far as to call it tres cool. Indeed, Adoph Andersson won plaudits in the nineteenth century infancy of the modern game of chess for his ‘immortal game’ against Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritsky(!) in which he allowed his opponent to snaffle most of his pieces and used the few remaining to checkmate his opponent. The ending of the game below is rated difficult by the star system beneath the image. Indeed it is difficult. I didn’t get it, having thought of the correct variation and dismissed it for no very good reason. In any event, even if it’s difficult, the game ends after only four more moves. So it’s not difficult for depth of moves. The finish is more immortal than Anderson.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 10:27 AM and filed under Chess.
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I prefer Anderssen – quite apart from anything else, for the names! And didn’t Anderssen’s game end with a very tricky bishop-and-knight mate (I can’t remember the details)? And weren’t the sacrifices in the earlier game more notional (not based on a simple four-move equation, but a deeper position that leaves it up to doubt whether Kiesekeritsky can wriggle out of the mating attack at some point? (Again, not sure).
It’s funny how the Caro Kann is reputed to be such a boring opening, but I’ve seen a couple of games like this one where it lets both sides go absolutely crazy.
Posted on 10-May-09 at 7:29 pm | PermalinkI’ve linked through to the immortal game if you want to check it out. Yes, the immortal game is longer range, but there’s something nice about the economy of this mate.
Posted on 10-May-09 at 9:25 pm | PermalinkAnd the fortuitous placing of the pieces for the mate and the fact that the next move for black, if he had one, is also mate.
Posted on 10-May-09 at 9:27 pm | Permalink