Hi, everybody.  I recently started a thread because I was surprised when an opponent followed a book line all the way to his resignation after move 16.  I felt a little bit weird about it and wondered whether and to what degree I had cheated him/myself out of, you know... actual chess.

It got me thinking about the tradition of repeat games, and masters of the past used to use them regularly to beat opponents in less booked-up days.  Most of them are miniatures of course, and I found several in just a few minutes looking through my modest library.

I decided to post a few for interested people to look at, and who knows, maybe you can even spring one on somebody yourself!  If you have ever repeated any games or know of repeats I have not included (I will add to the list as I have a chance) please include them here.

From 1000 Best Short Games of Chess by Irving Chernev:

A reasonably plausible trap, and incentive to wake up and look for opportunities early instead of playing rote developing moves like 5. 0-0?

Here's a neat little game I played

Almost a lasker trap, but i had auto-queen on. Still turned out to be an easy win, but nonetheless I was disappointed. 

I once played a game that was so pretty and so forcing that it almost HAD to be a repeat of an old Master game... but in all my chess reading, I've never come across the "original" game (assuming that the game I played was indeed just a clone).

Has anyone ever seen this game before?

blueemu's immortal game. Nice. 

It's the 15. ... gxf5 16. Qg4+ variation that cracks me up...

@Tjornan: Very cute.  You think that may have been a repeat?  Or just the near-miss motif?

@blueemu: What an entertaining game!  Yes, you are right- I found at least two instances of your game, including one right here on the chess.com database, the other on chessgames.com.  They are of more modern vintage than you supposed.  One was Shianovsky vs. Rumiancev in the URS team championship played in Riga in 1968, and the other was Nicolaisen vs. Skovgaard at the Politiken Cup in 2001.  Both games were identical to yours up until you missed the shot 14. Be3!  Rumiancev resigned immediately, while Skovgaard glumly played out his doom with ...Qc7 15. Nh6+ and 16. Rxf7 mate.  Pretty!  Shianovsky, at least, was 2255 FIDE, so you truly played like a master up until you neglected to open up the h6 square for your knight.  Very well done.

My game was played in 1977 in Saint John, NB... so it was after Shianovsky vs. Rumiancev but before Nicolaisen vs. Skovgaard.

I had a game which followed Morphy's Opera House game until my opponent deviated on move 7:

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=408692366

k. back to 8th rank and n.wins Q.

Or this one- I could find no other recorded instances of it, but Blackburne said he used to claim a few victims with it a night when he was hustling amateurs in 19th century coffeehouses.  It is short and reasonable enough that it has certainly claimed many victims:

Given the poor performance of black's opening, it is somewhat surprising that it came to bear the name of white's great student, Philidor.  Legal must not have warned him away. 

Looking through some old notebooks, I found another game of mine from the 1970s that is probably just a replay of an earlier Master game, or a known opening trap:

BlueEmu, what a beautiful attack!

@blueemo, completely off-topic, but do you happen to play hearts of iron? 

Yes, it`s me. I was in the HOI-3 beta-test, and I`m a Moderator on the Paradox boards.

Ah cool, should have known you would also play chess. Thanks for all the effort on hoi3 btw! I've learned a lot from your posts! 

I have repeated this game a bunch of times:

@rooperi: Clever.  And black's moves look plausible, too.  Looks like the main best way to avoid this horrible fate is to realize that 3. Nf3 allows ...c5 instead of just the typical ...d6.  However, the "Just finish me off" 8. ...h6? instead of fighting ...g6! was the final error.  White faces a long struggle to show he has enough for the material then.  Alekhine's players take note.

@blueemu: An interesting side variation that has apparently fallen out of fashion, even though the opening itself remains black's single most popular response to 1.e4.  Because so many master games start out with the Najdorf, I was easily able to find about two dozen instances of the position on move 13, but not a single one was willing to bite with ...Bxd5?  Definitely a position the teeming Sicilian masses should be aware of.

Speaking of Blackburne, here is his eponymous "Blackburne Shilling 'Gambit'", another swindle he used to fleece rookies with in between clashes with Zukertort, et al.  This one is for black:

So this one is more of a trap than a mere repeater since it relies on somewhat questionable play by both sides for full effect.  In fact, Wiki says this is considered an/the "Oh, my God! Gambit" since it is recommended that black say that immediately after playing his third move to help override white's caution.  But the players listed were indeed masters and it showed up again in Muhlock vs. (original GM) Kostic the following year in Cologne.  It has definitely occured many times in casual play since then.  Worth a try in blitz for sure.