Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritzky (1851)

This is just 1 of the games in the famous romantic era of chess. Today we will look at a game, that is now famously known as ‘The Immortal Game’.

Adolf Anderssen was white and the game started 1. e4 e5 2. f4. This is known as the King’s Gambit. If you do t know what a gambit is then it is when one side gives away a small amount of material to either start an attack or get a lead in development. Here white is trying to get a lead in development. 2.... exf4. Black plays the King’s Gambit accepted variation. 3. Bc4. The white bishop is now eyeing the weak f7 square. 3.... Qh4+. White is now forced to move his king. Now that he can’t castle, this shows us that the King’s Gambit isn’t the strongest opening as white. 4. Kf1 b4. Black plays a gambit trying to get the bishop diverted from the f7 square. 5. Bxb5. White accepts the gambit. Now the material is equal.

5.... Nf6. The knight is now attacking the e4 pawn. 6. Nf3 Qh6 7. d3 Nh5. Black is now threatening to play Ng3+ winning the rook on h1. 8. Nh4. White stops the threat also trying to play Nf5, a nice outpost. 8.... Qg5 9. Nf5 c6 10. g4 Nf6 11. Rg1. White protects his pawn, however gives away the bishop.

11.... cxb5. Black wins a piece. 12. h4. White is trying to go for an all out attack. 12....Qg6. Black calmly moves his queen back. 13. h5 Qg5 14. Qf3. White is now threatening to play Bxf4, winning the black queen, and he is threatening to play e5, attacking the knight whilst also attacking the rook! 14.... Ng8. This gets the knight out of the way and also creates an escape square for the queen. 15. Bxf4. White now wins a pawn. 

15.... Qf6 16. Nc3 Bc5 17. Nd5. White is now threatening to play Nc7+. 17.... Qxb2 18. Bd6. An excellent move. If black takes the bishop mate is coming up. However, both white rooks are hanging. If 18.... Bxd6 19. Nxd6+ Kd8 20. Nxf7+ Ke8 21. Nd6+ Kd8 22. Qf8#

So 18.... Bxg1 instead. 19. e5 Qxa1+ 20. Ke2 Na6. Black has now defended against 21. Nxg7+ Kd8 22. Bc7#. But white now has a mate in 3. 

21. Nxg7+ Kd8 22. Qf6+ Nxf6 23. Be7#

A beautiful checkmate by Anderssen!

I hope you have enjoyed this great game. I will post more blogs with games as fantastic as these! 

If you really liked this game I found it on lichess.org. You might like to see more from there, although I will post more here.