My Favorite Game Of. Number 11. Adolf Anderssen.

Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen. In my opinion possibly the most misunderstood player ever to reach the top of the Chess World.

You will read - including in some posts on this site - that he was a crude tactical brawler who owed his success to his great combinational talents. That's the 'good story' that gets repeated over and over by bad chess writers who haven't actually studied the subject. ( one of my pet hates!!)

You will also read that he lost his two most famous matches - against those wonderful players Morphy and Steinitz - due to his opponent's greater positional understanding. Utter rubbish!!!

Go study the games of those matches.

Apart from the fact that he was out prepared in the openings, and played way below his real strength in a number of the games - Anderssen was one of those players who was stronger in tournaments than matches - you will see him outplayed in the kind of open, gambit style chess that was supposedly his forte.

You will also see that in quiet positional struggles - despite coming up with a series of blunders in a won position in one of the Morphy games - he was clearly superior to both of them at the time the games were played. ( Steinitz did mature, and, had he continued playing, Morphy would have!!)

In fact, in serious match and tournament play, Anderssen's style was predominantly that of slow positional build-ups, before exploiting his combinational gifts.

Fortunately Anderssen was still young enough - in his late 40's/early 50's - to still show his great strength when serious chess began to become more common in the mid to late 1860's. His tournament record was tremendous, despite the occasional bad day at the office!!

In the film 'Duck Soup', Chico Marx comes out with a great line in the trial scene. ''Who are you gonna believe - me or your own eyes?'' 

So don't believe me either!! Go look at all of Anderssen's games from any tournament you like, and form your own opinion.

So, my favorite Anderssen game. It is from the Steinitz match, and I have previously given it in an article on Anderssen and the sicilian defence.

Enjoy the game,  and, as usual, all POLITE comments welcomed.

A Quick addition - Harding has recently pointed out the reason for my querying the accepted score in this game - He suggests that 17. Bd2 was in fact played - given in one contemporary source - which explains the fact that there was indeed no double blunder, as I assumed.