greatest chess game EVER??

Which one is it?  Please also say why....

personal or in the history of the chess game ?

Both ( if you prefer )  

When I was a kid I had the habit of saying, "Wow!  That's the best movie I've ever seen," or "the best book I've ever read," or the best this or the best that. 

Much later on when I learned to play chess I was amazed by the games of people like Morphy, Tal and Fischer who seemed to be able to weave magic spells on the chess board.  I went from "Wow!   that's the best game I've ever seen," to "What an amazing player.  How did he do that?"

So I'm gunna sidestep your question and instead of nominating a choice for my favourite all-time game I'd rather nominate a favourite all-time player.

In spite of his short stay at the top, and ignoring the achievements of people like Capablanca, Alekhine, and Kasparov, my choice is a man whose chronic ill-health kept him from achieving some of the greatness he deserved, but who thrilled everybody with his amazing sacrifices and combinations -- Mikhail Nekhemevich Tal.

I don't know yet so much about chess. I had a few games here on chess com.

I think I had my butt ironed several times ( read : 95 times out of 100 )  by 2 of my best friends here. One is a "devil" and the  one has  a slithe. ouch.....I need to lie on my belly 'cause my butt is still red.

My son's friend had a similar problem when he went to a harbourside nudist beach and spent the day drinking before he passed out and slept for HOURS.  He not only had to lie on his belly, he  couldn't sit down for a week.  I don't think his friends ever let him forget it.

Are you sure you didn't get yours that way, emi?

pretty sure .*** sniff sniff** still winter here . I have never been to a nudist  beach before. I bet he did not go to a New Year's Eve party and fell asleep - belly up this time - on the couch just under the loudspeaker  after half of glass of white wine and  a glass of champagne, both within an hour , did he ?

Nae, that is pretty much from the games..... I  did not forget our last  game

Looking forward for another one.....soon .

I have written about this here:

http://blog.chess.com/ravster/best-chessplayer-ever

I had a good time writing this blog, and it gives my top 10!

Ravi

chess greatest game EVER!!

Weak replies thus far (up to #9) IMHO... Seeing as this is a chess site I'm surprised a request for favorite chess games generates mostly frivolous replies. (and Dozy... while I appreciate your reply was sincere, there have been dozens of who's your favorite player threads! This is the first "favorite game" thread I can recall... surely a fellow of your experience has come across a game or two that you found particularly memorable/beautiful/enlightening.)

I think my favorite is:

Lasker vs. Napier Cambridge Springs 1904... it's often mentioned on folks' 10 Greatest Chess Games list. It features my favorite player, Dr. Lasker...  This is one of the wildest rides ever taken on the 64 squares. If I'm not mistaken, although he ultimately lost, Napier still called this the best, (or perhaps merely one of the best) games he'd ever played.

This is unannotated. (I'm unworthy). There are some annotated versions online. This game and its ferocious complexity has drawn a lot of attention from analysts over the years.

Yeah, I agree with the other posters: too many really great games to pick just one. But, this game is certainly high on my list. This game contains one of the most amazing series of untakeable(?) rook sacs culminating in a beautiful forced mate or a devastating loss of material. Check it out and see if you can figure out why White's rook can't be taken after the capture on move 22.

Hmm, tough question, I've never thought much about my single mostest favoritest game ever.  If I had to pick one off the top of my head, I might pick Spassky-Bronstein, from the 1960 USSR Championship, annotations copied from http://blog.chess.com/ChessDweeb/bobby-fischer-said-one-of-the-ten-best-games-ever-spassky-bronstein# .  Spassky's 15th move is insane:

Wonderful games so far. Each one could use a long thread!

The Immortal Game got its name for a reason.

My personal favorite: Morphy's famed "Opera Game".

games with tactical brilliancies are temporarily great but ultimately positional games are truly the greatest. Using ideas that most of us cannot even comprehend. I mean Laskers game was alright but with correct defence it was flawed.

I didn't say the 19th century brilliancies were the best, just my favorite.

Here's a good positional game for someone who wanted a positional game.  White transforms a long pawn chain into an anaconda that strangles black to death.

that was a good positional game.

Capablanca v Treybal is fascinating and Capablanca is amazing.  The switch from kingside to queenside was so beautifully done.  The Kasparov v Karpov (d6!) is also an eye opener. As I went thru the game I felt the urge to recheck the result... Kasparov wins this?  He looked busted. 

As long as we're doing positional deep-planning masterpieces... here's a fantastic game in which a 27 y.o. Botvinnik defeats Capa. Call it the changing of the strategic guard. Botvinnik gives Capablanca a clear Queenside advantage in exchange for what looks, to most mortals, a rather uncertain initiative in the center... but Botvinnik proves he knows exactly what he's doing. And Capablanca looks very ordinary here.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1031957