While sacrificing pieces and pawns had been part of the game of chess from its earliest beginnings, the 1800s saw the tactic rise as a prominent weapon in a player’s tactical and strategy arsenal with players such as GM Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) (often Anderssen, A. in game notations). While Anderssen’s Mate is named after him, Anderseen was a fierce competitor and staunch proponent of playing sacrificial chess. He is best known for the so-called “Immortal Game” in London in 1851 and the well-known so-called “The Evergreen” game in Berlin 1852. The later got its name from GM Wilhelm Steinitz who put the mark on this game of being the “evergreen in Anderssen’s laurel wreath.” These two games are hallmarks in the theoretical realm of sacrificial chess. Anderssen’s talent for ensnaring opponents into “unseen mates” using sacrifices are a treasure to examine! While later analysis showed perhaps that a more “prosaic” line would have won the game without much troubles for White, GM Garry Kasparov pointed out that the chess world would have lost one of its crown jewels if the game had instead taken that turn. [Source: http://www.brainsturgeon.com/iversen/000415b.htm]. The source also provides the interesting prosaic line as well as alternate lines of play in the endgame. The two games represent just some of the masterpieces of artistic playing that come along in chess that I mentioned in My Chess Philosophy! The two games are also highly entertaining because of Anderssen’s ability to develop the checkmate move…Be7#…in two different games from two different mating patterns and mating nets.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
8 |
| 7 |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 |
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
| 1 |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
Click Down Arrow to Choose Auto Play Speed
Anderssen – Kieseritzky
London, 1851 [The Immortal Game]1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nf3 Qh6 7.d3 Nh5 8.Nh4 Qg5 9.Nf5 c6 10.g4 Nf6 11.Rg1 cxb5 12.h4Qg6 13.h5 Qg5 14.Qf3 Ng8 15.Bxf4 Qf6 16.Nc3 Bc5 17.Nd5 Qxb2 18.Bd6 Bxg1 19.e5 Qxa1+ 20.Ke2 Na6 21.Nxg7+ Kd822.Qf6+ Nxf6 23.Be7#
1-0
|
Anderssen – Dufresne
Berlin, 1852 (The Evergreen Game)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.O-O d3 8.Qb3 Qf6 9.e5 Qg6 10.Re1 Nge7 11.Ba3 b5 12.Qxb5Rb8 13.Qa4 Bb6 14.Nbd2 Bb7 15.Ne4 Qf5 16.Bxd3 Qh5 17.Nf6+ gxf6 18.exf6 Rg8 19.Rad1 Qxf3 20.Rxe7+ Nxe7 21.Qxd7+Kxd7 22.Bf5+ Ke8 23.Bd7+ Kf8 24.Bxe7#
1-0