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Chess history
26 famous games, from Anderssen's Immortal Game in 1851 to Magnus Carlsen. Each one is a short lesson in Torre: you replay it move by move, find the key moves yourself, and hear the story behind it.
London, 1851: Adolf Anderssen gives up his queen, both rooks and a bishop, and checkmates anyway.
The year is 1851 and the world's best players have gathered in London for the first international chess tournament. During a break, the German master Adolf Anderssen sits down for a friendly game against Lionel Kieseritzky. What follows becomes the most famous game ever played: the Immortal Game. Press play and watch it happen.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Berlin, 1852: Anderssen again: the Evans Gambit, a sacrificed queen, and a finish so pretty Steinitz named it himself.
One year after the Immortal Game, Adolf Anderssen sits down in Berlin against Jean Dufresne, a strong player and popular chess writer. Anderssen produces another masterpiece, so fresh and sparkling that the first world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, later called it the evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath. The name stuck. Press play.
Replay it in Torre · 9 min
The first international tournament: Adolf Anderssen beats Howard Staunton, the organiser, with a pawn storm against his king.
In 1851, while the Great Exhibition filled London with visitors, the city also hosted the first international chess tournament. Howard Staunton, England's leading player, organised it. Adolf Anderssen, a mathematics teacher from Breslau, won it, and on the way he beat Staunton himself. Here is one of their games: Staunton answers 1.e4 with the Sicilian Defence.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Paris, 1858: Paul Morphy beats two noblemen in a box at the opera, with the most famous queen sacrifice in chess.
Paul Morphy is twenty-one, from New Orleans, and beating everyone in Europe. One evening at the Paris opera, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard invite him to their box, and challenge him mid-performance. Morphy plays the game of his life while the opera plays on. Seventeen moves. Press play.
Replay it in Torre · 6 min
New York, 1857: the twenty-year-old Morphy gives his queen for a bishop and hunts the white king with a rook and a bishop.
In 1857 the best players in America met in New York for the first American Chess Congress. Paul Morphy, twenty years old and from New Orleans, won it. This game comes from his final match against Louis Paulsen, a careful, patient player. You sit on Black's side, as Morphy.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Paris, 1858: Morphy meets Adolf Anderssen, the hero of the Immortal Game, and takes his king apart in nineteen moves.
In 1858 Morphy crossed the Atlantic to find the strongest opponents in Europe. In Paris he played a match against Adolf Anderssen of Germany, the winner of the great London tournament of 1851 and the hero of the Immortal Game. Morphy won the match clearly. In this game he opens with the King's Gambit, Anderssen's own kind of chess.
Replay it in Torre · 6 min
London, 1858: Henry Bird castles long, and Morphy gives up a rook so his queen can land next to the white king.
Before Paris, Morphy spent the summer of 1858 in London, playing England's best. Henry Bird was a strong English master who loved unusual openings; an opening that starts by pushing the f-pawn two squares is still called Bird's Opening. Here Bird has White, and Morphy meets 1.e4 with an aggressive early ...f5. You play Black, as Morphy.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
1886: in the first official world championship match, Steinitz blockades an isolated pawn and slowly squeezes Zukertort.
In 1886 Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort played a match in the United States that counts as the first official world championship. Steinitz won it and became the first world champion. He taught something new: before you attack, collect small advantages, like a weak pawn or a strong square. In this game he has Black. You play his side.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Amsterdam, 1889: the young Emanuel Lasker sacrifices both bishops to strip the black king bare.
Emanuel Lasker was world champion for twenty-seven years, from 1894 to 1921, longer than anyone else. Years before that, in Amsterdam in 1889, the young Lasker played this game against Johann Bauer. He opens with 1.f4, Bird's Opening, aims both bishops at the black king, and then gives them both away.
Replay it in Torre · 6 min
A young American in his first big tournament, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, wins one of the strongest events ever held. Here he beats Tarrasch.
In 1895 the English seaside town of Hastings hosted a tournament with almost every great player of the day: the world champion Emanuel Lasker, the former champion Wilhelm Steinitz, Siegbert Tarrasch and Mikhail Chigorin among them. The winner was a 22-year-old American few of them knew, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, in his first big international tournament. This is his game against Tarrasch, one of the favourites.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
World champion Lasker meets the rising Capablanca in the final stage and wins with a quiet opening and one bold pawn push.
In 1914 many of the world's strongest players met in St Petersburg. After a first stage, the top five played each other again in a final: Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch and Frank Marshall. Capablanca was leading, but in this game the world champion Lasker beat him, and Lasker went on to win the tournament by half a point.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
New York, 1909: the young José Raúl Capablanca trades queens and beats Frank Marshall with a rook on the seventh rank.
José Raúl Capablanca, from Cuba, learned chess as a small child and became famous for making it look easy. In 1909 he played a match against Frank Marshall, one of the strongest players in America, and won it by a wide margin. This game shows his style: no wild attack, just better pieces, a well-timed queen trade and a rook on the seventh rank.
Replay it in Torre · 6 min
New York, 1924: Capablanca gives up two pawns so his king can march up the board and win a rook ending.
By 1924 Capablanca was world champion; he had taken the title from Lasker in 1921. At the great New York tournament of 1924 he met Savielly Tartakower, an inventive and witty master. The middlegame was quiet. Then came a rook ending, and Capablanca played it in a way players still study: his king walked straight up the board.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Amsterdam, 1938: Botvinnik pushes a central pawn to e7 and sacrifices a bishop to make it queen, against Capablanca.
In 1938 a Dutch broadcasting company held a tournament for eight of the best players in the world, known as AVRO. Mikhail Botvinnik, the young Soviet champion who later became world champion, faced José Raúl Capablanca, the world champion of the 1920s. The game is still taught as a model of a pawn center rolling forward.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Yugoslavia, 1959: the 22-year-old Tal sacrifices his queen against a former world champion, and wins the brilliancy prize.
Mikhail Tal played chess like a magician: pieces vanished from his board and reappeared in your nightmares. In 1959, at twenty-two, he faced Vasily Smyslov, a former world champion famous for impregnable defense, at the Candidates Tournament, with a world championship match at stake. Tal won this game with a queen sacrifice, took the brilliancy prize, and a year later was the youngest world champion in history. Press play.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Varna, 1962: Tal lets his queen be trapped and wins with the pieces he gets in return.
By 1962 Mikhail Tal had already been world champion, and everyone knew his style: sacrifice first, let the opponent prove it was wrong later. At the chess Olympiad in Varna, Bulgaria, he faced the German master Hans-Joachim Hecht. In this game Tal walks his queen into a trap on purpose. Press play and find his moves.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Bled, 1965: in the last game of a Candidates match, Tal throws a knight into the center and storms Larsen's king.
Tal lost his world title back to Botvinnik in 1961 and wanted it again. In 1965 he played the Danish star Bent Larsen in a Candidates semifinal at Bled, in Yugoslavia. This is the tenth and last game of their match. Tal won it, and the match with it. Press play.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Moscow, 1966: the world champion gives up two exchanges for squares, then finishes with a queen sacrifice.
Tigran Petrosian became world champion in 1963 and defended his title against Boris Spassky in Moscow in 1966. Petrosian was famous for stopping his opponent's plans before they started, and for giving up a rook for a minor piece, an exchange sacrifice, when it gave his pieces better squares. This game has both, and a queen sacrifice too.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
New York, 1956: thirteen-year-old Bobby Fischer gives up his queen and wins with a windmill of discovered checks.
Bobby Fischer was thirteen when he sat down against Donald Byrne, one of the strongest players in the United States, at a tournament in New York. Fischer had Black. What he did in this game was so far beyond his age that chess writers soon called it the Game of the Century. You play Fischer's side.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Buenos Aires, 1971: Fischer swaps a beautiful knight for a bishop because the endgame that follows is easier to win.
In 1971 Fischer tore through the Candidates matches, beating Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen without losing a game. In the final he met Tigran Petrosian, a former world champion who was almost impossible to beat. This is game seven of that final. Fischer won the match and the right to play Spassky for the title.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Reykjavik, 1972: in the match of the century, Fischer surprises Spassky with 1.c4 and plays a perfect positional game.
In 1972 Bobby Fischer challenged the world champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland. During the Cold War the match drew attention far beyond chess. For game six Fischer, who almost always opened with his king's pawn, pushed the c-pawn instead. He won the game, and later the match, becoming world champion.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Nice, 1974: Anatoly Karpov takes away every useful move from his opponent until he gives up with equal material.
Anatoly Karpov became world champion in 1975, when Bobby Fischer did not defend his title, and then held it for ten years. His style was a slow squeeze: grab space, take away the opponent's good squares, and wait. At the 1974 Olympiad in Nice he played the West German grandmaster Wolfgang Unzicker.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Wijk aan Zee, 1999: Garry Kasparov gives up a rook and chases Topalov's king from a7 all the way to d1.
Garry Kasparov took the world title from Karpov in 1985 and kept it until 2000. In 1999, at the Hoogovens tournament in Wijk aan Zee, he played the rising Bulgarian star Veselin Topalov. This game is famous for a rook sacrifice followed by a king hunt across the whole board.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min
Budapest, 2003: Judit Polgár gives a knight and a rook to tear open the h-file against Ferenc Berkes.
Judit Polgár is the strongest woman ever to play chess. She became a grandmaster at fifteen, younger than Fischer had been, and she played in the world's top ten. She was famous for fearless attacks. In this game in Budapest she faces the young Hungarian Ferenc Berkes.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Wijk aan Zee, 2004: a thirteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen sacrifices a knight, a bishop and a rook and mates.
Magnus Carlsen, from Norway, later became world champion and the highest-rated player in history. In January 2004 he was thirteen and playing in the third group of the big tournament at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Against the Dutch player Sipke Ernst he played an attack that made people notice him.
Replay it in Torre · 7 min
Chennai, 2013: in the world championship match, Carlsen presses an equal endgame for hours until Anand cracks.
In 2013 Magnus Carlsen, aged twenty-two, challenged the world champion Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, in Anand's home country, India. The first four games were drawn. In game five Carlsen took a quiet, almost equal endgame and kept pressing. He won the game and later the match, becoming world champion.
Replay it in Torre · 8 min