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| Annotation Puzzle | Annotation | Annotator | Year | Opening | Result | Introduction |
| Click | Aagaard vs Ubilava | cuppablanca | 2007 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Anyone watching the current (2007) British Chess Championship may be surprised to see Jacob Aagard (formerly of Denmark, now domiciled and playing for Scotland) at the top of the leader board. Has he appeared from nowhere? Not exactly - he has been working hard on his game and has produced some great results recently, including this gem from a recent Spanish team tournament. His opponent is a Georgian Grandmaster and a former second of Vishy Anand: |
| Click | Acers vs Lawless | Steelhead | 1972 | Bishop's Opening | 1-0 | Gambit play reminiscent of yore. |
| Click | Adams vs Anand | Paul Georghiou | French Defense...Rubinstein Variation | A typical Adams game. He nurtures a slight non-decisive edge for a long time and Anand eventually cracks | ||
| Click | Adams vs Ponomariov | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Zaitsev Variation | Michael Adams, the Uks No.1 seed grinds down Ponomariov in his typical style | ||
| Click | Adams vs Vallejo Pons | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Rio de Janerio Defense | Pons tries the Berlin defence to the Ruy Lopez again and holds Adams to a draw after a brief tactical battle | ||
| Click | Adams vs Shirov | FMSmith | Sicilian Defense | Adams-Shirov Annotated. | ||
| Click | Adams vs Kasparov | FMSmith | 2005 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | This was Kasparov's last, great, professional win. |
| Click | Adams vs Gurevich | SuperMac | 2006 | French Defense | 1-0 | The game revolves around the centre pawns with both players trying to gain the majority of attackers on a single pawn |
| Click | Adams vs Reshevsky | Tartajubow | 1936 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Lapus Manus System | 0-1 | Avoiding blunders that drop pieces, knowing when to look for a combination and what to do when there isn't one is illustrated in this game. Reshevsky just plays solid developing moves, makes no long range plans, avoids Adams threats, and finishes off the game with a surprising tactical shot of his own. |
| Click | Alekhine vs Sterk | Comte de MonteCristo | 1921 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | Alekhine won a brilliancy prize for this game played in the Budapest tournament of September, 1921. Alekhine's complex combination covers most of the chessboard and has a multitude of branches. |
| Click | Alekhine vs Gregory | Comte de MonteCristo | 1909 | Vienna Game | 1-0 | Alekhine won first prize in the Amateurs Section of the St. Petersburg tournament of 1909, in which this game was played. The Masters Section of the same tournament was won jointly by Lasker and Rubinstein. |
| Click | Alekhine vs Yates | Earl of Norfolk | 1922 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | In the following game, Black (Yates) weakens his black squares with 11...f5 and 13...b5. White (Alekhine) makes continual use of these weak squares throughout the game, as well as seizing control of the open c-file and doubling his Rooks on the seventh rank. The result is a complete positional crush. |
| Click | Anand vs Vallejo Pons | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Rio de Janerio Defense | Annotations by Paul Georghiou (FIDE 2258), Tryfon Gavriel (FIDE 2170) This game features the Berlin defence - a very solid defence against the Ruy Lopez. In this game the queens come off early, and through some positional manouvering black achieves equality. | ||
| Click | Anand vs Kasparov | Paul Georghiou | Sicilian Defense | Kasparov shows how comfortable he is with his favourite Najdorf gaining a slight advantage seemingly without effort against the World No.3 | ||
| Click | Anderssen vs Rosenthal | jim42078, Lord Ptarmigan | 1873 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano) | 1-0 | Adolf Anderssen was one of the great players of the 1800's. He was renowned for his romantic style, and two of his games live on today as the Immortal and the Evergreen games. Samuel Rosenthal was also a strong player. However, his ill health and journalistic job affected his performances. Nevertheless he played in many high-strength tounraments, but never quite reached the world renown of his opponent here. In this Evans Gambit game, from late on in Anderssen's career, White's attacking totally overwhelms Black and crushes him after only 16 moves. |
| Click | Arakhamia vs Pert | SuperMac | 2006 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Advance, 6. ... Ne7 | 1-0 | |
| Click | Aronian vs Svidler | rich1chess | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Grunfeld Defense | 0-1 | Peter Svidler demonstrates why he is considered one of the world's leading Gruenfeld experts. His endgame technique in this game shows how simple it should be!! |
| Click | Bhat vs Panchanathan | Steelhead | 2006 | Trompovsky Attack | 1-0 | A game played in the Internet Chess Club's United States Chess League. |
| Click | Bird vs Showalter | CycloneGU | 1899 | French Defense...Steinitz Variation | 0-1 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. Except where noted, the following annotations are taken directly from the Book of the London International Chess Congress and translated to algebraic notation. In the book, this Round 1 game was game #95 on pages 175-6. |
| Click | Blackburne vs Teichmann | CycloneGU | 1899 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Hungarian Defense | 1/2-1/2 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. This game is a classic struggle to find a weakness where none exists. A closed game that remained truly closed, and Rooks look like the weak pieces as a result. |
| Click | Bogoljubow vs Tarrasch | Alkhemyst | 1925 | Alekhine's Defense | 1-0 | This game was played at Breslau, Germany in 1925 at the DSB Kongress. It is interesting because Tarrasch plays a radically different type of opening than he normally would. I have therefore fittingly dubbed the line he chose as the "Tarrasch Variation." |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Spielmann | kereru | 1935 | Caro-Kann Defense | 1-0 | Spielmann plays a trendy new move from recently published analysis. Unfortunately for Spielmann, Botvinnik has read the article too. He proceeds to demolish his opponent in 12 moves, entirely from his home preparation. |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Euwe | Merkin Muffley | 1948 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | Yet another example of Botvinnik's ability to ruthlessly exploit the subtle errors of the world's greatest players... |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Tal | Merkin Muffley | 1961 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1-0 | A very poor continuation to the opening from Tal leaves his position in tatters as Botvinnik's better piece play takes advantage of Tal's premature opening of the board. An instructive lesson on how not to play the Nimzo-Indian from the 8th world champion. |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Portisch | kereru | 1968 | English Opening | 1-0 | Botvinnik plays his favourite English Opening, leading to a Reversed Sicilian Dragon. Feeling the pressure from White's fianchettoed bishop, Portisch tries to regroup, but is crushed by a sudden king's side attack. |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Vidmar | Simon Latulippe | 1936 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | The Book of the Nottingham International Chess Tournament by A. Alekhine is one of my favorites of all times. Its games and annotations thrill me. See how much you can learn from just one of the games of this magnificent tournament. The annotations are by me, Simon Gravel. Enjoy. |
| Click | Botvinnik vs Smyslov | Merkin Muffley | 1954 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Lapus Manus System | 1-0 | With a supreme piece of home preparation white lulls black into a historical good line for black before springing an inspired novelty that lead to Smyslov's position collapsing. |
| Click | Byrne vs Fischer | The_Insider | 1963 | Queen's Gambit...Neo-Grunfeld Variation | 0-1 | |
| Click | Capablanca vs Alekhine | kingscrusher | 1913 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | Alekhine crushed by Capa. |
| Click | Capablanca vs Janowski | Carmelo Risquet | 1914 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | Capablanca was known for his elegant and simplistic style. In this game he once again demonstrates how easy he carries a pawn assault as he makes a crushing pawn advance on a semmingly impregnable position. |
| Click | Capablanca vs Marshall | Carmelo Risquet | 1918 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | The Feature of this Game is the manner in which White Whether the storm which shakes his position after 15....Nxf2 and how he slowly regains control of the position to a brilliant Finish! |
| Click | Capablanca vs Marshall | FatMac | 1918 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | |
| Click | Carlsen vs Morozevich | Arkba | 2006 | King's Indian Defense | 1-0 | Play proceeds along classical lines with white claiming space on the queenside with a closed centre and black advancing on the kingside. A tough and fluctuating battle. |
| Click | Charousek vs Burn | Earl of Norfolk | 1898 | King's Gambit...Allagier & Kiesertisky Gambits | 1-0 | The following game between Rudolph Charousek of Hungary and Amos Burn of England is much anthologised. P.W. Sergeant's book on Charousek's games and later analysis by Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev make the game seem like a smooth, seamless victory for Charousek, but on looking closer it seems that these esteemed analysts missed a few of the finer points of the game. |
| Click | Chigorin vs Pillsbury | CycloneGU | 1899 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano) | 0-1 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. The following was, in my personal opinion, probably the best game of the first round of the tournament, going down to an endgame with plenty of moves left. An error turns the tide in the favour of the winner. |
| Click | Cohn vs Schlechter | CycloneGU | 1899 | Ponziani Opening | 1-0 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. Wilhelm Herr Cohn was one of the lesser-known players, but nonetheless produced this fine gem when his opponent got a bit careless with his pawn advances. |
| Click | Cutmore vs Gavriel | kingscrusher | 2006 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 0-1 | This was a London north-circular league club match between Wood Green and Barnet chess club |
| Click | Deike vs Keating | Arkba | 2006 | Pirc Defense | 0-1 | A chance to look at how several openings are related by pawn structures and a good tactical battle. |
| Click | Duras vs Cohn | Earl of Norfolk | 1911 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Anderssen Variation | 1-0 | Oldrich Duras, from Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was one of the world's top players in the decade prior to the outbreak of World War I. Erich Cohn was a German master who died in combat during that same war. At the Karlsbad tournament of 1911, they produced one of the classic attack/counterattacking games of all time. |
| Click | Ermenkov vs Triana | kingscrusher | 1975 | 1-0 | Test puzzle annotation | |
| Click | Farago vs Vul | BINLAYDOFF | 2006 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | |
| Click | Fischer vs Taimanov | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | How does White win this marathon? Go to 56Ke3, watch him relinquish his passed P, then play through the rest of the game, noticing how his K becomes a powerful force on the K side, while Black's K is successfully excluded and must hang around uselessly in the centre. Then go and do likewise! |
| Click | Fischer vs Spassky | jeno mulder | 1972 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | This was the third time in his carreer that Fischer played the Englisch opening; Spasski does not spend any time to look to this opening in the meaning that Fischer never play this opening.But the unexpected appear. |
| Click | Fischer vs Larsen | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | In 1971 Bobby Fischer beat GMs Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by the amazing scores of 6-0! I'm not familiar with the Taimanov games, but the Larsen matches are my all time favourites. Here is the third of them. |
| Click | Fischer vs Taimanov | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | White's King reduces Black to pulp! |
| Click | Fischer vs Taimanov | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Pawns win games. Here a one P advantage proves critical. |
| Click | Flear vs Aagaard | cuppablanca | 2007 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 0-1 | In the last round of the 2007 British Championship, Jacob Aagaard had to win with the Black pieces to have any chance of winning the title outright. But his GM opponent wasn't about to make it easy for him. A tale of missed opportunities and a dramatic turnaround. (Note from the annotator - if you haven't already done so. you might first like to try the exercises I have set based on this game - look for the thread with the same title as the game.) |
| Click | Flores vs Dzhumaev | jsdhl1 | 2006 | English Opening | 1-0 | This is a tactical game with piece activity dominating the board. Dzhumaev misses 19..Be6 but takes the advantage with 20...exd4. Unfortunately, Dzhumaev does press his advantage and after 30...Re4? and 31...Ne7?? Flores corners the black king with his queen and rook. |
| Click | Ftacnik vs Cvitan | kirkkabaine | 1997 | King's Indian Defense | 0-1 | Both sides agree to go down one of the sharpest most chaotic lines of the kings indian defence, White`s attack is always ahead of Black but Black is attacking the King! |
| Click | Gelfand vs Aronian | Arkba | 2006 | Queen's Indian Defense...Accelerated Fianchetto Variation | 1-0 | In a sharp encounter, Gelfand repeatedly turns down a piece in order to carry out his plan. I hope I have provided enough analysis to show how well white played in this game and that the ideas are clear. Enjoy |
| Click | Glucksberg vs Najdorf | Alkhemyst | 1935 | Dutch Defense | 0-1 | This without question one of the most stunning brilliancies ever played. It's a masterpiece characterized by clever sacrifices. Called the "Polish Immortal," it was played between Najdorf and Glucksberg in Warsaw, Poland and commonly dated as having taken place in 1935 -- but this is incorrect as the game had already been published in 1930. More likely the game was played around 1928-1930. Najdorf was a Polish Master who later became an Argentine citizen. |
| Click | GM_Topalov vs Kramnik | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Slav Defense...Main Line | 0-1 | Another tactical maelstrom of a game by both players. This time Topalov as white has the clear opportunity to win after 31...Bxf8?? with 32.Rxg4+ but fails to find the winning moves. Even when material is reduced but the queens are still on the board Topalov is much better. That is until 42.Bg5?! when Topalov hands Kramnik the initiative, and with it ultimately, the game. |
| Click | Gormally vs Arakhamia | SuperMac | 2006 | King's Indian Defense | 1-0 | In The Opening lines of the King's Indian White's 4.e4 is classed as a miscellaneous side line, and again with the diversity of Chess we need to look over all variations if we are to consider playing a certain system in our opening repetoire |
| Click | Hansen vs Rasmussen | Colonel Moreau | 2006 | Dutch Defense | 1/2-1/2 | The young dane Allan Stig Rasmussen made his first GM norm in the recent 2006 Copenhagen open. In last round he drew with GM de Firmian and the day before Rasmussen had black against GM Curt Hansen. |
| Click | Hebden vs Moser | kingscrusher | 2008 | Philidor's Defense | 1-0 | This is for an annotated puzzle mainly, but the game is very short and sweet in its own right. |
| Click | Hebden vs Greet | SuperMac | 2006 | Queen's Pawn Game | 1-0 | This game starts with a Torre attack with slight variations, Players use these unusual openings to take opponents out of the traditional well trod opening lines |
| Click | Ivanchuk vs Adams | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Marshall Gambit | This is an incredible game, which provided a complete contrast to many of the previous games of this tournament. It is complete tactic mayhem for several moves which settles down to a position where black has Rook, Knight and bishop for Queen... | ||
| Click | Ivanchuk vs Shirov | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Zaitsev Variation | This game shows just how boring the chess of super grandmasters can be when they can't be bothered to make a fight of it! | ||
| Click | Ivanchuk vs Kasparov | Paul Georghiou | King's Indian Attack | This is cagey positional battle, ending in a draw | ||
| Click | Ivkov vs Korchnoi | Arkba | 2006 | Queen's Indian Defense...Bogo Variation | 0-1 | In a tight tactical battle, the game is finely balanced. Black builds up the activity of his pieces and heaps pressure on the white position until it cracks. |
| Click | Jobava vs Kramnik | Arkba | 2006 | Queen's Indian Defense | 0-1 | Black sacrifices a piece for pawns and white resigns. I present some example lines of how the game might continue. Black (Kramnik) seems to have a good advantage but white's resignation is still quite surprising. Enjoy. |
| Click | Jobava vs Svidler | GoBoSox | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Grunfeld Defense | 0-1 | New ideas in the opening still occur as early as move 7! |
| Click | Johner vs Tarrasch | Earl of Norfolk | 1923 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | Siegbert Tarrasch of Germany (1862-1934) was the principle spokeman for the Classical School of Chess. Amongst his various pronouncements was his theory of the Queen's Gambit Declined. He heavily advocated the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5, known as the "Tarrasch Defence." Hence it is all the more surprising that he avoids his own defence in the following game, and promptly loses! |
| Click | Jones vs Davies | SuperMac | 2006 | Scotch Game | 1-0 | "The Scotch Game" This opening was played widely from it's initial appearance in the London v Edinburgh match in 1824, it then died out through most of the 20th century, until revived by Kasparov who played it in three of his world title matches (1990, 1993, and 1995) |
| Click | Kamsky vs Ponomariov | FatMac | 2006 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Marshall Gambit | 1-0 | From a modest closed spanish opening to a fierce attack out of nothing. Or Also Top GM's lose, and guess what they did wrong... |
| Click | Karpov vs Portisch | kingscrusher | 2006 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1/2-1/2 | test |
| Click | Karpov vs Portisch | kingscrusher | 2006 | English Opening | 1/2-1/2 | This game shows a Maroczy bind and the typical manoevers the player fighting against the bind typically plays. |
| Click | Karpov vs Timman | jsdhl1 | 1979 | Pirc Defense | 1-0 | This game is analysed by Mark Dvoretsky in the book “Positional Play” in the chapter “Prophylatic Thinking”. This game between Karpov and Timman, played in the Montreal 1979 tournament is used as a paradigm of prophylaxis. Karpov is said to have “squeezed the oxygen out of Timman’s pieces”. It is certainly a striking game. Timman does not play particularly well, but Karpov does appear to miss more forcing moves in the game (particularly move 22). Nevertheless, it is a very interesting game to study. I have compared analysis in the book and by the computer where applicable. |
| Click | Kasparov vs Radjabov | The_Insider | 2003 | French Defense...Steinitz Variation | 0-1 | |
| Click | Kasparov vs Shirov | Paul Georghiou | Sicilian Defense | This is the round after Kasparov has "woken up" from his draws by beating Adams with a brilliant exchange sacrifice. | ||
| Click | Kasparov vs Vallejo Pons | IM_AndrewMartin | Sicilian Defense | Kasparov came to the board determined to rub Pons out. The first aim seemed to be to create a position which defied clarification - this he certainly acheived. Pons opening choice has already come in for some criticism,but I think it was rather inspired. Taking a leaf out of Kramnik's book,who confronted Kasparov with these messy 'hedgehog' positions in their recent match, Black was alwys fighting and with a bit more luck might well have won. It's only a couple of days after the game so I'll only give some opening notes and touch on the critical moments . A fuller analysis might well take some considerable time. | ||
| Click | Kasparov vs Anand | diggeo | 2001 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Archangel Variation; Moeller Attack | 1/2-1/2 | Just after losing his title to Kramnik, Kasparov had the chance to take his revenge in this famous annual tournament, in which participated all the masters -Anand (then FIDE champion), Kramnik, Topalov, Adams ... and to demonstrate his superiority. And he finished undefeated - 1.kasparov 9 2.Anand 8,5 3.Kramnik 8 ... Anand had the oportunity to take the 1st place with this game, but ... |
| Click | Kasparov vs Tal | dconterno | 1987 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1-0 | The young Master gives the old Master a lesson on time management. Not the clock time but on how to utilise precious tempi to create a devastating advantage. |
| Click | Kasparov vs Anand | Paul Georghiou | Sicilian Defense | Kasparov launched a dangerous looking attack but Anand just managed to hold on under pressure | ||
| Click | Kasparov vs Adams | Paul Georghiou | 2002 | Russian (Petroff's) Defense | 1-0 | Kasparov who up to this point looked sluggish in the tournament wakes up to punish the UK's highest rated player Michael Adams with a nice sacrifice |
| Click | Kasparov vs Ponomariov | Paul Georghiou | French Defense...Rubinstein Variation | This was a key game with both players level on points with two rounds to go. Kasparov convincingly reasserted his status as World Number one player with this victory | ||
| Click | Kaufman vs Cannon | steve1954 | 2007 | English Opening | 1-0 | |
| Click | Kennaugh vs Shirazi | Steelhead | 2003 | King's Gambit | 0-1 | A wild ride on the gambit side. Shirazi breathes some new life into an ancient gambit generally thought to be slightly worse than inferior – but, is it? |
| Click | Keres vs Kotov | tihi | 1950 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | There are two reasons for analyzing this game. First is the honour to great Estonian chess player Paul Keres. I admire him not only because of his games, but also for his generosity and goodnes. He had never making conflicts and scandals, and this is maybe reason that his opus don't attract so many attention as he deserves. He is one of immortals, like Fischer, Talj or Kasparov. |
| Click | Korchnoi vs Kasparov | QuickInstallation | 1982 | Modern Benoni Defense | 0-1 | This is my first Masters game annotation, so do send me a message if there are any errors and I will try to correct them. On with the game, then. This game, from the 1982 Lucerne Olympiad, was the first time Kasparov, aged 19, played Korchnoi, a veteran of 51. |
| Click | Kotov vs Tal | dconterno | 1958 | King's Indian Defense | 0-1 | Kotov does not play the opening in a clear and logical manner - a poor Bishop move (14. Bd2) let Tal improve his position at Kotov's expenses. This Bishop move leads to the loss of one tempo and Tal makes sure that his game becomes very active. |
| Click | Kramnik vs Topalov | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Catalan Opening | 1/2-1/2 | An understandably dull game from both sides. Kramnik 2-0 up wants to consolidate his advantage, Topalov wants to stop losing! Another open Catalan, there are no surprises here until move 35 when Kramnik (if feeling adventurous which he clearly was not) could have played for a small advantage with 35.Ra7 going for black's queen side pawns. But after 35...f5 the game is an utter draw. Oh well, we had the fireworks in games 1 and 2, onto game 4. |
| Click | Kramnik vs Topalov | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | Another Meran but this time there were early exchanges, including the queens. The tactical duel that ensues is well fought by both players, revolving around the c3-pawn. The game is roughly level until 26...Rc6?! when Topalov plays to meekly, allowing Kramnik to win a pawn and clear the way for his own queenside pawns to advance. Topalov’s position deteriorates until 44...Rxc5?? which loses immediately. Another grim game for Topalov as he was truly beaten by Kramnik here. |
| Click | Kramnik vs GM Topalov | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Catalan Opening | 1-0 | First games in World championship finals tend to be nervy affairs as both players find their feet and get used to the conditions. They also do not want to give too much away to their opponent. This game however is a tactical struggle with Topalov clearly wanting to show that he is playing to win. The position is drawn by move 50, and Kramnik's repetitive rook moves on the second rank demonstrate his willingness for this result. However, Topalov plays on and alas blunders a pawn, and the game, away with 57...f5?? A bitter defeat for Topalov would will not be able to afford to do that too often against Kramnik. Kramnik must be chuckling to himself right now... |
| Click | Kramnik vs Topalov | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Queen's Gambit | 0-1 | Another Meran, but this time no big exchanges. White plays for rook and queeside majority vs two knights. However, Topalov brilliantly demonstrates the power of the two knights in these positions, steadily outplaying Kramnik. From moves 21-41 white's position deteriorates until 41.Kg3? which critically exposes the white king to mating threats from the centrally placed knights and roaming rook. The result is never really in doubt after this and white eventually resigns on move 52 when mate is inevitable. A great positonal game by Topalov who must have thoguht that he was only going to beat Kramnik if Kramnik did not turn up! |
| Click | Kramnik vs Topalov | JudgeDeath | 2005 | Catalan Opening | 1-0 | The latest meeting between the two players, and of interest to the RoW team, as the Bern game could have transposed into something similar at one point. |
| Click | Kramnik vs Topalov | JudgeDeath | 2005 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | This is the second most recent game between the two World Chapionship contenders, and is characterised by a series of mistakes culminating in several horrific blunders at the end of the game. |
| Click | Larsen vs Fischer | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | In 1971 Bobby Fischer beat GMs Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by the amazing scores of 6-0! I'm not familiar with the Taimanov games, but the Larsen matches are my all time favourites. Here is the second of them. |
| Click | Larsen vs Fischer | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | One pawn good - two pawns better! |
| Click | Larsen vs Fischer | Jurassic | 1971 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | The game shown here bears a remarkable resemblance to Larsen,Bent vs. Fischer,Robert J 1971, cm2 - Round 06, Denver, (ID: 4114 Game Number: 800632) which I have annotated as Six Nil: Part VI! I think there may be an error here! |
| Click | Lasker vs Napier | Earl of Norfolk | 1904 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | A wild game in which the combinations are exchanged like gunshots in the Old West. The loser of this game, William Napier, said of it some 30 years later, "This is, I think, my best game [ever], and very certainly the one I most enjoyed playing." Quite a tribute for a lost game! |
| Click | Lasker vs Reshevsky | Simon Latulippe | 1936 | Queen's Gambit | 0-1 | A young Reshevsky wins in 22 moves with Black against the ex-world champion Lasker. Reshevsky came in 3rd place ex-aequo in this great tournament. Lasker placed 7th ex-aequo. |
| Click | Lasker vs Steinitz | CycloneGU | 1899 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Modern Steinitz Defense | 1/2-1/2 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. Emanuel Lasker, the eventual winner of the event (sorry for the spoiler), had a rough first week and submitted this unusual game with Steinitz as evidence. |
| Click | Leconte vs Hou Yifan | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | A game of quite a few inaccuracies, one good move, and one which lost the game. White plays a double fianchetto formation against the sicilian dragon and hands black an advantage by move 12. However, by pressuring down the f-file white spots a good tactical finesse with 26.Rxe7! giving him a significant advantage. This however whittles down to a level game which by the ending looks drawn with best play. Unfortnately for Leconte, 49.Kh3?? immediately leads to mate, and black duely obliges... |
| Click | Lutz vs Kasparov | FMSmith | Sicilian Defense | This was a very tense and interesting game. | ||
| Click | Maroczy vs Pillsbury | Earl of Norfolk | 1896 | Four Knights' Opening | 1-0 | I saw this game annotated by Bruce Pandolfini in a recent issue of Chess Life and, during a brief moment of insanity, I actually thought that I could do a better job. Be that as it may ... The winner of this game was playing in his first master's tournament (he won the amateur section at Hastings the year before), while the loser had just won his first major tournament the previous year (the master's section of the same tournament at Hastings). This game is a great example of how to make life miserable for your opponent. White's Pawn at d6 is a thorn in Black's flesh, paralysing his game so that he can come up with no coherent plan. A very fun game to watch for the sadistically minded. |
| Click | Maroczy vs Chigorin | Alkhemyst | 1903 | King's Gambit...Muzio Gambit | 1-0 | Maroczy was a Hungarian Grandmaster who was thought (around the time of this game) to be a challenger to Emanuel Lasker who was then World Champion. Chigorin was a Russian Grandmaster, a founding father of the Soviet school of chess, and was an expert gambit player. Gambits such as the King's Gambit and the Vienna Gambit started to decline in popularity towards the 20th century. The game here was played in a gambit theme tournament held in Vienna, 1903. |
| Click | Marshall vs Bogoljubow | Earl of Norfolk | 1924 | Queen's Pawn Game | 1-0 | In the New York Tournament of 1924, there was some dispute as to who should have won the First Brilliancy Prize. Richard Réti won it for his game against Bogoljubow, but at the time many thought that it should have gone to Frank Marshall for his game against the same opponent, which won the Second Brilliancy Prize. I have previously annotated Réti's game, and now present Marshall's. |
| Click | Marshall vs Capablanca | Earl of Norfolk | 1918 | Queen's Gambit | 0-1 | Long before the advent of chess-playing computers, José Raúl Capablanca of Cuba played chess that seemed so perfect and flawless to his contemporaries, that they dubbed him "The Chess Machine." Here is one of his games from his heydey, and indeed, I doubt that any computer could have played it better. |
| Click | Mason vs Maroczy | CycloneGU | 1899 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | The London International Chess Congress in 1899 featured 15 of the greatest chess players playing at the turn of the century. One of the players in the event was James Mason, who made his mark in 1876 by winning the Fourth American Congress in Philadelphia, and also defeated Henry Bird in an easily won match by a margin of 13-6. He continued to play in tournaments right up to his death on January 12, 1905. |
| Click | McShane vs Jones | SuperMac | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Tchigorin Variation | 1-0 | Chigorin's Defence, White gains a lovely Kingside attack with both Rooks and Queen in on the action, but it's a lowly pawn on d6 that is a thorn in Blacks side. |
| Click | Mileika vs Tal | dconterno | 1953 | Modern Benoni Defense | 0-1 | This game illustrates how important it is to understand an opening. In this game, Tal's opponent did not grasp the nature of the Benoni Defence and paid its price. |
| Click | Morozevich vs Korchnoi | EnasYorl | 2004 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Anderssen Variation | 1-0 | This game was played on board 1 round 2 of the 2004 Olympiad between Russia, represented by Morozevich and Switzerland represented by the Russian born veteran Korchnoi, one of the greatest players never to be classical world champion. Korchnoi has been in the top 100 players in the world for almost 50 years and recently became World Senior Champion. Even superGMs have senior moments it seems! |
| Click | Morphy vs Meek | EnasYorl | 1857 | French Defense | 1-0 | Judge Alexander Beaufort Meek (1814-1865)was the president of, and participant in, the first American national chess congress in 1857. A knockout competition without seeding this game was from the second round. Chess history remembers Meek as a punching bag for Paul Morphy, but in his time he was regarded as a strong player. Outside of the chess world he had a distinguished legal career, serving as assistant secretary to the treasury under President Polk. |
| Click | Morphy vs Duke | EnasYorl | 1858 | Philidor's Defense | 1-0 | One the most beautiful and informative games of all time, Morphy vs Allies is one of the all time classic games and has been used by generations of teachers. The game was played in Paris 1858, between the American Paul Morphy and two european aristocrats, The Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. ( Think vs Bill Gates and Donald Trump and put another 0 on the end of their nett worth and you have the general idea). The duo had, according to legend, asked Morphy for a game whilst Morphy, a known opera buff was listening to Barber of Seville/Norma/Figaro ( history is a bit obscure on this point. )Morphy felt obliged to accept, but not wanting to miss the performance crushed them like bugs in one of the most brutally instuctive games of all time. In 17 moves there are double attacks, pins, a knight sacrifice, castling with tempo and finally a queen sacrifice for mate! |
| Click | Moylan vs Elnami | EnasYorl | 2006 | Ponziani Opening | 1-0 | The opening round of the chess Olympiad, where the highly rated countries are pitted against the minnows of the chess world are a prime source of "master vs amateur" games. Here opening blunders allow an attractive queen sacrifice for mate on move 13 |
| Click | Napoleon vs The | EnasYorl | 1809 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Exchange System | 0-1 | The Turk (1770-1854) was a famous chess playing automaton which toured Europe and the US. It played many famous people including Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin and the composer and chessmaster Philidor. The Turk was actually an ingenious mechanical device incorporating an illusion which allowed a human to hide inside the cabinet and operate the machine by means of a lever system. Several strong chessplayers of the period were employed as operators by The Turk's owners. Many theories were proposed over the years as to how The Turk operated with no one ever quite putting all the pieces of the magical trick together. In magician circles the illusion is regarded as one of the greatest of all time |
| Click | Nepomniachtchi vs Vallejo Pons | kereru | 2007 | Center Game | 0-1 | Remarkably, the opening follows a famous 1913 Capablanca game, in which he defeated Mieses despite blundering the exchange in the opening. (This game can be found in the classic "Chess Fundamentals"). Vallejo plays a perfect game, and utterly refutes his young opponent's "surprise" opening. |
| Click | Nestorovic vs Kosic | stringer | 2007 | French Defense...Steinitz Variation | 0-1 | |
| Click | Nezhmetdinov vs Tal | dconterno | 1957 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Swiss System | 1-0 | In chess, it is generally difficult to play someone who has a similar style to yours. Tal was not an exception and he always suffered from Nezhmetdinov's hand as this game will demonstrate. |
| Click | Nezhmetdinov vs Paoli | Tartajubow | 1954 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Although he lacked international titles and his games are not well known, if you like attacking play, Nezhmetdinov’s games are worthy of study. This game is a typical Sicilian where Black's play is a little passive and he makes one small error. White got a strong K-side attack and Black's K was caught in the center. |
| Click | Nezhmetdinov vs Paoli | kingscrusher | 1954 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Nez. plays very dynamically to get to black's king |
| Click | Nezhmetdinov vs Tal | dconterno | 1961 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Every single great players has had a Nemesis in his Chess career - a player against whom they could not achieve great success. Karpov had his Kasparov, Fischer had his Geller, ..., Tal had his Nezhmetdinov. Although Rashid Nezhmedinov only reached International Master status, he was more than a match for many top Grandmasters of his days. |
| Click | Nyholm vs Tartakower | EnasYorl | 1914 | Nordic Gambit | 0-1 | The Baden-Baden gambit tournament of 1914; with games such as this one, lead to the abandonment of the Danish gambit from high level chess. Was it premature? |
| Click | Parker vs Rowson | Arkba | 2006 | Queen's Indian Defense | 0-1 | The winner of this game would be come British Champion for 2006. The game took on a wild character and settled with black having positional advantages. Illuminating game. |
| Click | Parker vs Hebden | SuperMac | 2006 | King's Indian Defense | 1-0 | The Kings-Indian Four Pawns Attack, a system that was very popular years ago seems to leave the King open to attack,White tries to maintain his centre Black to undermind it. |
| Click | Pert vs Aagaard | cuppablanca | 2007 | Queen's Indian Defense | 0-1 | In 2002 Pert destroyed Aagaard's Queen's Indian in a tournament in Copenhagen. So when they met in the 2007 British Championship, Jacob had a score to settle. This he did with an original and imaginative piece sacrifice. |
| Click | Petrosian vs Gufeld | jsdhl1 | 1961 | King's Indian Defense | 1-0 | Another game that is considered an excellent example of prophylactic play. This game was played in the 1961 USSR Championships between Petrosian and Gufeld. Petriosian has always been considered one of the most prolific players of prophylactic technique, and in this game a young Gufeld is the poor recipient! Once again the computer disagrees with certain aspects of the analysis in the book the game is described in (Positional Play, analysis by Mark Dvoretsky) but it agrees that Petrosian simply outplays Gufeld. |
| Click | Petrosian vs Botvinnik | Merkin Muffley | 1952 | Queen's Gambit | 0-1 | A fascinating game containing a number of strategically bad decisions from one of the best defenders the game has ever seen, finished by a horrific blunder that brings a rapid mating net down from an typically efficient Botvinnik. |
| Click | Petschar vs Schwaninger | Arkba | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Bg3 System | 0-1 | A slav variation of the QGD. White has a good middle game position and black is holding on. A critical pawn capture for white is ignored and the initiative switches to black who plays strongly to the end. |
| Click | Piket vs Kasparov | jim42078, Lord Ptarmigan | 1989 | King's Indian Defense | 0-1 | The players: Jeroen Piket was in the top field of grandmasters throughout the 1990s, though he retired in 2001. Garry Kasparov is possibly the best player the world has seen, occupying the number one spot from 1986 to 2003. The game: Kasparov introduces a new idea in one of Piket's favourite lines and quickly shows its strength. White is left unable to deal with a knight on g3, and the game is effectively over as soon as this knight is joined by the queen coming in from a7. The final move is especially pretty and shows that the whole board is there to be used. Kingscrusher has done a video annotation of this game, that I would recommend you watch for further variations, especially as I would have been unable to complete this annotation without having watched this video. |
| Click | Polgar vs Svidler | QuickInstallation | 2005 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | This annotation is primarily for the basic/intermediate level ideas behind the opening and the middlegame in this game, because the game itself ends abruptly without an endgame of any note. I like the styles of both players and know the opening fairly well, and hence I have annotated this particular game. |
| Click | Ponomariov vs Shirov | Paul Georghiou | 2002 | Sicilian Defense | 1/2-1/2 | This is an exciting game where Shirov launches a sacrificial attack but is forced to bale out with a perpetual check |
| Click | Ponomariov vs Ivanchuk | Paul Georghiou | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Main Line | Ukraine has produced some very high calibre players, and these are the two finest examples. Ponomariov is the new rising star in the Chess world. At aged 18, he became FIDE World champion by defeating Ivanchuk in the final held in Moscow. This is a tense exciting battle in the French defence | ||
| Click | Ponomariov vs Vallejo Pons | Paul Georghiou | Sicilian Defense | In this one sided game Pons puts up minimal resistance against the new FIDE World Champion. | ||
| Click | Ponomariov vs Adams | Paul Georghiou | 2002 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | This game features Adams's favourite Marshall defence to the Ruy Lopez which usually scores very highly for him. However Ponomariov's disregard for material considerations leads to a crushing defeat for Adams. |
| Click | Porges vs Lasker | Earl of Norfolk | 1896 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Rio de Janerio Defense | 0-1 | Dr. Emanuel Lasker is, of course, one the greatest players of all time, holding the World Championship for a record 27 years. He also produced many beautiful games, including this little-known masterpiece. It features a solid defence to the Ruy Lopez, great middle game maneuvering to secure the initiative, two unexpected sacrifices, and, to cap it off, a pretty checkmate. Enjoy. |
| Click | Portisch vs Tal | kereru | 1964 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1/2-1/2 | Tal gets the worst of the opening, and rather than accepting a passive position he sacrifices numerous pieces. In the time trouble induced confusion, the players repeat moves. |
| Click | Radjabov vs Volokitin | GoBoSox | 2006 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | http://www.chessworld.net//che |
| Click | Reshevsky vs Donner | Tartajubow | 1966 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1-0 | Reshevsky wasn’t known for his sacrificial attacks, so when he first sac’s a P, then a B, one expects a brilliant game. But is it brilliant play or was it a case of there’s nothing better and the sacs offered him the best practical chances? See what you think of Reshevsky's 24th and 27th moves. |
| Click | Reshevsky vs Vaganian | kereru | 1976 | French Defense | 0-1 | Reshevsky plays ambitiously against Vaganian's French, setting up a massive pawn centre and wandering out to g3 with his king in order to maintain it. After all, there is no obvious way to exploit White's king's position is there? |
| Click | Reti vs Lasker | EnasYorl | 1908 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Max Lange Attack | 0-1 | This game was played in a timed simul in Vienna 1908. Lasker has been world champion for the last 14 years and was at the peak of his form, Reti was a 19 year old university maths student who was yet to make the switch to professional chess. |
| Click | Reti vs Bogoljubow | Earl of Norfolk | 1924 | English Opening | 1-0 | The New York Tournament of 1924 was memorable for several reasons. First, because it was won by ex-World Champion Emanuel Lasker over the then-current Champion José Capablanca, the latter of whom also suffered his first tournament game defeat (at the hands of Réti) in eight years. Also, there was a bit of a dispute over who should have won the First Brilliancy Prize, Richard Réti for the game presented below, or Frank Marshall, who won the Second Brilliancy Prize. |
| Click | Rowson vs Gormally | SuperMac | 2006 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 1-0 | |
| Click | Rubinstein vs Mortimer | sciurus | 1907 | Colle System | 1-0 | Rubinstein plays the Colle-Zukertort against Mortimer, who ventures on a kingside attack with Black which ultimately fails. This is rather unusual for this opening which more often leads to a strong attack on the king's side for White. |
| Click | Sakelsek vs Corbin | EnasYorl | 2004 | Latvian Gambit | 0-1 | Philip Corbin is the highest rated player ever to come from Barbados. He is best known for his use of the elephant gambit as a surprise weapon against all calibre of players. He has played it at least 9 times in Olympic competition earning the nickname "The Carribean Tal" |
| Click | Sambolec vs Zaja | Captain Evans | 2006 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | A Tal like speculative attack in the Ruy Lopez. |
| Click | Saptarshi vs Krasenkow | TicklyTim | 2006 | Sicilian Defense | 0-1 | The Black player of this Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian Defence is "Svesh God" Michal Krasenkow. |
| Click | Shirov vs Ivanchuk | FMSmith | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Marshall Gambit | Shirov-Ivanchuk battle annotated. | ||
| Click | Shirov vs Adams | Paul Georghiou | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Marshall Gambit | Adams again shows his mastery of the black side of the closed Ruy Lopez holding Shirov to a draw without any trouble | ||
| Click | Shirov vs Shirov | Paul Georghiou | Sicilian Defense | Shirov plays a theoretical piece sacrifice which turns out to be disastrous. Very quickly after the sacrifice, he obtained a completely lost position | ||
| Click | Shirov vs Anand | Paul Georghiou | 2002 | Sicilian Defense | 1/2-1/2 | The top Spanish player meets the top Indian player in this classic 1st round encounter at Linares. |
| Click | Short vs Hebden | SuperMac | 2006 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano) | 1-0 | The exciting games gained after Blacks 3...Nf6 is legend especially in club chess, leads to a lot of fireworks, but they can fizzle out for white with best defence from Black |
| Click | Short vs Negi | Arkba | 2006 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Nigel short plays to restrict blacks silician activity and exploits small positional pluses using all his pieces. Black is never allowed to free himself... |
| Click | Smith vs Reilly | Mr Miracle | 2007 | Pirc Defense | 1/2-1/2 | |
| Click | Smyslov vs Botvinnik | Merkin Muffley | 1954 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Swiss System | 0-1 | Smyslov challenges Botvinnik's French and ends up being maneuvered into a lost endgame by a typically solid Botvinnik |
| Click | Smyslov vs Petrosian | Majnu | 1967 | Catalan Opening | 1-0 | Smyslov included this beautiful game in his book 125 Selected Games. |
| Click | Smyslov vs Rudakovsky | Earl of Norfolk | 1945 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | In tribute to the recently deceased former World Champion, I annotated this game which was taken from a Soviet Championship tournament played in Moscow, 1945. |
| Click | Smyslov vs Botvinnik | Merkin Muffley | 1941 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Anderssen Variation | 0-1 | An illuminating game from two of the games greatest masters in which the power of the knight is exploited via some instructive maneuvres leading to a subtle endgame that was finished off in style by a ruthless Botvinnik. It's a 9-sides of A4 strategic slugfest! |
| Click | Solis vs Kashioka | EnasYorl | 2004 | Queen's Gambit | 1-0 | A quickie from the 2004 Women's Olympiad. Black blunders badly by grabbing a hot pawn without thought for the consequences |
| Click | Spassky vs Bronstein | Earl of Norfolk | 1960 | King's Gambit...Modern Variation | 1-0 | The following game between Boris Spassky and David Bronstein is one of the most anthologised games in chess history (it was even used in a movie!). Spassky's 15th move, in particular, is considered on a par with some of the sacrifices of Adolph Anderssen. However, as lionised as that move is, it may not be sound! It seems that Bronstein missed a better defence. Look at the game and the notes yourself and see what you think. |
| Click | Speelman vs Sokolov | Cumnor | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Slav Defense...Main Line | 0-1 | D18: Slav Defence: 5 a4 Bf5 6 e3 |
| Click | Steinitz vs Von Bardeleben | jim42078, Lord Ptarmigan | 1895 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano) | 1-0 | This is an early example of the attacking potential of the isolated queen's pawn position. Obviously, because it was early in chess history, white misses things, but nevertheless there is a lot in this game to be looked at for how to use IQP's for attacks. The ending is superb from white. |
| Click | Steinitz vs Chigorin | Earl of Norfolk | 1892 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Berlin Defense | 1-0 | Unlike some of his successors, the first World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, was never hesitate about defending his title. The following game is from his second title match with Mikhail Chigorin of Russia, and was played on January 7, 1892 in Havana, Cuba. Jose Capablanca, a future world champion who lived in Havana, was three years old at the time, and would learn to play chess about a year later. |
| Click | Steinkuehler vs Blackburne | Alkhemyst | 1863 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano) | 0-1 | This game was played in 1863 in Manchester; probably at the Manchester Chess Club. Blackburne played several games with Steinkuhler. Blackburne was well known for his particular mating style. This game is an excellent example of one of those checkmates...a nice little game. |
| Click | Tal vs Dzindzichashvili | dconterno | 1991 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | To play 'quiet' lines against strong tactical opponents has its drawback as illustrated in this game. Dzindzichashvili played a line that is not too challenging for Tal, thus allowing him to perform as you would expect... by creating a Kingside attack! |
| Click | Tal vs Fischer | dconterno | 1959 | King's Indian Defense...Petrosian Variation | 1-0 | Tal was at his peak in the late fifties. Fischer was then emerging as a strong youngster, but he had still lots to learn from the Russian Elite. |
| Click | Tal vs Kasparov | dconterno | 1980 | Caro-Kann Defense | 0-1 | In his prime, Tal was playing superb chess, where he could play complex tactical moves that were difficult to mitigate, mostly due to the level of chess knowledge in these days. 20 years later, most masters are capable of defending such games, even the younger masters.... |
| Click | Tal vs Bronstein | dconterno | 1971 | Caro-Kann Defense | 1-0 | Tal and Bronstein. Tactical genius against pure chess creativity - a battle of style. |
| Click | Tal vs Karpov | dconterno | 1987 | Caro-Kann Defense | 1-0 | Brussels 1987 - Two world Champions meet over a blitz game. When you know that they are M. Tal and A. Karpov, then you know you are in for a treat! |
| Click | Tal vs Simagin | dconterno | 1956 | Pirc Defense | 1-0 | This game is a good lesson in dynamic chess as played by one of its major Maestro. |
| Click | Tal vs Spassky | dconterno | 1980 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1-0 | Tal and Spassky... two great names from the 1950's to the 1980's. Here we have them playing a Ruy Lopez (Breyer defence) where once more, Tals demonstrates his attacking skills. |
| Click | Tal vs Tukmakov | dconterno | 1973 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Spanish Opening (Ruy Lopez) | 1/2-1/2 | Tal plays like... Tal!!! Tukmakov allows Tal to play a dashing move but in fact, he is the one in control. After the firework, Tukmakov clearly demonstrated that he was in no way losing, thanks to a hat trick! This game was played during the 1973 URSS Championship in Moscow. At that time, Tal's elo was 2660 and Tukmakov's was 2545. |
| Click | Tal vs Smyslov | dconterno | 1959 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Tal plays an agressive game against Smyslov who defends superbly. Tal commits many errors but Smyslow eventually makes the biggest error and seals in own fate. |
| Click | Tal vs Najdorf | dconterno | 1970 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Tal demonstrate how to create queenside weaknesses and how to exploit them. |
| Click | Tal vs Korchnoi | Raymondinho | 1958 | French Defense...Winawer Variation...Main Line | 0-1 | Round 9 of the 25th URS (Russin) championship pitted the 21 year old defending champion (Tal) against the more senior but later developing Viktor Kortchnoi. Tal would go on to make a sucessful defense of his title (Kortchnoi would finnish 9th) but in this game the positions are reversed. At this stage of his career, Kortchnoi was very much a counter attacking player. Tal wasn't one to back down and so the sparks flew. The final few moves suggest that even the best can forget themselves and turn into chess romantics. |
| Click | Tarrasch vs Reti | Earl of Norfolk | 1922 | Caro-Kann Defense | 1-0 | Siegbert Tarrasch was THE great chess teacher of the Classical Era in chess (roughly 1890-1918). His theories were considered sacrosanct until they were challenged by the Hypermoderns, led by Richard Réti. Being the much older man, Tarrasch usually didn't fare well in head to head clashes between the two masters, but in the following game, he beats Réti by surprisingly adopting some of the latter's methods. |
| Click | Tartakower vs Spielmann | Earl of Norfolk | 1926 | Queen's Gambit | 0-1 | One of the greatest attacking players of all time is Rudolph Spielmann of Austria, the main part of whose career was during the decade prior to the outbreak of World War I. Nevertheless, he won a major tournament at Semmering in 1926 over the likes of Alekhine, Nimzowitsch, Tartakower, Vidmar, Yates, Tarrasch, Rubinstein, and Réti, among others. Below is one of his wins from that tournament. |
| Click | Teichmann vs Spielmann | Alkhemyst | 1914 | Sicilian Defense | 1-0 | Some sources say this game was played in 1913, others in 1914. It was played at the Kaiseroff Cafe, Lepzig. This game was part of a match which Teichmann won decisively. |
| Click | Thomason vs Fischer | jim42078, Lord Ptarmigan | 1955 | King's Indian Defense | 0-1 | This is Fischer's first win on record from this site, against a junior in the US championship. the genius isn't as evident here as it will be, but you can still see that there is potential. In particular the use of knights shows skill. The winning move is a simple decoy and knight fork idea that Thomason blindly enters. |
| Click | Timman vs Wells | Cumnor | 2006 | Queen's Indian Defense...Accelerated Fianchetto Variation | 1-0 | E15: Queen's Indian: 4 g3 sidelines, 4 g3 Ba6 and 4 g3 Bb7 early deviations. Analysis By Rybka 2.1c mp |
| Click | Timman vs Karpov | Arkba | 1984 | Scotch Game | 0-1 | I have annotated several games of my own and requests in the Mieses variation of the Scotch. Here two famous grandmasters show how they handle the position... I sincerely believe there is a misprint in the move order at move 23 for black. The moves do not make sense unless the move is actually 23. ... Rhf8+, which is my analysis! comments welcome. |
| Click | Topalov vs Kramnik | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Slav Defense...Czech System | 1/2-1/2 | After the default by Kramnik in round 5 it was interesting to see how he would respond in round 6. He appears to ‘steady the ship’, playing the slav defence again and inducing heavy exchanges. Both sides play the resulting endgame very well and it is hard to see where any improvements could be made (hence the lack of commentary). As such, a draw was the inevitable result. |
| Click | Topalov vs Kramnik | jsdhl1 | 2006 | Queen's Gambit | 1/2-1/2 | A semi-slav meran system this time (compare to game 2). Another very level game where the only real opportunity centres around white playing e4. Opportunities occur on moves 38 and 42 but Topalov opts for safety again and Kramnik obliges... |
| Click | Topalov vs Kramnik | jim42078, Lord Ptarmigan | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Slav Defense...Main Line | 0-1 | This is the most exciting game of the 2006 World Championship from the first 6 games (not including the 5th "game"), as Topalov launches a kingside attack that is countered by black on the queenside. This often leads to complications, but here it gets even more bizarre as white offers his queen and later a rook for some remarkably obscure compensation. The lines are very unclear, and suddenly both sides lose their way in a double whammy on moves 31 and 32. The smoke then clears, but not before Topalov misses two further chances of at least an easy draw, and culminates in an endgame that favours black when white chooses not to exchange queens. The two passed pawns for black prove too much to bear as white loses first a bishop and then a knight. |
| Click | Topalov vs Anand | JudgeDeath | 2006 | Italian Game (Giuoco Piano)...Marshall Gambit | 0-1 | In the recent Sofia (MTel) Cat20 tournament (won by the loser of this game) the Marshall/Anti-Marshall featured in several of the 30 games. Here is one of the most interesting, played by two of the world's top players in round 2. An interesting theroetical battle, with a few errors thrown in for good measure. |
| Click | Topalov vs Bacrot | Slow Dragon | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Slav Defense...Geller Gambit | 1-0 | An incredibly original attacking masterpiece by Topalov! |
| Click | Topalov vs Svidler | GoBoSox | 2006 | Queen's Gambit...Botvinnik Exchange Variation | 0-1 | This is one of those games that makes one wonder; is Chess an easy game? |
| Click | Tromp vs Gonzalez Davila | EnasYorl | 2004 | Latvian Gambit | 0-1 | One of the best pieces of chess wisdom is to always calculate the consequences of you opponents forcing moves such as checks and captures. In this miniature white omits to do this producing one of the shortest games in chess Olympiad history |
| Click | Tylor vs Menchik | CycloneGU | 1933 | French Defense...Exchange Variation | 0-1 | This game was played in Hastings, in 1933. White gave himself a good chance to win in this game, but committed a serious blunder in the middlegame and left himself absolutely no chance. |
| Click | Vallejo Pons vs Kasparov | Paul Georghiou | English Opening | This game was expected to be a one way battle. However GM Pons put up a mighty fight, and managed to draw against the Great Kasparov- a legend - especially at Linares! | ||
| Click | Vallejo Pons vs Adams | Paul Georghiou | English Opening | One of Adams's favourite setups- the hedgehog against the Maroczy bind had a fright in this game, however he skilfully just held a draw | ||
| Click | Vallejo Pons vs Ivanchuk | Paul Georghiou | Four Knights' Opening | The four knights leads to symmetrical pawn structures and strong possibility of a draw resulting as occurs here | ||
| Click | Van der Weide vs Short | SuperMac | 2006 | Scotch Game | 0-1 | Another Short! Scotch!!, Van der Weilde definately on the Rocks with this Scotch |
| Click | Wei vs Song | FatMac | 2004 | Queen's Gambit...Ragozin Variation (Classical) | 1-0 | |
| Click | Wells vs Adams | Cumnor | 2006 | Nimzo-Indian Defense | 0-1 | E21: Nimzo-Indian: 4 Nf3 Analysis by Rybka 2.1c mp |
| Click | Wu vs Aagaard | cuppablanca | 2007 | Blumenfeld Gambit | 0-1 | Another game by Aagaard in the British Championship (see also Flear vs Aagaard). Once again he is living dangerously as Black.. |
| Click | Yates vs Reti | Alkhemyst | 1924 | Caro-Kann Defense | 1-0 | Six time British Champion, Fredrick D. Yates takes on Richard Reti. Although not as highly rated as some, Yates was considered to be dangerous, and on some occasions could defeat the best (even Alekhine). This game was played in New York, 1924. |