The Two Best Players Alive

The game, move by move

A King’s Gambit, against Anderssen

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn
2. 1… e5 The same claim
3. 2. f4 The King’s Gambit — to Anderssen Five of the games in this library are Anderssen playing this opening. Morphy plays it at him and wins in nineteen moves.
4. 2… exf4 Accepted
5. 3. Nf3 The knight out
6. 3… g5 g5, holding the pawn
7. 4. Bc4 The bishop to c4 — the Hanstein White castles next rather than playing h4. It is the quiet line, and it puts a bishop on the diagonal to f7 four moves before it takes there.
8. 4… Bg7 Bg7
9. 5. O-O White castles
10. 5… d6 d6
11. 6. c3 c3
12. 6… Nc6 The knight out
13. 7. Qb3 The queen to b3 — both at f7 Queen and bishop on one diagonal, and f7 is defended by a king who has not castled.
14. 7… Qe7 The queen to e7

A knight and a bishop given

1. 8. d4 d4, taking the centre
2. 8… a6 a6 — a move with nothing in it And it is the losing move. Black had one move to get his king out of the middle and used it on a pawn.
3. 9. Nxg5 The knight takes g5 — the first offer A knight for a pawn, and the queen has to take it: leaving it there is Nxf7 or Bxf7 with everything hanging.
4. 9… Qxg5 The queen takes it
5. 10. Bxf7+ The bishop takes f7, with check And now the king cannot castle for the rest of the game. That is what two pieces have been given for.
6. 10… Kd8 Kd8 — and the rook on h8 is out of the game
7. 11. Bxf4 The bishop takes back on f4
8. 11… Qe7 The queen to e7

The bishop collects

1. 12. Bxg8 The bishop takes the knight on g8 A third piece off, and Black’s rook on h8 now has nothing in front of it and nowhere to go.
2. 12… Bg4 Bg4
3. 13. Nd2 The knight to d2
4. 13… Kd7 Kd7 — the king walks
5. 14. Bd5 The bishop to d5
6. 14… Nd8 Nd8, defending b7
7. 15. Bxb7 The bishop takes b7 anyway
8. 15… Nxb7 The knight takes it
9. 16. Qxb7 And the queen takes the knight Morphy is two pawns up with every piece out and Anderssen has a rook on h8 that has not moved in nineteen moves.
10. 16… a5 a5

The rook to f7

1. 17. Bxd6 The bishop takes d6
2. 17… Bxd4+ The bishop takes d4, with check
3. 18. cxd4 Recaptured
4. 18… Qxd6 The queen takes the bishop on d6
5. 19. Rf7+ Rf7+ — and Black resigned The rook steps to f7 with check, and Black has four legal moves. The queen on d6 is pinned to the king, the rook on h8 has never moved, and Anderssen — who had the Immortal Game behind him and was the strongest player in Europe — stopped on move nineteen.