Kasparov & Tartakower On A Chess Classic

THE King's Gambit, while by no means common, still appears in club-standard games.

What is rare these days, however, is Black trying to hang on to the extra pawn with 3...g5, which used to be almost universal.

Here is an exciting example from Savielly Tartakower and Julius du Mont's 500 Master Games Of Chess.

Notes in italics are algebraicised from the book, those underlined are by Garry Kasparov in ChessBase Magazine.

Jakob Rosanes - Adolf Anderssen

Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland)

A classic, showing how mind can triumph over matter.

1.e4 e5 2.f4

Of course the most popular opening of the mid-19th century. Conventional wisdom at the time assumed that White had an obligation to fight for the initiative at any price. That is why material sacrifice at an early stage of the game was simply a show of good taste, and to decline the opponent's kind material offer was not considered an honourable option.

2...exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5

This variation is known as the Kieseritzky Gambit.

One of the key-positions of underdeveloped chess theory.

5...Nf6

An active defence.

How should White proceed?

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6.Bc4?!

As this immediate action against f7 is easily met, 6.d4 is more useful.

6.d4 was later proved to be a much better move.

The text is easily the most popular continuation in ChessBase's 2025 Mega database, while 6.Nxg4!? is recommended by Stockfish17 and Dragon1.
6...d5 7.exd5 Bd6

Continuing to show an active spirit.

8.d4 Nh5!?

Maintaining the same spirit; not only does the text move guard the gambit pawn, but it indicates Black's future line of play,

9.Bb5+?

He gets entangled in an expedition, which neglects the safety of his own king. If 9.Nxg4 [then] 9...Ng3 etc. The best, in spite of all apparent dangers, is 9.0-0, eg 9...Qxh4 10.Qe1 Qxe1 11.Rxe1 Kf8 12.Nc3 etc.

9...c6!

Playing for sacrifices in material, in order to speed up his action on the sector which he recognises as the most important. Otherwise 9...Kf8 is playable.

Anderssen in action! It's time to change colours and play white!

10.dxc6 bxc6!?

The engines reckon 10...Nxc6 is much stronger.

11.Nxc6 Nxc6

If 11...Qd7 [then] 12.Nxa7 wins.

12.Bxc6+ Kf8!

Great play! 12...Bd7 13.Bxd7+ Qxd7 14.0-0 etc would deprive Black's attack of all vitality, and so he prefers to give up his QR for nothing more than an attacking 'tempo'.

13.Bxa8

White is rook and pawn up, but the engines agree Black is winning

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13...Ng3 14.Rh2

Better is Kf2.

Obviously [to] the unknown club player who was playing white it wasn't clear whether Black had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed rook.

This is a bit harsh on Rosanes who, according to ChessBase's 2025 Mega database, had a score against Anderssen of +2=0-2 (Rosanes had white in every game).

14...Bf5?!

The engines show direct play with 14...Qe7+ is much stronger, thanks to meeting 15.Kf2 with 15...Ne2!, eg 16.Qxe2 g3+ 17.Kf1 Qxe2+ 18.Kxe2 Ba6+, when one line runs 19.Ke1 gxh2 20.g4 Kg7 21.Bf3 Re8+ 22.Kf2 Re2+! etc, or 16.g3+!? fxg3 17.Kg2 gxh2 18.Bh6+ Kg8 19.Nd2 Ng3 etc.

15.Bd5 Kg7 16.Nc3 Re8+ 17.Kf2 Qb6

Threatening 18...Be5.

Any modern player would be jealous about Andersen's confidence in playing with a rook down. Meanwhile ...Be5 is a decisive threat.

18.Na4 Qa6

Threatening mate in four by 19...Qe2+ etc.

In other words, 19...Qe2+ 20.Qxe2 Rxe2+ 21.Kg1 Re1+ 22.Kf2 Rf1#.

19.Nc3

If 19.c4 [then] 19...Qxa4.

19...Be5!?

A great fight for the diagonal, which is but weakly defended by White's QP.

20.a4

Intending, after 20...Qb6, to play 21.Nb5 a6 22.c3 etc, but Black is disinclined to wait, and announces mate in four. If 20.dxe5 [then] 20...Qb6+ 21.Ke1 Qg1+ 22.Kd2 Qe3#.

Even the computer defence 20.Kg1 doesn't save White: 20...Qb6 (20...Qf1+ doesn't work [because of] 21.Qxf1 Bxd4+ 22.Be3!) 21.Rh1 Bxd4+ 22.Kh2 Qf6! is crushing.

Black to play and win

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20...Qf1+!!

A splendid sacrifice of the queen, of which the object is to deflect the opposing queen from the protection of d4.

21.Qxf1 Bxd4+ 22.Be3 Rxe3!

A quiet preparation for the mate on the next move.

Despite the obvious inequality in the players' strength this game gives a clear idea of the chess fashions of Anderssen's time.
Not 22...Bxe3+? as the white king escapes after 23.Ke1, when Black has sacrificed too much material.

23.Kg1

Or 23.Nb5 Re2#. There could be no more impressive demonstration of the power of a double check.

23...Re1#

Ponzing About (part two)

Adolf Anderssen - Berthold Suhle
Breslau (now Wroclaw) 1859
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Nf6
When Anderssen had the black pieces against the Ponziani he usually played 3...d5 (including a loss in 1848 to Daniel Harrwitz, who featured in the first part of this series playing against Howard Staunton's Ponziani). Suhle's ...Nf6 is overwhelmingly Black's most popular third move today.
4.d4 Nxe4 5.dxe5?!
Normal is 5.d5.
5...d5?!
White faces more problems after 5...Bc5.
6.Be3 Be7 7.Bb5 0-0 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9.Nbd2 f5 10.Nd4 Qe8 11.f4 Qg6 12.0-0 c5 13.N4f3 h5 14.Re1 h4 15.h3 Rd8 16.Qc2 c4!? 17.Rad1 Bb7 18.b3??
A blunder caused by Anderssen uncharacteristically underestimating tactical threats to his king.

Black to play and win

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18...c5??
Black's idea in playing 16...c4 was to cover the hole at d4 with ...c5, but Suhle misses the win of a piece by 18...d4 19.cxd4 Nxd2 20.Rxd2 Bxf3.
19.Nxe4 fxe4?
White gets the upper hand after this, so Black should have played 29...dxe4.
20.bxc4 Qg3?
Better, although unappetising, was 20...dxc4.
21.Nh2 d4 22.Nf1 Qg6 23.cxd4 cxd4 24.Rxd4 Rxd4 25.Bxd4 (1-0, 35 moves)
Not exactly a well-played game, but indicative of how tactical the Ponziani can be even in the 'quiet' 3...Nf6 lines.

Old Chessnut

GOING through an old copy of Chess magazine from July 2007, I came across an article more than a page long - and remember that Chess uses an a4 format - on the famous game in which Paul Morphy beat an aristocratic consulting team at the Paris Opera House.
I find it hard to believe there are many, if any, regular readers of Chess who have not seen the game before. It would be difficult to prove, but I suspect it may be the most-published game of all time.
The main rival to such a claim must be the 1851 Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky.
It may well be there are better games than these two, although quality in such cases is subjective, but none that has been published so often.
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to take (yet) another look at Morphy's gem, but this time with the help of the analysis engines Stockfish10 and Komodo10.
Morphy - Duke of Brunswick/Count Isouard
Philidor Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4?!
This move goes back to at least 1795, but by the time of this game had been superseded by 3...f5 and (today's favourite) 3...exd4.
4.dxe5 Bxf3
The engines reckon it is better to give up a pawn by 4...Nd7!?, which has been played by many strong players including Albin, Lasker, Mieses, Blackburne, Nimzowitsch and, in more modern times, by at least six players rated over 2400.
Is ...Nd7 any good? Well, according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database, Albin won both his outings with it, and Blackburne scored +3=1-0.
5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6?
The most popular move in Mega19, but the superior 6...Qd7 had been played in George Atwood - Jonathan Wilson, London 1795. Atwood continued, as Morphy was to do, with 7.Qb3, when 7...c6 meant that at least Black was not losing material (but 1-0, 22 moves).
7.Qb3 Qe7!?
Fischer called this "a clever move," his point being that 8.Qxb7 would allow the aristos to get queens off the board with 8...Qb4+. They would in all likelihood have still lost, but would have had the satisfaction of the game lasting a lot longer than it did (and Morphy would have spent a lot longer sitting in the duke's luxury box with his back to the opera).
Later in 1858, in Morphy's match against the Prussian Daniel Harrwitz, the weaker 7...Bd6? was played. Morphy won in 59 moves.
8.Nc3
The engines prefer the prosaic 8.Qxb7 but Morphy, at least metaphorically, may have had one eye on the opera.
8...c6 9.Bg5
Fischer reckoned this puts Black in zugzwang: "He can't develop his knight because his (b) pawn is hanging (and) the bishop is blocked by the queen."
9...b5?!
It is easy to condemn this move, but in 15 subsequent games to reach the position after 9.Bg5, the text was played in 12 of them.
The engines reckon best play is 9...Na6 10.Bxf6 gaf6 11.Bxa6 bxa6 12.0-0, with a miserable game for Black.
10.Nxb5! cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.0-0-0 Rd8
Fischer points out that breaking the pin on the queen's knight with 12...0-0-0? loses instantly to 13.Ba6+ Kc7 14.Qb7#
13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+! Nxb8 17.Rd8+
The exact same game last occurred in Mega19 in Edmundo Luz (2059) - Jose Correa (1686), Maranhão (Brazil) 2018.

Miniature

IT is not often that one of the best players in the world loses in under 20 moves - still less that the game ends in checkmate.
But here is an example drawn from Tartakower and du Mont's 500 Master Games Of Chess (notes in italics are algebraicised from the book).
Johannes Zukertort - Adolf Anderssen, 1865*
Spanish Cozio
One of the many tragedies which, from time to time, are enacted around the ominous square f7.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7
The Cozio Defence, which variation embarrasses Black's game more than any other, and which has no longer any adherents (the book was published in 1952 by G Bell & Sons - I have the 1975 Dover reprint).
4.c3
The most energetic line of play is 4.Nc3 g6 5.d4 exd4 6.Nd5 Bg2 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bf6 etc.
Less good is 4.d4 at once, because  of  4...exd4 5.Nxd4 d5, and Black frees his game.
Most popular today is 4.0-0, which has been played by Karpov, Kramnik, Shirov and Leko. The mainline runs 4...g6 5.c3 Bg7 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.Re1 Be6 10.Bg5 Qd6, with a position that has been reached more than 200 times in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database. White scores well with the continuation 11.Nbd2, but there are plenty of deviations possible for both sides long before this (for instance, I have a plus score with both 5...d6!? and 8...Qxd5!?, although neither move is held in high regard).
As for "the most energetic line of play," Alexey Dreev in Anti-Spanish: The Cozio Defence (Chess Stars, 2014) implicitly rejects 4...g6, and another quite popular reply 4...Ng6. Instead he concentrates on "a more modest and not so risky move," 4...d6.

Position after 4.Nc3 d6

Dreev states: "The position resembles in its structure the Old Steinitz Defence, but with an early sortie of White's knight to c3. In this variation, Black wishes to obtain a solid and stable position and would not avoid simplifications."
I faced 4...d6 at Tunbridge Wells last year. The round-three game Spanton (163) - Freddie Hand (208) continued 5.d4 ("This is the way for him to fight for a slight opening edge" - Dreev) 5...exd4 (Dreev recommends 5...a6) 6.Nxd4 Bd7 7.0-0, which Dreev says is "one of the positions of the Steinitz Defence in which White maintains a slight but stable positional edge" (1-0, 60 moves).
Not that I remembered when I began researching this article, but I actually played 4...d6 in a training game in 1992 against the Mephisto Polgar computer. That game continued 5.d4 Bd7!? (the most popular move in Mega19, but the engines Stockfish10 and Komodo9 reckon it is a mistake) 6.d5 Nb8 7.Bg5 (the engines prefer 7.Be3 or 7.Bxd7+!?) h6 (this seems a modest improvement over 7...f6, which was played in the tournament game Mephisto Polgar - Mark van der Kraan, Dieren 1991, won by the computer in 57 moves) 8.Bxd7+ Nxd7 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3, when White is surely better, but the game was drawn in 38 moves.
4...d6
Here 4...d5 5.Nxe5 dxe4 is indicated.
Tartakower and du Mont were writing long before Bobby Fischer played 6.Qe2 in a blitz game in 1971, which seems to be the improvement Dreev mentions as rehabilitating 4.c3 as "a serious weapon." The Russian grandmaster goes on to state that "all Black's three possibilities (4...d5, 4...g6, 4...a6) are about equally strong." But he says the latter two moves lead to "more stable, manoeuvring positions," while 4...d5 results in "complications full of tactical tricks." He does not mention Anderssen's choice, which nevertheless is still sometimes tried by strong players.
5.d4 Bd7 6.0-0 Ng6
In his obstructed position, Black cannot afford the time for such evolutions. Better is 6...g6.
7.Ng5 h6
A fatal weakening of the position. But after 7...Be7 8.Qh5, White still has the better of it.
I wonder what Tartakower/du Mont had in mind after 7...Be7 8.Qh5 exd4, which was played in Wolfgang Benischek (2070) - Dirk Nitsche (2235) in a German inter-club match in 2002. White immediately went wrong in that game with the wildly optimistic 9.cxd4?! Nxd4 10.Nxf7?? Instead of 9.cxd4?!, the engines give 9.Bxc6, with equal chances whichever way Black recaptures on c6.
8.Nxf7?!
This works swimmingly in the game, but a coming improvement by the engines suggests White should have settled for 8.Nf3 with the more pleasant-looking position.
8...Kxf7 9.Bc4+ Ke7??
This move, which was also the choice of a player rated 1905 in a Portuguese game in 2004, is not commented on by Tartakower/du Mont, but it seems to be the real reason for Black's loss. The engines give 9...Ke8, when 10.Qh5, which is so devastating in the game, can be met by 10...Qf6. After 11.f4 exd4 12.f5, Stockfish10 gives 12...Nce5!? (Komodo9's 12...dxc3 may also be enough for a slight edge) 13.fxg6 Bg4, when White has three sensible options, 14.Bf7+, 14.Rxf6 and 14.Qxg4, but each is assessed by both engines as better for Black. There are a lot of complications here, but the bottom line is that 9...Ke8 is better than the text.
10.Qh5 Qe8?
Falling into the abyss. He should at least have played 10...Be8.
Unfortunately, as the engines point out, 10...Be8 also leads to mate, viz 11.Bg5+! hxg5 12.Qxg5+ Kd7 13.Qf5+ 14.Ke7 Qe6#.
11.Qg5+
500 Master Games Of Chess has the less aesthetically pleasing 11.Bg5+.
11...hxg5 12.Bxg5#
*The game, one of a series of non-tournament, non-match games between Zukertort and Anderssen, was apparently played at the Prussian city of Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland).