List of chess games

Pre-1800

• 1475: Francesc de Castellví vs Narcís de Vinyoles, Valencia 1475. The first documented chess game played with the modern queen and bishop moves; the moves were described in the poem Scachs d'amor.
• 1623: Greco vs NN, London 1623. Gioachino Greco mates on the eighth move with a queen sacrifice.
• 1788: Thomas Bowdler vs Henry Seymour Conway, London. Thomas Bowdler offers the first example of a famous double rook sacrifice.
• 1790: Andrew Smith vs François André Philidor, London. François-André Danican Philidor, who was quoted as saying "Pawns are the soul of chess", demonstrates the power of a superior pawn formation.

  1800s

• 1834: Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais vs Alexander McDonnell, 50th Match Game, London. Reuben Fine in The World's Great Chess Games describes it as the first great immortal game of chess. Alexander McDonnell sacrifices his queen for two minor pieces.
• 1834: La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell, 62nd Match Game, London. Perhaps the most famous win of the match, Louis La Bourdonnais shows how a rolling pawn mass can overwhelm all of his opponent's major pieces, winning thereby against Alexander McDonnell.
• 1843: Pierre de Saint Amant vs Howard Staunton, 5th Match Game, Paris. Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant resigns in this unofficial world championship match game with Howard Staunton, in which Staunton remarked, "The latter portion of this game is conducted with remarkable skill by both parties."
• 1844: Alexander Hoffmann vs Alexander Petrov, Warsaw. Alexander Petrov wins with a queen sacrifice and a king hunt, in a game known as "Petrov's Immortal", against Alexander Hoffmann.
• 1851: Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritzky, London. "The Immortal Game" Lionel Kieseritzky neglects his development and Adolf Anderssen sacrifices his light-squared bishop, both rooks, and finally his queen for a win.
• 1852: Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, Berlin. "The Evergreen Game". Adolf Anderssen mates with what Savielly Tartakower termed " combination second to none in the literature of the game."
• 1857: Louis Paulsen vs Paul Morphy, New York. Paul Morphy gains an advantage in development and transforms it into a powerful kingside attack with a queen sacrifice.
• 1857: John William Schulten vs Paul Morphy, New York. In a casual game played after the conclusion of the first American Chess Congress, Morphy pins down White's king in the middle and proceeds to checkmate it with forceful play.
• 1858: Paul Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris. "The Opera Game" Morphy shows the virtue of quick development and wins by sacrificing much material, mating on the 17th move with his last two pieces.
• 1862: Steinitz vs Mongredien, London. Wilhelm Steinitz won the tournament's brilliancy prize for this game.
• 1872: Carl Hamppe vs Philipp Meitner, Vienna. The "Immortal Draw" between Carl Hamppe and Philipp Meitner, involving a queen sacrifice.
• 1874: Victor Knorre vs Mikhail Chigorin, St. Petersburg. White's premature castling on the king side combined with an ineffective pin allows Mikhail Chigorin to strike back with a violent counterattack culminating in a brilliant queen sacrifice and subsequent checkmate.
• 1883: Johannes Zukertort vs Joseph Henry Blackburne, London
• 1889: Emanuel Lasker vs Johann Hermann Bauer, Amsterdam. This game between Emanuel Lasker and Johann Hermann Bauer was the first famous example of the double bishop sacrifice.
• 1895: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Siegbert Tarrasch, Hastings. Harry Nelson Pillsbury's kingside attack breaks through by a single tempo against Black's queenside play, against Siegbert Tarrasch, then one of the strongest players of the world.
• 1895: Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings. This game is famous for its ten-move mating combination in the final position, which Steinitz demonstrated after the game. The peculiar circumstance of the conclusion of this game has been subject of scrutiny.
• 1895: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Isidor Gunsberg, Hastings. In the final round of this prestigious tournament, Pillsbury secures overall victory by triumphing in an instructive endgame.
• 1896: Harry Nelson Pillsbury vs Emanuel Lasker, Saint Petersburg. Emanuel Lasker won the brilliancy prize for this game by exposing Pillsbury's king with the sacrifice of both rooks on the same square.

  1900–1924

• 1904: Emanuel Lasker vs William Ewart Napier, Cambridge Springs. Both players show great ingenuity. After a complicated web of tactics, Lasker simplifies into a winning endgame.
• 1907: Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Lodz. Akiba Rubinstein wins this game with one of the most famous combinations ever played.
• 1909: Akiba Rubinstein vs Emanuel Lasker, Saint Petersburg. Akiba Rubinstein's brilliant play culminates in 18.Qc1!! subsequently forcing Emanuel Lasker to enter a rook endgame down a pawn which Rubinstein wins in masterly fashion.
• 1912: Levitsky vs Marshall, Breslau. The final move of Frank James Marshall places his queen en prise in three different ways. The spectators are said to have showered the board with gold coins.
• 1912: Edward Lasker vs Thomas, London. With a queen sacrifice, Edward Lasker exposes Black's king and with a series of checks drives it all the way to the other side of the board before checkmating with an advance of his king.
• 1914: Emanuel Lasker vs Jose Raul Capablanca, St Petersburg. Lasker defeats José Raúl Capablanca in a positional game where his winning strategy seemed to flow right out of the opening to the end. Capablanca, himself renowned as a master of simple positions, was sufficiently rattled to lose in the next round as well, handing the tournament victory to Lasker.
• 1918: Akiba Rubinstein vs Milan Vidmar, Berlin. Vidmar surprises Rubinstein by playing the Budapest Gambit, leading to a brilliant victory.
• 1918: Jose Raul Capablanca vs Frank Marshall, New York. In the main line Ruy Lopez, Frank Marshall surprises José Raúl Capablanca with a bold pawn sacrifice. Capablanca accepts the challenge fully aware of the fierce attack he is about to face.
• 1920: Edwin Ziegler Adams vs Carlos Torre Repetto, New Orleans. Likely composed by Carlos Torre as a tribute to his benefactor E. Z. Adams, this game features the most famous back-rank mate combination in chess literature, involving six consecutive offers of the queen.
• 1922: Alekhine vs Bogoljubov, Pistyan. This game is referred in the famous novella The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig, which inspired multiple movies, theater plays and musical performances. In the story the position after 38. d6 is being reproduced in a game between the fictional world chess champion and a group of outmatched amateur players who are on the verge of promoting their c-pawn, when an unknown spectator frantically intervenes and explains how white will beat them in 9–10 moves after 38... c1Q 39. Bxc1 Nxc1 40. d7. He proposes 38... Kh7 instead, correctly predicting that 39. h4 will follow and after 39... Rc4 he maneuvers the game for 7–8 more moves until the world champion settles for a draw.
• 1922: Efim Bogoljubov vs Alexander Alekhine, Hastings. Irving Chernev called this the greatest game of chess ever played, adding: "Alekhine's subtle strategy involves manoeuvres which encompass the entire chessboard as a battlefield. There are exciting plots and counterplots. There are fascinating combinations and brilliant sacrifices of Queens and Rooks. There are two remarkable promotions of Pawns and a third in the offing, before White decides to capitulate.".
• 1923: Sämisch vs Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen "The Immortal Zugzwang Game".
• 1924: Richard Réti vs José Raúl Capablanca, New York. The game that ended Capablanca's eight-year run without a single loss in tournament play.
• 1924: Jose Raul Capablanca vs Savielly Tartakower, New York. One of the most famous and instructive endgames ever played. Capablanca sacrifices two pawns with check to support his passed pawn.

  1925–1949

• 1925: Richard Reti vs Alexander Alekhine, Baden-Baden. Alekhine initiates a stunning combination and foresees the final position resulting more than 15 moves later.
• 1929: Glucksberg vs Miguel Najdorf, Warsaw. In this game, dubbed the 'Polish Immortal', Black sacrifices all four minor pieces for victory.
• 1932: Salo Flohr vs Max Euwe, first game of a match held in the Netherlands. Textbook example of the.
• : Albert Einstein vs Oppenheimer, recorded game in playbooks, said to have been played between physicists Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer. No conclusive evidence supports the historical accuracy of this game.
• 1934: Canal vs Unknown, Budapest. "The Peruvian Immortal", sees Peruvian master Esteban Canal demolish his amateur opponent with the sacrifice of two rooks and queen.
• 1935: Max Euwe vs Alexander Alekhine, 26th Match Game, Zandvoort. This decisive game from the 1935 match for the world championship was dubbed 'The Pearl of Zandvoort' by Tartakower.
• 1938: Mikhail Botvinnik vs Jose Raul Capablanca, Rotterdam. In this game from the AVRO 1938 tournament, Botvinnik obtains a strong initiative against Capablanca and brings the victory home with a long combination.
• 1938: Frank Parr vs George Wheatcroft, London. Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld described this as "one of the greatest combinative games on record!"
• 1943: B Molinari vs Luis Roux Cabral, Montevideo. This game from the 1943 Uruguayan Chess Championship, dubbed the "Uruguayan Immortal", sees Luis Roux Cabral sacrifice the exchange twice, followed by sacrifices of two minor pieces. After 33 moves, all three of his remaining pieces are en prise—and his opponent cannot stop checkmate.
• 1946: Gusev vs Auerbach, Chelyabinsk. Not to be confused with the late centenarian grandmaster and theorician Yuri Averbakh, this game, dubbed "Gusev's Immortal", was a game contested between the relatively obscure players Yuri Gusev and E Auerbach in an equally obscure minor tournament. It involved a sound positional queen sacrifice from Gusev, which was blind to chess engines for 74 years, requiring Stockfish 11 six hours and 48 minutes at Depth 73/49 to recommend the queen sacrifice in 2020; Gusev went on to win. The game has been studied extensively online. National Master Sam Copeland ranked it the second-best game of the 1940s. Grandmaster Simon Williams termed the queen sacrifice in Gusev's Immortal one of the most beautiful ideas that he had ever seen.