Greatest Game of All Time……(so far)

As mentioned in an earlier post The Immortal Game was played in London 170 years ago – The venue was Simpson’s in the Strand, a few hundred yards from Trafalgar Square. The players were Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky and the game has been voted as the best chess game played in the past 1400 years!

Please just enjoy the moves and notice that having many more pieces on the board in no way guarantees victory

 White:  Anderssen, Adolf       Black:  Kieseritzky, Lionel

The Immortal Game ( London 1851 )

Chess Festival in London

Sunday 18th July will see a free Chess Festival in London. Taking place in Trafalgar Square the event will celebrate the 15oth anniversary of  Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as well as the 170th anniversary of the most famous game ever played. The ‘Immortal Game’ was actually played only a short walking distance from Trafalgar Square.

There will be many exciting things to do and see on the day

  • Free chess lessons for children and adults from professional chess teachers and top UK players

  • ‘The Unofficial World Giant Chess Championship’ – 6 giant chess boards for people to play on

  • A human chess game based around Alice Through the Looking Glass performed by professional actors

  • 100s of chess tables for children and chess fans to play with each other

  • Challenge a Grandmaster at speed chess

  • Blindfold Chess exhibition

  • Giant screens broadcasting online games between players in London, Liverpool, and St Petersburg, Russia

For more details please go to

https://www.chess-fest.com/

 

Puzzle no. 19 Solution

Did you find the only way to save the game?

White to move

  1. Rxg8 Kxg8  2, Rg3+  Qxg3  3. Qb8+  Kg7  4. Qg8+ Kxg8  with Stalemate

Puzzle no. 19

Even the very best players can sometimes miss defensive resources. Our position is from a game between GMs Efim Geller and Mark Taimanov, the White King is caught in a mating net and in fact Geller resigned here.

Can you find the only way to save the game?

White to Move

Game of the Week

My apologies for having no new content for a few days, a case of just feeling under the weather, fortunately just a bad case of ‘man flu’

Our game this week is from the recent Paris Rapid & Blitz event where most of the world’s elite players battled for first prize. The overall winner was Wesley So but I couldn’t resist choosing a French Defence, played in Paris, and, against the number 1 French player.

We have, with the White pieces Maxime Vachier-largrave and playing Black, the challenger to Magnus Carlsen’s crown Ian Nepomniachtchi

Please just enjoy the game with my ( very light ) notes.

 White:  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime       Black:  Nepomniachtchi, Ian

Paris Rapid & Blitz