About this game
The Immortal Game, explained
Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritzky · London, 1851 · King's Gambit Accepted
Played as a casual game between rounds of the London 1851 tournament, Anderssen vs Kieseritzky became known as the Immortal Game for its sheer extravagance: White gives away a bishop, both rooks and the queen, and mates with the three minor pieces he has left.
Out of a King's Gambit, Kieseritzky's queen goes hunting early and keeps having to move as Anderssen develops around it. The first real statement is 11.Rg1 — calmly leaving the bishop on b5 to be taken, because White's attack matters more than the piece. By move 17 every White minor piece is aimed at the Black king while most of Black's army is still on its starting squares.
Then comes 18.Bd6!!, one of the most famous moves ever played: it blocks nothing, defends nothing, and offers both rooks. Kieseritzky takes them — 18...Bxg1 and 19...Qxa1+ — but 19.e5 has already shut his queen out of the defence, on the far corner of the board. The finish is forced: 21.Nxg7+ Kd8 22.Qf6+!! Nxf6 23.Be7# — queen sacrificed, and two knights and a bishop deliver mate against a nearly full Black army.
The key moments
- 11.Rg1!
- Anderssen declines to save the b5-bishop. Development and attack over material — the theme of the whole game, stated early.
- 18.Bd6!!
- The immortal move: both rooks are left hanging. Anderssen has calculated that Black's captures are too slow to matter.
- 19.e5!
- The quiet point behind the sacrifices — the pawn cuts the Black queen off from the kingside, so after 19...Qxa1+ she is a spectator.
- 22.Qf6+!!
- The final sacrifice. 22...Nxf6 is forced, and the knight capture blocks Black's own escape square.
- 23.Be7#
- Mate by bishop and two knights. Black is up a queen, two rooks and a bishop — and mated.
What to take from it
The Immortal Game is the romantic era of chess in a single score: material only matters if it participates. Black finished the game with almost his entire army intact and unusable, while every White piece that survived was attacking the king. Count attackers and defenders around the king, not points on the board.
The board above is a full interactive review of this game: every move is engine-checked, and you can ask the coach why any move works — or test your own idea and have it graded. When you’re done with the classics, review your own games the same way.
The full game
King's Gambit Accepted (C33) · 1851
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nf3 Qh6 7.d3 Nh5 8.Nh4 Qg5 9.Nf5 c6 10.g4 Nf6 11.Rg1 cxb5 12.h4 Qg6 13.h5 Qg5 14.Qf3 Ng8 15.Bxf4 Qf6 16.Nc3 Bc5 17.Nd5 Qxb2 18.Bd6 Bxg1 19.e5 Qxa1+ 20.Ke2 Na6 21.Nxg7+ Kd8 22.Qf6+ Nxf6 23.Be7# 1-0