The most celebrated games ever played — replay each masterpiece move by move with grandmaster commentary.
Adolf Anderssen 1–0 Lionel Kieseritzky · London (casual) 1851
Replay the Immortal Game move by move: Anderssen sacrifices a bishop, both rooks and his queen to mate with three minor pieces. Full board + GM commentary.
Adolf Anderssen 1–0 Jean Dufresne · Berlin (casual) 1852
Replay the Evergreen Game: Anderssen's quiet 19.Rad1 and the queen sacrifice 21.Qxd7+ crown an Evans Gambit with a two-bishop mate. Interactive board + analysis.
Paul Morphy 1–0 Duke Karl of Brunswick & Count Isouard · Paris Opera House 1858
Replay the Opera Game move by move: Morphy mates in 17 with a queen sacrifice while the opera plays. The classic lesson in development, explained by a GM.
Wilhelm Steinitz 1–0 Curt von Bardeleben · Hastings 1895
Replay Steinitz's Hastings brilliancy: the untouchable rook of 22.Rxe7+ dances along the seventh rank while back-rank mates guard it. Board + GM commentary.
Georg Rotlewi 0–1 Akiba Rubinstein · Lodz 1907
Replay Rubinstein's Immortal: with queen and both rooks en prise, 22...Rxc3 begins the most beautiful mating combination ever played. Interactive board + notes.
Stepan Levitsky 0–1 Frank Marshall · Breslau (DSB Congress) 1912
Replay the Gold Coins Game and its legendary finish 23...Qg3!! — a queen capturable three ways that wins on the spot. The full story, on an interactive board.
Fritz Sämisch 0–1 Aron Nimzowitsch · Copenhagen 1923
Replay the Immortal Zugzwang Game: after 25...h6, White resigns in a full middlegame because every legal move loses. Hypermodern strategy, explained by a GM.
Mikhail Botvinnik 1–0 José Raúl Capablanca · AVRO, Rotterdam 1938
Replay the most anthologized combination in chess: Botvinnik deflects with 30.Ba3!! and 31.Nh5+!!, then walks his king through the checks to beat Capablanca.
Donald Byrne 0–1 Bobby Fischer · Rosenwald Memorial, New York 1956
Replay the Game of the Century: 13-year-old Bobby Fischer's queen sacrifice 17...Be6!! and the windmill that follows, move by move with GM commentary.
Lev Polugaevsky 0–1 Rashid Nezhmetdinov · RSFSR Championship, Sochi 1958
Replay Nezhmetdinov's Immortal: the queen sacrifice 24...Rxf4!! buys a king hunt from e3 to a5, ending in mate by minor pieces. Interactive board + GM notes.
Robert Byrne 0–1 Bobby Fischer · US Championship, New York 1963
Replay the Fischer brilliancy so deep that commentators thought White was winning when he resigned. 15...Nxf2! and 18...Nxg2!! explained move by move.
Bent Larsen 0–1 Boris Spassky · USSR vs. Rest of the World, Belgrade 1970
Replay the most famous miniature of modern chess: Spassky's decoy 14...Rh1!! and the h-pawn's promotion run demolish Larsen in 17 moves. Board + GM commentary.
Bobby Fischer 1–0 Boris Spassky · World Championship Game 6, Reykjavik 1972
Replay the game so beautiful that Spassky applauded his opponent: Fischer opens 1.c4 for the first time and produces a positional masterpiece for the title.
Anatoly Karpov 0–1 Garry Kasparov · World Championship Game 16, Moscow 1985
Replay the Octopus Game: Kasparov's knight lands on d3 and strangles Karpov's position on the road to the world title. Move-by-move board + GM commentary.
Nigel Short 1–0 Jan Timman · Tilburg 1991
Replay the most audacious plan in modern chess: with queens on the board, Short marches his own king Kh2–g3–f4–g5 to deliver mate. Interactive board + notes.
Vasyl Ivanchuk 0–1 Artur Yusupov · Candidates rapid tiebreak, Brussels 1991
Replay Yusupov's Immortal: facing elimination, he sacrifices a knight and a rook and lifts 27...Re6!! into a mating attack. King's Indian fury, move by move.
Garry Kasparov 1–0 Veselin Topalov · Wijk aan Zee 1999
Replay Kasparov's Immortal, widely called the greatest game ever: 24.Rxd4!! starts a 20-move king hunt from b8 to d1. Interactive board + GM commentary.
Levon Aronian 0–1 Viswanathan Anand · Tata Steel, Wijk aan Zee 2013
Replay Anand's Immortal: 16...Nde5!! leaves two pieces hanging and beats the world No. 2 in 23 moves. The modern Rotlewi–Rubinstein, on an interactive board.
Wei Yi 1–0 Lázaro Bruzón · Danzhou 2015
Replay the greatest king hunt of the 21st century: 16-year-old Wei Yi's 22.Rxf7!! drags the black king to the center of the board. Interactive board + notes.
Bai Jinshi 0–1 Ding Liren · Chinese League 2017
Replay Ding's Immortal: a queen sacrifice on move 15 and a flawless 17-move king hunt by the future world champion. Move-by-move board + GM commentary.