[blind-chess] Annotated Game #4: The Evergreen Game
- From: Roderick Macdonald <rmacd@xxxxxxxx>
- To: Blind Chess Mailing List <blind-chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 21:14:39 -1000 (HST)
Annotated Game #004:
The Evergreen game: Adolf Anderssen - Jean Dufresne, Berlin 1852
Adapted and Condensed From
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
contents:
++1. Jean Dufresne
++2. Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen
++2.A Background and early life
++2.B. Chess career
++2.B1 First steps
++2.B2 London 1851
++2.B3 Morphy match, 1858
++2.B4 Other games 1851-1862
++2.B5 London 1862
++2.B6 Steinitz match, 1866
++2.B7 1866-1879
++2.C Assessment
++2.C1 Playing strength and style
++2.C2 Influence on chess
++2.C3 Personality
++2.D Death
++2.E Notable games
++2.F Tournament results
++2.G Match results
++3. The Evergreen Game
The Evergreen game is a famous chess game played in 1852 between
Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne.
Adolf Anderssen was one of the strongest players of his time, and
was considered by many to be the world champion after winning the
1851 London tournament. Jean Dufresne, a popular author of chess
books, was a master of lesser but still considerable skill.
This was an informal game, like the "immortal game" (see Annotated
Game #002). Wilhelm Steinitz later identified the game as being the
"evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath," giving this game its
name. The German word Immergruen (Evergreen), used by Steinitz,
refers to a specific Evergreen plant, called Periwinkle (Vinca) in
English. The symbolic meaning is expressed in the French
translation, the "Forever Young Game" (La Toujours Jeune).
++1. Jean Dufresne
Jean Dufresne (February 14, 1829 - April 13, 1893) was a German
chess player and chess composer. He was a pupil of Adolf Anderssen,
and lost the "Evergreen game" to him in 1852. Dufresne was an
unsuccessful novelist under the anagrammatic pseudonym E. S.
Freund, but wrote several chess books, one of which, Kleines
Lehrbuch des Schachspiels (1881, known in Germany as Der Kleine
Dufresne) ran to many editions and taught several generations of
players. He also wrote a popular book on Paul Morphy.
Dufresne took first in the Berliner Schachgesellschaft in 1853 and
won an 1854 match against Carl Mayet (+7 -5), a member of the
Berlin Pleiades.
Although he had a negative record against Anderssen, he had a plus
record against Daniel Harrwitz, who in turn had a plus record
against Anderssen. Here is his win against Harrwitz in Berlin in
1848:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
4. b4 Bxb4
5. c3 Bc5
6. O-O d6
7. d4 exd4
8. cxd4 Bb6
9. Bb2 Nf6
10. Qc2 O-O
11. e5 dxe5
12. dxe5 Nd5
13. Rd1 Be6
14. Bxd5 Bxd5
15. Nc3 Ne7
16. Ng5 Ng6
17. Nxh7 Kxh7
18. Nxd5 Qg5
19. Rd3 c6
20. Rh3+ Kg8
21. Rg3 Qh4
22. Nf6+ gxf6
23. Rxg6+ fxg6
24. Qxg6+ Kh8
25. exf6 Rf7
26. Qxf7 Rg8
27. Kh1 Qg4
28. Rg1 Bxf2
29. Qe8 Kh7
30. f7
1-0
He was born and died in Berlin.^ The grave of Jean Dufresne is
located in the Jewish Cemetery Berlin-Wei_ensee.
++2. Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (July 6, 1818 - March 13, 1879) was a
German chess master. He is considered to have been the world
leading chess player in 1850's & 1860's. He was "dethroned"
temporarily in 1858 by Paul Morphy.
After his defeat by Steinitz in 1866, Anderssen became the most
successful tournament player in Europe, winning over half the
events he entered - including the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament
event, which is considered comparable in the strength of its
contestants to recent "super GM tournaments". Remarkably, Anderssen
achieved most of these successes when he was over the age of 50.
He is famous even today for his brilliant sacrificial attacking
play, particularly in the "Immortal Game" (1851) and the "Evergreen
Game" (1852).
Anderssen was a very important figure in the development of chess
problems, driving forward the transition from the "Old School" of
problem composition to the elegance and complexity of modern
compositions.
He was also one of the most likeable of chess masters and became an
"elder statesman" of the game, to whom others turned for advice or
arbitration.
++2.A Background and early life
Anderssen was born in Breslau, in the Prussian Province of Silesia,
in 1818. He lived there for most of his life, sharing a house with
and supporting his widowed mother and his unmarried sister. He
never married. Anderssen graduated from the public gymnasium (high
school) in Breslau and then attended university, where he studied
mathematics and philosophy. After graduating in 1847 at the age of
29, he took a position at the Friedrichs-Gymnasium as an instructor
and later as Professor of Mathematics. Anderssen lived a quiet,
stable, responsible, respectable middle-class life. His career was
teaching mathematics, while his hobby and passion was playing
chess.
When Anderssen was nine years old, his father taught him how to
play chess. Anderssen said that as a boy, he learned the strategy
of the game from a copy of William Lewis' book Fifty Games between
Labourdonnais and McDonnell (1835).
++2.2. Chess career
++2.B1 First steps
Diagram #1:
White: King at h8, Bishops at d8 and e8, Pawns at f3, h2
Black: King at h6, Pawns at h3, h7
A problem from Anderssen's 1842 collection. White to mate in four
moves:
1. Bh5 Kxh5
2. Kg7 h6
3. Kf6 Kh4
4. Kg6#
Anderssen first came to the attention of the chess world when he
published Aufgaben fuer Schachspieler, a collection of 60 chess
problems, in 1842. He continued to publish problems for many years,
both in magazines and as a second collection in 1852. These brought
him to the attention of the "Berlin Pleiades" group, which included
some of the strongest players of the time, and he played matches
against some of them. Anderssen's development as a player was
relatively slow, largely because he could spare neither the time
nor the money to play many matches against strong players.
Nevertheless by 1846 he was able to put up a good fight against
another Pleiades member, Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, who
may have been the world's strongest player at the time. In 1846, he
became the editor of the magazine Schachzeitung der Berliner
Schachgesellschaft (later called Deutsche Schachzeitung) when its
founder Ludwig Bledow, one of the "Berlin Pleiades", died.
Anderssen held this post until 1865.
++2.B2 London 1851
Howard Staunton was the principal organizer of the 1851 London
International Tournament, and offered to pay Anderssen's travel
expenses out of his own pocket.
In 1848 Anderssen drew a match with the professional player Daniel
Harrwitz. On the basis of this match and his general chess
reputation, he was invited to represent German chess at the first
international chess tournament, to be held in London in 1851.
Anderssen was reluctant to accept the invitation, as he was
deterred by the travel costs. However the tournament's principal
organizer, Howard Staunton, offered to pay Anderssen's travel
expenses out of his own pocket if necessary, should Anderssen fail
to win a tournament prize. Anderssen accepted this generous offer.
Anderssen's preparations for the 1851 London International
Tournament produced a surge in his playing strength: he played over
100 games in early 1851 against strong opponents including Carl
Mayet, Ernst Falkbeer, Max Lange and Jean Dufresne. The 1851
International Tournament was a knock-out event in which pairs of
competitors played short matches, and Anderssen won it by beating
Lionel Kieseritzky, Jszsef Szin, Staunton, and Marmaduke Wyvill -
by margins of at least two games in every case. His prize was two-
thirds of the total prize fund of #500, i.e. about #335; that is
equivalent to about #240,000 in 2006's money. When Anderssen and
Szin found they were to play each other, they agreed that, if
either won the tournament, the other would receive one-third of the
prize; this does not appear to have been considered in any way
unethical.
Although most chess books regard Wilhelm Steinitz as the first true
world champion, one of the organizers of the 1851 London
International tournament had said the contest was for "the baton of
the World's Chess Champion". In fact Anderssen was not described as
"the world champion", but the tournament established Anderssen as
the world's leading chess player, at the time it had same meaning.
The London Chess Club, which had fallen out with Staunton and his
colleagues, organized a tournament that was played a month later
and included several players who had competed in the International
Tournament. The result was the same - Anderssen won.
++2.B3 Morphy match, 1858
Paul Morphy crushed all opposition in 1858
Opportunities for tournament play remained rare, and Anderssen was
reluctant to travel far because of the expense. In his one recorded
tournament between 1851 and 1862, a one-game-per-round knock-out
tournament at Manchester in 1857, he was eliminated in the second
round. Then in late 1858 he was beaten 8-3 by the American champion
Paul Morphy in a famous match held in Paris, France (two wins, two
draws, seven losses). Although Anderssen knew as well as anyone how
to attack, Morphy understood much better when to attack and how to
prepare an attack. Morphy had recently scored equally convincing
wins in matches against other top-class players: Johann Loewenthal,
the Rev. John Owen and Daniel Harrwitz. However Morphy returned to
the USA in 1859 and soon afterwards announced his retirement from
serious chess. Hence Anderssen was once again the strongest active
player.
Anderssen played the curious opening move 1. a3 in three games of
his match against Morphy, and broke even with it (one loss, one
draw, one win). This opening move, now referred to as "Anderssen's
Opening", has never been popular in serious competition.
++22.B4 Other games 1851-1862
Shortly after the 1851 London International tournament, Anderssen
played his two most famous games, both casual encounters which he
won by combinations that involved several sacrifices. In the first,
as Black, but moving first, against Lionel Kieseritzky in London
just after the International tournament (1851) and now called the
"Immortal Game", he sacrificed a bishop, both rooks and finally his
queen. In the second, played in Berlin in 1852 as white against
Jean Dufresne and now called the "Evergreen Game", the total
sacrifice was more modest, but still exceeded a queen and a minor
piece.
After the match with Morphy, Anderssen played two matches against
Ignac Kolisch, a "top five" player who later became a wealthy
banker and patron of chess; Anderssen drew their match in 1860 and
narrowly won in 1861 (5/9; won four, drew two, lost three; Kolisch
was ahead at the half-way stage).
++2.B5 London 1862
Anderssen won the London 1862 chess tournament, the first
international round-robin tournament (in which each participant
plays a game against each of the others) with a score of twelve
wins out of thirteen games. He lost only one game, to the Rev. John
Owen and finished two points ahead of Louis Paulsen, who had the
best playing record in the early 1860s. Morphy had retired from
chess at this time, so Anderssen was again generally regarded as
the world's leading active player.
Anderssen's only known competitive chess between 1862 and 1866 was
a drawn match (three wins, three losses, and two draws) in 1864
against Berthold Suhle, who was a strong player and respected chess
writer.
++2.B6 Steinitz match, 1866
Wilhelm Steinitz in 1866
In 1866 Anderssen lost a close match with 30-year-old Wilhelm
Steinitz (six wins, eight losses, and no draws; Steinitz won the
last two games). Although Steinitz is now known for inventing the
positional approach to chess and demonstrating its superiority, the
1866 match was played in the attack-at-all-costs style of the 1850s
and 1860s. This is generally seen as the point at which Steinitz
succeeded Anderssen as the world's leading active player. Although
ideas of a contest for the world championship had been floating
around since the 1840s, the 1866 Anderssen-Steinitz match was not
defined as being for the world championship and nobody dared to
make such a claim could not easily be made while Morphy was alive
besides Anderssen remained dominant both in top tournaments & in
personal matches against Zukertort until 1871.
++2.B7 1866-1879
By this time tournaments were becoming more frequent, and the
general adoption of the round-robin format meant that the
occasional lost game was not such a disaster. Anderssen took
advantage of these developments to compile a very successful
tournament record in the late stages of his career (starting at age
50): five first places, two second places, two third places; and a
sixth place in the final year of his life, when his health was
failing. One of his first places was ahead of Steinitz, Gustav
Neumann, Joseph Henry Blackburne, Louis Paulsen and several other
very strong players at the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament. This
is regarded as one of the top 20 strongest tournaments ever despite
the proliferation of "super tournaments" since 1990. One of
Anderssen's third places was at the strong Vienna 1873 tournament,
when he was 55. About half of Anderssen's tournament successes came
at championships of the different regional German Chess
Federations; but these were open to all nationalities, and most of
them had a few "top ten" or even "top five" competitors. Anderssen
usually beat Zukertort in matches but his dominance came to an end
came 1871.
The Leipzig 1877 tournament, in which Anderssen came second behind
Louis Paulsen, was organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of
Anderssen's learning the chess moves. The initiative sprang from
the Central German Chess Federation. It is the only tournament ever
organized to commemorate a competitor.
Still at Leipzig, Anderssen lost a match against tournament winner
Louis Paulsen (three wins, one draw, and five losses). Matches were
Anderssen's relative weakness; his only match win in this period
was in 1868, against the 26-year-old Johann Zukertort (eight wins,
one draw, and three losses).
++2.C Assessment
++2.C1 Playing strength and style
Adolf Anderssen in later life
Anderssen was very successful in European tournaments from 1851 to
early 1878, taking first prize in over half of the events in which
he played. His only recorded tournament failures were a one-game-
per-round knock-out event in 1857 and sixth place at Paris 1878
when his health was failing and he had only about a year to live.
His match record was much weaker: out of the 12 that he played, he
won only two, drew four and lost six. But to be fair: one loss was
against Paul Morphy, who annihilated other leading players at least
as thoroughly; Anderssen gave Wilhelm Steinitz as hard a fight as
anyone did until Emanuel Lasker beat Steinitz in 1894; Daniel
Harrwitz (drawn match, 1848) was the weakest of his other
opponents.
Arpad Elo, inventor of the Elo rating system, retroactively
calculated ratings through history, and estimated that Anderssen
was the first player with a rating over 2600. Chessmetrics ranks
Anderssen as one of the top five players for most of the period
from 1851 to shortly before his death in 1879.
Steinitz, who spoke his mind without fear or favor, rated Anderssen
as one of the two greatest attacking players of his time: "We all
may learn from Morphy and Anderssen how to conduct a king's-side
attack, and perhaps I myself may not have learnt enough." Although
Anderssen is regarded as a member of the "heroic" attacking school,
he was not in favor of mindless aggression, for example he said:
"Move that one of your pieces, which is in the worst plight, unless
you can satisfy yourself that you can derive immediate advantage by
an attack", a principle more recently labelled "Makogonov's rule".
Nevertheless his approach to development was haphazard and he
totally failed to understand why Morphy won.
Anderssen's home town was so proud of him that in 1865 Breslau
University awarded him an honorary doctorate.
++2.C2 Influence on chess
The "heroic" attacking school of play to which Anderssen belonged
was eclipsed by Steinitz' positional approach - by 1894 it was
generally acknowledged that the only way to beat Steinitz was to
apply Steinitz' principles.
Anderssen has had a more enduring influence on chess problem
composition. He started composing in the last years of the "Old
School", whose compositions were fairly similar to realistic over-
the-board positions and featured spectacular "key" moves, multiple
sacrifices and few variations. He was one of the most skilful
composers of his time, and his work forms an early stage of the
"Transition Period", between the mid-1840s and the early 1860s,
when many of the basic problem ideas were discovered, the
requirement for game-like positions was abandoned and the
introduction of composing competitions (the first of which was in
1854) forced judges to decide on what features were the most
desirable in a problem.
Outside the field of chess problems Anderssen was not a prolific
author. However he edited the magazine Schachzeitung der Berliner
Schachgesellschaft (later called Deutsche Schachzeitung) from 1846
to 1865, and was co-editor with Gustav Neumann of Neue Berliner
Schachzeitung from 1864 to 1867.
++2.C3 Personality
Steinitz wrote: "Anderssen was honest and honourable to the core.
Without fear or favour he straightforwardly gave his opinion, and
his sincere disinterestedness became so patent....that his word
alone was usually sufficient to quell disputes...for he had often
given his decision in favour of a rival..." On the other hand
Reuben Fine wrote, "There is a curious contrast between his over-
the-board brilliance and his uninspired safety-first attitude in
everyday affairs."
++2.D Death
Adolf Anderssen died on March 13, 1879 in his hometown. The
Deutsche Schachzeitung noted his death in 1879 with a nineteen-page
obituary. Bombing raids during World War II damaged his grave in
Breslau. After the war, the city became part of Poland and is now
known under its Polish name Wrocl/aw. In 1957, the Polish Chess
Federation decided to re-bury Anderssen in a new grave at the
Osobowicki Cemetery.
++2.E Notable games
* Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritsky, 1851, King's Gambit:
Accepted. Bishop's Gambit Bryan Countergambit (C33), 1-0 The
"Immortal Game". Anderssen sacrifices his Queen and both Rooks
in order to achieve the victory.
* Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, Berlin 1852, Italian Game:
Evans Gambit. Pierce Defense (C52), 1-0 The "Evergreen Game" -
another short game full of sacrifices and ending with a nice
two-Bishops checkmate
* Adolf Anderssen vs Paul Morphy, Match, Paris 1858 - Anderssen
Opening Anderssen beats Morphy after opening 1. a3
* Adolf Anderssen vs Johannes Zukertort, Barmen 1869, Italian
Game: Evans Gambit. Paulsen Variation (C51), 1-0 Black
resigned before allowing Anderssen to finish the combination:
29. Qxh7+ Kxh7 30. f6+ Kg8 31. Bh7+ Kxh7 32. g8Q+ Rxg8 33.
Rh3#
++2.F Tournament results
1851 London International Tournament
1 15/21 Ahead of Marmaduke Wyvill, Elijah Williams, Howard
Staunton, Jszsef Szin, Hugh Alexander Kennedy, Bernhard
Horwitz, Henry Edward Bird, Lionel Kieseritzky, Carl Mayet,
Johann Loewenthal, Edward Loewe, Alfred Brodie, James Mucklow,
Samuel Newham, and E.S. Kennedy.
A knock-out tournament in which the contestants played mini-matches
in each round, increasing from best-of-3 in the 1st round to best-
of 8 in the final. Anderssen himself beat Kieseritzky, Szen,
Staunton and Wyvill - his closest mini-match was +4 =1 -2 in the
final against Wyvill.
1851 London Chess Club Tournament
1 7.5/8 Ahead of Karl Meyerhofer, Daniel Harrwitz, Frederic
Deacon, Kieseritzky, Horwitz, Szabo, Loewe, and Ehrmann.
Apparently intended to be round-robin, but the weaker players
quickly dropped out.
1857 Manchester (British Chess Association)
1/2 8-player knock-out tournament in which the contestants
played just 1 game in each round. Anderssen beat Harrwitz in
the 1st round, and lost to Loewenthal in the 2nd round.
Loewenthal drew the final against Samuel Boden, then Boden
retired.
1862 London International Tournament
1 12/13 Ahead of Louis Paulsen, (11/13), Rev. Owen (10/13),
George Alcock MacDonnell, Serafino Dubois, Wilhelm Steinitz
and 8 others.
One of the first successful round-robin tournaments.
1868 Aachen (West German Chess Federation)
1= 3/4 then 0/1 Anderssen and Max Lange tied for 1st; the
order after the playoff was (1) Lange, (2) Anderssen; all
finished ahead of Wilfried Paulsen, Johannes Zukertort, and
Emil Schallopp.
1869 Hamburg (North German Chess Federation)
1= 4/5 then 1.5/2 Anderssen and Louis Paulsen tied for 1st;
the order after the playoff was (1) Anderssen, (2) Paulsen;
all finished ahead of Zukertort, Johannes von Minckwitz,
Schallopp, and Alexander Alexander.
1869 Barmen (West German Chess Federation)
1 5/5 Ahead of Zukertort, von Minckwitz, Schallopp and
Wilfried Paulsen and Richard Hein.
1870 Baden-Baden International Tournament
1 11/18 Ahead of Steinitz, Gustav Neumann, Joseph Henry
Blackburne, Louis Paulsen, Cecil Valentine De Vere, Szymon
Winawer, Samuel Rosenthal, von Minckwitz and Adolf Stern.
1871 Krefeld (West German Chess Federation)
1= 4/5 then 1/2 Anderssen, von Minckwitz, and Louis Paulsen
tied for 1st; the order after the playoff was (1) Paulsen, (2)
Anderssen, (3) Minckwitz; all finished ahead of Karl Pitschel,
Carl Goering, and Wilfried Paulsen.
1871 Leipzig (Central German Chess Federation)
1= 4.5/5 then 1/1 Anderssen and Samuel Mieses tied for 1st;
then Anderssen won a playoff game.
1872 Altona (North German Chess Federation)
1 3.5/4 Ahead of Neumann, Goering, Schallopp and Pitschel.
1873 Vienna International Tournament
3 8.5/11: 19/30 Behind Steinitz (10/11: 22=/25) and
Blackburne; ahead of Rosenthal (7=/11: 17/28), Louis Paulsen,
Henry Edward Bird, Max Fleissig, Josef Heral, Philipp Meitner,
Oscar Gelbfuhs, Adolf Schwarz and Pitschel.
This tournament had a very unusual scoring system: each player
played a 3-game mini-match with each of the others and scored 1 for
a won mini-match and = for a drawn mini-match. The numbers before
the colons (:) are the points awarded; the other 2 numbers are the
usual "games won / games played" scoring.
1876 Leipzig (Central German Chess Federation)
1= 3.5/5 then 2/2 Anderssen, Goering and Pitschel tied for
1st; the order after the playoff was (1) Anderssen, (2=)
Goering and Pitschel; all finished ahead of Louis Paulsen,
Schallopp and Carl Berber.
1877 Leipzig (Central German Chess Federation)
2= 8.5/11 Behind Louis Paulsen (9/11); tied with Zukertort
(8=/11); ahead of Winawer (7=/11), Goering, Berthold Englisch,
Schallopp and 5 others. This tournament was specially arranged
to honour the 50th anniversary of Anderssen's learning the
chess moves.
1878 Frankfurt (West German Chess Federation)
3 6/9 Behind Louis Paulsen (8/9) and Adolf Schwarz (6=/9);
ahead of von Minckwitz (5/9), Wilfried Paulsen (4=/9) and 5
others.
1878 Paris International Tournament
6 12.5/22 Anderssen was in poor health. The event was won by
Winawer and Zukertort.
++2.G Match results
Date Opponent
Result Location Score Notes
1845 Ludwig Bledow
Lost Breslau .5/5 +0 =1 -4 Sources vary about the score.
1845-1846 Tassilo von der Lasa
Lost Breslau 2/6 +2 =0 -4
1848 Daniel Harrwitz
Drew Breslau 5/10 +5 =0 -5
1851 Tassilo von der Lasa
Lost Breslau 5/15 +? =? -?
1851 Karl Pitschel
Drew Leipzig 2/4 +1 =2 -1
1851 Jean Dufresne
Won Berlin 13/18 +12 =2 -4
1851 Ernst Falkbeer
Won Berlin 4/5 +4 =0 -1
1851 Carl Mayet
Won Berlin 4/4 +4 =0 -0
1851 Eduard Jenay
Won London 4.5/8 +? =? -? Casual games
1851 Lionel Kieseritzky
Lost London 6/16 +5 =2 -9 Casual games
1851 Johann Loewenthal
Won London 5.5/8 +5 =1 -2 Casual games; sources give also
separate results: +5 -1, +5 -2, and +5 -4 for Anderssen, and
+4 =1 -3 for Loewenthal
1858 Daniel Harrwitz
Won Paris 4/6 +3 =2 -1 Sources give also separate results: +3
=3-1 and +2 =2 -1
1858 Paul Morphy
Lost Paris 3/11 +2 =2 -7
1858 Paul Morphy
Lost Paris 1/6 +1 =0 -5 Casual games
1859 Max Lange
Lost Breslau 3.5/8 +3 =1 -4 Casual games
1859 Carl Mayet
Won Berlin 7/8 +7 =0 -1
1859 Jean Dufresne
Won Berlin 4/4 +4 =0 -0
1859 Berthold Suhle
Won Berlin 31/48 +27 =8 -13 Casual games
1860 Philipp Hirschfeld
Won Berlin 16.5/29 +14 =5 -10
1860 Ignatz von Kolisch
Drew Paris 5.5/11 +5 =1 -5
1860 Paul Journoud
Won Paris 3.5/5 +3 =1 -1
1860 Jules Arnous de Rivihre
Drew Paris 2.5/5 +2 =1 -2
1861 Ignatz von Kolisch
Won London 5/9 +4 =2 -3
1861 Johann Loewenthal
Won London 2/3 +2 =0 -1 Casual games
1862 Louis Paulsen
Drew London 4/8 +3 =2 -3
1862 Wilhelm Steinitz
Won London 2/3 +2 =0 -1 Casual games
1864 Berthold Suhle
Drew Berlin 4/8 +3 =2 -3
1865 Carl Mayet
Won Berlin 5.5/8 +5 =1 -2
1866 Johannes Minckwitz
Won Berlin 8.5/12 +8 =1 -3
1866 Gustav Neumann
Lost Berlin 10/24 +9 =2 -13
1866 Wilhelm Steinitz
Lost London 6/14 +6 =0 -8 As a result Steinitz was widely
recognized as the world's best player.
1867 Samuel Mieses
Won Breslau 4.5/5 +4 =1 -0
1868 Johannes Zukertort
Won Berlin 8.5/12 +8 =1 -3
1870 Louis Paulsen
Lost Baden-Baden =/3 +0 =1 -2
1871 Johannes Zukertort
Lost Berlin 2/7 +2 =0 -5
1876 Louis Paulsen
Lost Leipzig 4.5/10 +4 =1 -5
1877 Louis Paulsen
Lost Leipzig 3.5/9 +3 =1 -5
++3. The Evergreen game
Adolf Anderssen - Jean Dufresne, Informal Game, Berlin 1852
White: Adolf Anderssen
Black: Jean Dufresne
Result: 1-0
ECO: C52 - Evans Gambit, Compromised Variation
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
4. b4
(This is the "Evans Gambit", a popular opening in the 19th century
and still seen occasionally today. White gives up material to gain
an advantage in development.)
4. ... Bxb4
5. c3 Ba5
6. d4 exd4
7. O-O d3?!
(This isn't considered to be a good response; alternatives include
7. ... dxc3 or 7. ... d6.)
8. Qb3!?
(This immediately attacks the f7 pawn, but FIDE Master Graham
Burgess suggests 8. Re1 instead (Burgess, Nunn & Emms 2004:20).)
8. ... Qf6
9. e5 Qg6
(White's e5 pawn cannot be captured; if 9. ... Nxe5, then 10. Re1
d6 11. Qa4+, forking the king and bishop for the win of a piece.)
10. Re1! Nge7
11. Ba3 b5?!
(Rather than defending his own position, black offers a counter-
sacrifice to activate his queen's rook with tempo. Burgess suggests
11. ... a6 instead to allow the b-pawn to advance later with tempo
(Burgess, Nunn & Emms 2004:21).)
12. Qxb5 Rb8
13. Qa4 Bb6
(Black cannot castle here because 14. Bxe7 would win a piece as the
knight on c6 cannot simultaneously protect the knight on e7 and the
bishop on a5.)
14. Nbd2 Bb7?
15. Ne4 Qf5?
16. Bxd3 Qh5
17. Nf6+!?
(This is a beautiful sacrifice, although Burgess notes that 17. Ng3
Qh6 18. Bc1 Qe6 19. Bc4 wins material in a much simpler way
(Burgess, Nunn & Emms 2004:21-22). The Chessmaster computer program
annotation says "this (sacrifice) is not without danger, as Black
now obtains an open g-file for counterplay.")
17. ... gxf6
18. exf6 Rg8
19. Rad1! Qxf3?
(After 19... Qxf3 The black queen cannot be captured because the
rook on g8 pins the white pawn on g2. Black now threatens to take
either on f2 or g2, both major threats endangering the white king,
but there is a shattering resource available.)
20. Rxe7+! Nxe7?
(The alternative passive response of 20. ... Kd8 does hold for a
while but White is better after 21. Rxd7+ Kc8 22. Rd8+ (22. ...
Rxd8 23. gxf3 is strong for white) Kxd8 23. Bf5+ Qxd1 24. Qxd1+ Nd4
25. g3. Chessmaster: "Black cannot escape with 20. ... Kd8, in view
of 21. Rxd7+! Kc8 22. Rd8+ Kxd8 (or 22. ... Rxd8 23. gxf3) 23.
Be2+, winning.")
21. Qxd7+!! Kxd7
22. Bf5+
(Double checks are dangerous because they force the king to move.
Here it is not only dangerous but decisive.)
22. ... Ke8
(22. ... Kc6 loses to 23. Bd7 checkmate)
23. Bd7+ Kf8
24. Bxe7#
1-0
(23. ... Kd8 is mated by 24. Bxe7# or 24. fxe7#)
Savielly Tartakower said, "A combination second to none in the
literature of the game." (Tartakower & du Mont 1975:35)
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