Famous games

AlphaZero – Stockfish, London 2017

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Nine hours after being given only the rules of chess, DeepMind's AlphaZero began overwhelming the strongest conventional engine in the world, and games like this one showed why: a long positional squeeze in a Queen's Indian structure that leaves Stockfish's pieces boxed in with no counterplay at all. Unlike most engine games, which look computer-like and brutal, AlphaZero's games from this match are often praised as remarkably human in style — patient piece maneuvering and space-gaining moves that a strong human grandmaster would recognize and admire.

Deep Blue – Kasparov, Philadelphia 1996, Game 1

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This was the first game a computer ever defeated a reigning World Champion under standard tournament time controls — a historic shock, even though Kasparov regrouped to win the six-game match 4-2 overall. Deep Blue calculates its way through a Sicilian Alapin into a technically won rook endgame; it's worth comparing to their 1997 rematch, Game 6, to see how much both sides had changed in just fourteen months.

Taimanov – Fischer, Candidates Quarterfinal 1971, Game 1

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The opening game of a match that would end 6-0 to Fischer — one of the most lopsided results in the history of top-level chess. Fischer defends a sharp King's Indian with Black, and although Taimanov generates real pressure, Fischer's precise counterplay and endgame technique carry the day. It's worth studying as the start of Fischer's extraordinary run toward the 1972 World Championship: even in a game where the opponent had chances, Fischer simply didn't lose.

Short – Timman, Tilburg 1991

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One of the most famous king marches in chess history: starting with 31.Kh2, Nigel Short walks his own king up the board — through g3 and f4 — to personally join the attack on Jan Timman's king, something almost never seen at grandmaster level. It looks absurd until you see that Short had calculated the black pieces simply couldn't generate a check anywhere along the route; the game is a lesson in trusting deep calculation over general principles like "keep your king safe."

Spassky – Larsen, USSR vs Rest of the World, Belgrade 1970

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The Rest of the World team's ambitious board-one experiment — putting the fiery Bent Larsen ahead of Bobby Fischer — produced this dramatic upset when Larsen, playing Black, beats the reigning World Champion Spassky in a sharp Queen's Indian battle after Spassky's king gets caught in the center. It's a reminder that even the strongest World Champions lose sharp tactical fights when their opponent finds the more forcing continuation.

Polugaevsky – Nezhmetdinov, Sochi 1958

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"Nezhmetdinov's Immortal" is treasured by attacking players precisely because Nezhmetdinov was never a world-class grandmaster on paper, yet here he out-calculates a much stronger opponent in a fireworks display culminating in 24...Rf3+!! and a queen sacrifice that leaves his knights and rook alone to finish the king hunt. Grandmasters still cite this game today as one of the purest examples of raw attacking talent triumphing over material.

Carlsen – Karjakin, World Championship 2016, Tiebreak Game 4

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With his title on the line and needing a win in a must-win rapid game for Karjakin, Carlsen finishes the match with a flourish: 49.Rc8+! followed by the point 50.Qh6+!!, sacrificing the queen to force mate no matter how Black recaptures. It's a satisfying finish to a grinding match, and a good reminder that even the most positionally-minded champions still finish games with hard tactical calculation when the moment calls for it.

Carlsen – Anand, World Championship 2013, Game 5

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The turning point of Carlsen's first World Championship match: after four solid draws, Carlsen grinds Anand down in a long rook endgame where nothing looks immediately dangerous, until Anand's position slowly falls apart under constant, quiet pressure. This is the essential Carlsen game to study for endgame technique — patient improvement of every piece rather than any single decisive blow, over more than 100 moves.

Aronian – Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2013

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Nicknamed "Anand's Immortal," this game shows the veteran former World Champion producing one of his most spectacular attacking performances late in his career: starting with 15...Bc5!, Anand launches a cascade of sacrifices that leave Aronian's king with no safe square anywhere on the board. Chess.com ranked it among the greatest games ever played — a reminder that Anand's calm, positional reputation hid one of the sharpest calculators of his generation.

Kasparov – Anand, PCA World Championship 1995, Game 10

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The turning point of the 1995 title match at the World Trade Center: after Anand had beaten Kasparov in Game 9 to take the lead, Kasparov struck back with a deeply prepared piece sacrifice in the Ruy Lopez that had reportedly been sitting ready in his notebooks for years. Watch how quickly Black's position collapses once White opens the center — this is a lesson in the power of home preparation sprung at exactly the right psychological moment.

Polgar – Kasparov, Russia vs Rest of the World, Moscow 2002

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Judit Polgar's first-ever classical win against the world's top-rated player was a milestone for women's chess: Kasparov's Berlin Defense goes wrong early, and Polgar's rooks dominate the seventh and eighth ranks for a long technical squeeze that finally cracks his defense. Notice how patiently she converts a small structural edge — no single flashy blow, just steady accumulation of small advantages against a legendary opponent.

Kramnik – Kasparov, World Championship 2000, Game 2

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The game that symbolized the end of an era: Kramnik's use of the once-obscure Berlin Defense neutralized Kasparov's attacking chess so effectively across the match that Kasparov never managed to win a single game and lost his title. This particular game shows Kramnik converting a small structural edge from a queenless middlegame into a full point — a demonstration that solid technique, not fireworks, dethroned the greatest attacking player of his generation.

Deep Blue – Kasparov, New York 1997, Game 6

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The decisive final game of the 1997 rematch, and the first time a computer defeated a reigning World Champion in a full match under standard time controls. Deep Blue's shocking 8.Nxe6!? knight sacrifice tore open Kasparov's king position, and a rattled Kasparov resigned after only 19 moves. It's a landmark not for beauty but for history — the moment computer chess overtook the strongest human player alive.

Kasparov – Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999

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Voted the greatest chess game ever played in a Chess.com poll, "Kasparov's Immortal" features an astonishing king walk: Kasparov sacrifices a knight and then a rook to drag Topalov's king from safety all the way to a4, and it stays under fire for the rest of the game. The final combination, starting with 24.Rxd4!, is one of the deepest calculated sequences ever played over the board — study how Kasparov keeps generating new threats faster than Black's king can find shelter.

Karpov – Kasparov, World Championship 1985, Game 16

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One of the most famous games from the Karpov–Kasparov rivalry: Kasparov plants a knight on d3 as early as move 16, and it sits there, untouchable, for nearly twenty moves while Kasparov builds his attack around it — Karpov is eventually forced to give up his queen just to remove it. Watch how the knight functions almost as a permanent thorn, tying down White's pieces long before the tactics arrive.

Spassky – Fischer, World Championship 1972, Game 3

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Fischer's only win with the black pieces in the match, and a rare moment of Fischer playing the Modern Benoni — an opening he almost never used. It was also the first game of the match played away from the stage, in a backroom, after Fischer's forfeit of Game 2; watch how Fischer methodically outplays Spassky in a complex middlegame to seize the psychological momentum that carried him through the rest of the match.

Fischer – Spassky, World Championship 1972, Game 6

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One of the most celebrated games of the "Match of the Century": Fischer, who had almost never played the Queen's Gambit before, surprises Spassky with it and produces a game so elegant that Spassky himself joined in the audience's applause afterward. Watch the central break 20.e4! that suddenly turns a calm positional game into a decisive structural advantage — this game is a model for how to convert a small edge into a full point without a single tactical fireworks moment.

Petrosian – Spassky, World Championship 1966, Game 10

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Nicknamed "Petrosian's World Championship Immortal," this game shows the defensive-minded champion at his most aggressive: he gives up an exchange with 21.Ne3! and then a second one with 24.Rxf4!, dismantling Spassky's position piece by piece for total domination rather than material. It's the best answer to the myth that Petrosian only knew how to defend — here he shows the same sacrificial technique on the attacking side of the board.

Botvinnik – Tal, World Championship 1960, Game 6

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The audience grew so loud the game had to be moved to a back room: facing the threat of a quiet positional squeeze, the 23-year-old challenger Tal answers with the shocking 21...Nf4!!, giving up a full knight to rip open lines toward Botvinnik's king. This game, from the match where Tal dethroned Botvinnik to become the youngest World Champion ever, is Exhibit A for how calculated risk-taking can overwhelm even the most rigorous positional players.

Tal – Smyslov, Candidates Tournament 1959

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Mikhail Tal, on his way to becoming the youngest World Champion in history, sacrifices a knight on move 21 for an attack that former champion Smyslov simply cannot calculate his way out of over the board. This game is a good showcase of Tal's signature style: he doesn't need to prove the sacrifice is objectively correct, only that it creates problems his opponent will fail to solve under pressure.

Byrne – Fischer, New York 1956

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"The Game of the Century" was played when Bobby Fischer was only 13 years old: he offers his queen with 17...Be6!!, a move that gives nothing back immediately but harmonizes every remaining piece into a mating net against the white king over the next 20-odd moves. It's the definitive lesson that a queen sacrifice can be sound not because of a forced tactic but because the resulting minor pieces and rooks simply dominate the board.

Bronstein – Botvinnik, World Championship 1951, Game 6

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In a match that decided whether Botvinnik would keep his title, the challenger Bronstein gets a promising position out of the Sicilian only to see it slowly slip away in a long technical struggle that stretches to 57 moves. It's a good example of a World Championship game where there's no single fireworks moment — instead, watch how Botvinnik's endgame technique with king and knight against Bronstein's weaknesses gradually turns a roughly balanced position into a full point.

Botvinnik – Capablanca, AVRO 1938

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Kasparov called this Botvinnik's masterpiece: the future World Champion methodically builds a kingside pawn storm against the former champion, opens lines with a pawn sacrifice, and finishes with the beautiful point 30.Qg5+!! wrapping up a mating attack from what looked like a quiet strategic game. It's a model of converting a small central and kingside space advantage into a full-blown attack through patient buildup rather than early tactics.

Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923

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The "Immortal Zugzwang Game" earns its name from a rare event at grandmaster level: White is not checkmated or down decisive material, but simply has no move that doesn't lose. Nimzowitsch, the great theorist of positional chess, engineers a position where every single one of White's pieces is tied down, then delivers the quiet 25...h6!! to complete the zugzwang. It's the canonical example of winning without a single tactical shot.

Réti – Alekhine, Baden-Baden 1925

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Alekhine called this one of his best games: Réti's hypermodern opening experiment runs into a storm of tactics as Black's central pawns and pieces overrun White's position by the mid-20s. Watch how Black repeatedly sacrifices pawns to keep the initiative rather than consolidating a material edge — trusting piece activity over the scoreboard, the same lesson as many games on this list.

Capablanca – Tartakower, New York 1924

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Often called the greatest rook endgame ever played, Capablanca sacrifices queenside pawns one after another purely to activate his rook and king, capped by the astonishing 35.Kg3!! — a king move made just to start marching toward the action rather than defending anything. It's essential study material for the principle that in rook endgames, piece activity almost always outweighs a pawn or two.

Capablanca – Marshall, New York 1918

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Frank Marshall unveiled his home-prepared gambit 8...d5!? against Capablanca, hoping to catch the reigning-champion-to-be off guard with a pre-planned kingside attack. Capablanca had never seen the line before but defended with such calm precision that the sacrifice was refuted at the board — and yet the Marshall Attack survived its own debut loss to become one of the most respected weapons in the Ruy Lopez. Watch how Capablanca gives back some material at key moments simply to simplify into a safe, winning position.

Rotlewi – Rubinstein, Łódź 1907

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Dubbed "Rubinstein's Immortal" by Hans Kmoch, the combination that ends this game — 21...Bxe4! — offers a queen while leaving four different mating threats on the board, so White has no way to survive no matter which piece is taken. Every one of Black's minor pieces and rooks is already aimed at the white king before the sacrifice even begins, which is the real lesson: the tactic only exists because the position was prepared first.

Lasker – Bauer, Amsterdam 1889

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This game introduced the classic double bishop sacrifice as a standard attacking pattern: Lasker gives up both bishops in succession to strip away the pawns shielding Black's king, then mops up with queen and knight against a naked monarch. It remains the reference example for recognizing when a king's defenders can be removed by force for a decisive attack.

Steinitz – von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895

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The first World Champion demonstrates the attacking ideas he spent his career developing: a rook lands on the seventh rank and, though technically undefended, cannot be touched because of a mating net. Von Bardeleben, seeing the forced mate coming, famously got up and left the tournament hall rather than resign — Steinitz then calmly showed the full mating line to the crowd. Trace the king hunt from move 22 onward to see the point the audience saw.

Paulsen – Morphy, 1st American Chess Congress, New York 1857

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During Morphy's triumphant run at the first American Chess Congress, he uncorked 17...Qxf3!!, sacrificing his queen so his remaining minor pieces and rooks could hunt the white king across the board. Steinitz called it one of the most poetical combinations ever played in a real game; watch how little material Black needs once the white king is exposed and undefended.

Morphy – Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris 1858

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Played in a box at the Paris opera against two consulting amateurs, this 17-move miniature is the textbook lesson in development: Morphy develops every piece with a purpose, castles quickly, and by move 10 is playing a completely different, faster game than his opponents. The famous finish — a queen sacrifice that lets a rook and bishop deliver a smothering-style mate — shows why rapid development beats grabbing pawns.

Anderssen – Dufresne, Berlin 1852

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The "Evergreen Game" is a model Evans Gambit attack: White gives up rook after rook to keep lines open against Black's uncastled king, then offers the queen itself with 19.Rxe7+!? so that a lone bishop pair can force mate. It's a clean illustration that in an open position with the enemy king stuck in the center, tempo and open lines matter far more than the material count on the board.

Anderssen – Kieseritzky, London 1851

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Known as "The Immortal Game," this casual encounter played the day before Anderssen's first tournament round is the archetype of Romantic-era chess: White sacrifices a bishop, both rooks, and finally the queen to mate with just a knight and bishop. Watch how every sacrifice opens a line toward the black king rather than grabbing material — Black's queen and both rooks never even leave the back ranks before it's over.