Anderssen's Immortal Game & Evergreen Game Note: This tutorial utilizes JavaScript interactive boards.Visitors may also view/download/print a pdf file.
While sacrificing pieces and pawns had been part of the game of chess from its earliest beginnings, the 1800s saw the tactic rise as a prominent weapon in a player's tactical and strategic arsenal with players such as GM Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) (often Anderssen, A. in game notations). While Anderssen's Mate is named after him, Anderssen was a fierce competitor and staunch proponent of playing sacrificial chess. He is best known for the so-called "Immortal Game" in London in 1851 and the well-known so-called "The Evergreen" game in Berlin 1852. The later got its name from GM Wilhelm Steinitz who put the mark on this game of being the "evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath." These two games are hallmarks in the theoretical realm of sacrificial chess. Anderssen's talent for ensnaring opponents into "unseen mates" using sacrifices is a treasure to examine!
While later analysis showed perhaps that a more "prosaic" line would have won the game without much troubles for White, GM Garry Kasparov pointed out that the chess world would have lost one of its crown jewels if the game had instead taken that turn. [Source: www.brainsturgeon.com/iversen/000415b.htm]. The source also provides the interesting prosaic line as well as alternate lines of play in the endgame.
The two games represent just some of the masterpieces of artistic playing that come along in chess that I mentioned in My Chess Philosophy! The two games are also highly entertaining because of Anderssen's ability to develop the checkmate move...Be7#...in two different games from two different mating patterns and mating nets.
The Immortal Game Anderssen - Kieseritzky, London, 1851, 1-0
Download pgn file 
Evergreen Game 
