Under each game there is a board and a move list. "Next" and "Back" step through the game one move at a time; on a computer the arrow keys do the same (click the board first). Any move in the list can be clicked to jump straight to it.
Advice every coach gives: before pressing "Next", try to guess the next move yourself. A game sticks far better that way than when you simply watch it.
Adolf Anderssen vs Lionel Kieseritzky · London, 1851 · King's Gambit · 1-0
A casual, non-tournament game played in London in the summer of 1851, while the first international tournament was running there. Anderssen gave up a bishop, both rooks and his queen - and mated with the three minor pieces he had left.
The name "Immortal" was given by the Austrian master Ernst Falkbeer. It has stood ever since as the model of 19th-century romantic chess: development and attack matter more than material, and a sacrifice is a normal way to talk to your opponent.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne · Berlin, 1852 · Evans Gambit · 1-0
A year after the Immortal Game Anderssen played a game many rate even higher. Wilhelm Steinitz called it "the evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath" - hence the name.
It shows how the Evans Gambit works: White gives up the b4 pawn, gains time with c3 and d4 and gets the pieces out first. The finish is a run of sacrifices with a double check and a bishop mate.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Paul Morphy vs Duke Karl of Brunswick and Count Isouard · Paris, 1858 · Philidor Defence · 1-0
Morphy played two opponents at once - a duke and a count consulting each other. The game was played in a box at the Paris Opera during a performance, which gave it its name.
It is the best lesson in development there is: the opponents spend moves on pawns and exchanges, while Morphy brings out every piece, castles and opens lines towards a king that never got out of the centre. Beginners are shown it more often than any other game.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Emanuel Lasker vs Johann Bauer · Amsterdam, 1889 · Bird's Opening · 1-0
Lasker is twenty here; five years later he would be world champion. The game entered the textbooks for one idea: White gives up both bishops, on h7 and g7, and strips the black king bare.
The idea is known simply as the double bishop sacrifice, and this is the game people recognise it by. Twenty-five years later Siegbert Tarrasch repeated the same blow against Nimzowitsch.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Georg Rotlewi vs Akiba Rubinstein · Łódź, 1907 · Queen's Gambit · 0-1
Rubinstein is remembered as a master of positional play and the endgame, and this game is his most brilliant attack. It is known as Rubinstein's Immortal.
The secret is the two black bishops on neighbouring diagonals, both aimed at the white king. Once the lines open, Rubinstein gives up his queen and both rooks, and the bishops do the rest.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Edward Lasker vs George Thomas · London, 1912 · Dutch Defence · 1-0
The most famous king hunt in chess history. After a queen sacrifice the black king travels from g8 to g1 - right across the board into White's camp, where it is mated.
Edward Lasker is a different player from the world champion Emanuel Lasker. It was a casual, non-tournament game, but every book on mating attacks shows it.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Mikhail Botvinnik vs José Raúl Capablanca · AVRO, Netherlands, 1938 · Nimzo-Indian Defence · 1-0
A future world champion against a former one. Botvinnik lets Capablanca's queen take a pawn on the queenside while he pushes his centre pawns towards the king.
Everything turns on the e-pawn. To queen it, Botvinnik gives up a bishop and a knight - a combination counted among the best of his career.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Donald Byrne vs Robert Fischer · New York, 1956 · Grünfeld Defence · 0-1
Fischer is thirteen; his opponent is one of the strongest players in the United States. The name "Game of the Century" was given by Hans Kmoch in Chess Review, and it stuck for good.
At its heart is a queen sacrifice on move 17. In return Fischer gets a windmill: the knight goes round with discovered checks, collecting material. For the queen Black ends up with a rook, two bishops and a pawn - and delivers mate.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov · Moscow, 1985 · Sicilian Defence · 0-1
A world championship match. Kasparov sacrifices a pawn as early as move eight - an idea he had already used in game 12 of the match - and gets fast development for it.
The hero of the game is the black knight on d3. It lands there on move 16 and stays for eighteen moves, tying up White's whole position, which earned it the name "octopus". Karpov gets rid of it only at the cost of his queen. The win put Kasparov ahead in the match, which he went on to win, becoming the 13th world champion.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Garry Kasparov vs Veselin Topalov · Wijk aan Zee, 1999 · Pirc Defence · 1-0
Kasparov himself named this among the best games of his life. It all starts with a rook sacrifice on move 24, after which the black king leaves its corner and walks across half the board.
The combination is calculated many moves ahead: the rook goes on move 24, and White only wins back the material and finishes off the king by move 44. It is the game people show when they want to explain deep calculation.
Starting position. Press “Next” or the right arrow key.
Your own games are worth replaying the same way - move by move, asking "why this?". How to do it with software - analysing games with an engine.
Most often people name the Immortal Game, Anderssen vs Kieseritzky (London, 1851): White gave up a bishop, both rooks and the queen and mated with three minor pieces. Next to it stand Morphy's Opera Game of 1858 and thirteen-year-old Fischer's Game of the Century from 1956.
The game between Donald Byrne and Robert Fischer, played in New York in 1956. Fischer was thirteen; he sacrificed his queen on move 17 and won. The name was given by the chess journalist Hans Kmoch.
Paul Morphy played it in 1858 in a box at the Paris Opera, during a performance, against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, who consulted each other. It is a short game - 17 moves - and the best example of why fast development matters.
Start with Morphy's Opera Game: it is short and shows development and an attack on a king left in the centre. Then Edward Lasker vs Thomas, where the king walks across the board, and the double bishop sacrifice in Lasker vs Bauer. Long positional games like Botvinnik vs Capablanca are better left for later.
Move by move, with pauses: before each move try to guess what the master played, and only then look. At the important moves stop and ask what changed in the position. That way a game teaches you rather than just showing a pretty finish.
The Vibe Chess app opens from a link and needs no installation. Setting up a tournament takes a minute: pick the system, set the date, the venue and the time control - the app handles the rest.
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
The openings these games started from - the openings catalogue. What the world champions played - openings of the world champions. The names of the mates - named checkmates. Another short game with a queen sacrifice - Légal's mate.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
