Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve always wanted to get into this collection of games but I’ve never found the time, so respect to you for staying consistent and studying one/day.
The last game with Alekhine and Gonssiorovski is incredible, especially since it’s from a blindfolded simul.
As you may know from my other posts, since April 2020 I have been going over a game per day from Irving Chernev’s The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess. Over the last few days while off for the holidays, I went ahead and finished the task. The book was an enjoyable read. Chernev’s introduction to the games were well written, and often sent me scrambling for a dictionary. The games were lightly annotated, which made reviewing them quite easy. Losing a chess game quickly usually results from poor piece development and neglected King safety, and these two themes run throughout the thousand games.
I entered each game into a ChessBase database. I recently upgraded to CB17, which has a new feature allowing you to sort games based on “Beauty.” The CB17 manual describes the feature as follows: “The program defines beauty in terms of sacrificial tactical games. . . . This makes each database sortable by beauty, i.e. the spectacular games are at the top of the game list.” As soon as entered the one thousandth game, I ran the beauty function on the database of games. Below are the top ten most beautiful games according to CB17, along with Chernev’s introduction.
Game 967. Clemens - Eisenschmidt 1-0 In this, one of the first immortal games of chess literature, a charming feature is a Queen sacrifice which transforms one pretty arrangement into another. Lined up on one diagonal are four Knights which suddenly turn into a square and (believe it or not) all four of them help checkmate the King!
Game 945. Anderssen,A - Kieseritzky,L 1-0 Franklin K. Young said, "All authorities agree that this partie is the most brilliant game of which there is any record." So terrific was the impression made on the critics by the ideenreiche Andressen's lavish sacrificial display in this game that they gave it a name which it has borne ever since. This, dear reader, is "The Immortal Game!"
Game 991. Anderssen,A - Dufresne,J 1-0 Steinitz in poetic mood, called this game "the blossom in Anderssen's wreath of laurel" and named it "the evergreen partie." Gottschall said that the winning combination was one of the most wonderful of Anderssen's conceptions such as only a genius could have discovered, while Zukertort was of the opinion that the game "was even finer than the celebrated game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky."
Game 610. Hartlaub - Teichmann 1-0 White's heavy pieces stage an invasion along the open Rook file, making skillful use of KR1 as a jumping-off point.
Game 762. Blackburne - Amateur 1-0 Black's King is gently nudged towards the side of the board and into a mating net. The two sacrifices which force a self-block are typical of Blackburne's artistry in blindfold play. All this while conducting nine other games in this fashion at the same time!
Game 810. Alekhine,A (Simultaneous) - Prat,J 1-0 Chess masters are wont to answer flippantly to the layman's question, "How far ahead do you calculate, when making a combination?" They either say, like Reti, "As a rule, not a single move." Or, like Jaffe, "I think one move ahead -- but it is always the best move!" The records show that the great master does see many moves ahead -- and accurately, as otherwise his whole combination would fail. Here is Alekhine, for example, playing 20 games at once and announcing a mate in ten moves, beginning with a Queen sacrifice as pourboire to a discomfited adversary.
Game 961. Tarrasch - Satzinger 1-0 In the spring Tarrasch's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of mating. Disdaining his usual strategy of crushing his opponent slowly to death, he lets loose with a display of fireworks to win in a burst of glory.
Game 924. Hanni - Kunz 1-0 Two sacrifices in succession dislodge the King and render him into the hands of his enemies, who smite him hip and thigh.
Game 812. Lange - Schierstedt 1-0 Lange sets himself a difficult task. He places a ring around his Queen Knight and undertakes to checkmate with that piece. Not only does he do so, but in the short space of 21 moves Lange sacrifices his Queen, two Rooks, ad Knight and a Bishop!
Game 951. Gonssiorovski - Alekhine,A 0-1 White experiences the rare thrill of offering a Queen sacrifice to Alekhine, but not before Alekhine offers his own Queen three or four times! A remarkable brilliant (even for Alekhine) from a simultaneous blindfold exhibition on six boards.