21 June 1851 · London, a coffee divan (published in La Régence and The Chess Player)

The Immortal Game: Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, London 1851, with 23.Be7#

The Immortal Game is a casual 1851 game in London in which Adolf Anderssen, playing White, sacrificed two bishops, a rook and a queen before mating with 23.Be7#. It was played in a coffee house against Lionel Kieseritzky and is one of the most famous games of the 19th century.

Date: 21 June 1851
Place: London, a coffee divan (published in La Régence and The Chess Player)
Players: Adolf Anderssen (White) vs Lionel Kieseritzky (Black)
Result: 1-0 in 23 moves
Opening: King’s Gambit Accepted (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+)
On Chess History: You play Anderssen, coached by Pip the chimney sweep

Play the story Interactive: the moves, the characters, the endings to find.

The moves

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nf3 Qh6 7.d3 Nh5 8.Nh4 Qg5 9.Nf5 c6 10.g4 Nf6 11.Rg1 cxb5 12.h4 Qg6 13.h5 Qg5 14.Qf3 Ng8 15.Bxf4 Qf6 16.Nc3 Bc5 17.Nd5 Qxb2 18.Bd6 Bxg1 19.e5 Qxa1+ 20.Ke2 Na6 21.Nxg7+ Kd8 22.Qf6+ Nxf6 23.Be7#

The sacrifices are the point of the game: the bishop on d6 and the rook on g1 are given up to open lines to the Black king, and 23.Be7# closes the net. Engines show that 18.Re1 or 18.d4 were even stronger than 18.Bd6.

A game of sacrifices

The Immortal Game was played in a London coffee house in June 1851, and it was published in two chess magazines the following month. It was a casual game, not a tournament, which makes the sacrifices all the more striking.

Anderssen gave up material from the start: the gambit pawn on f4 and the bishop on b5, then the knight and the bishop on d6. Each sacrifice drew Black’s pieces further from the king, until 22.Qf6+ and 23.Be7# closed the game.

Where it could have gone differently

The course checks the choices with an engine. 2…exf4 is fine for Black, and 11…h5! was better than 11…cxb5. 18…Qxa1+! was the critical alternative to 18…Bxg1, and it gives Black a fighting game.

Those details are the reason the game is studied: a famous win is only instructive when you see the moves that lost, and why they lost.

Questions and answers

Why is it called the Immortal Game?

Because of the number of sacrifices and the beauty of the mate: 23.Be7#. It is one of the best-known games of the 19th century.

Who played the Immortal Game?

Adolf Anderssen (White) against Lionel Kieseritzky (Black) in London, 21 June 1851.

What is the final mate?

23.Be7#, after 22.Qf6+ Nxf6, with the bishop checking the Black king on d8.

Sources and checks

Anderssen–Kieseritzky, London 1851 (La Régence, July 1851; The Chess Player, 19 July 1851)
Engine check on this site: Stockfish 17 (depth 22)

The moves on this page are checked for legality, and the engine evaluations come from Stockfish 17. Where a game is more legend than fact, the story says so.