Evergreen game
Encyclopedia
The Evergreen game is a famous chess
game played in Berlin
in 1852 between Adolf Anderssen
and Jean Dufresne
.
Adolf Anderssen was one of the strongest players of his time, and was considered by many to be the world champion after winning the London 1851 tournament
. Jean Dufresne, a popular author of chess books, was considered a master of lesser but still considerable skill. This was an informal game, like the Immortal Game
.
Wilhelm Steinitz
later described the game as the "evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath", thus giving this game its name. The German word Immergrün (Evergreen), used by Steinitz, refers to a specific evergreen
plant, called Periwinkle (Vinca
) in English. The symbolic meaning is expressed in the French translation, the "Forever Young Game" (La Toujours Jeune).
, C52
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4
4... Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 exd4 7. 0-0 d3?!
8. Qb3!?
8... Qf6 9. e5 Qg6
10. Re1! Nge7 11. Ba3 b5?!
12. Qxb5 Rb8 13. Qa4 Bb6
14. Nbd2 Bb7? 15. Ne4 Qf5? 16. Bxd3 Qh5 17. Nf6+!?
17... gxf6 18. exf6 Rg8 19. Rad1! Qxf3?
20. Rxe7+! Nxe7?
21. Qxd7+!! Kxd7 22. Bf5+
22... Ke8
23. Bd7+ Kf8
24. Bxe7# 1–0
Savielly Tartakower
said, "A combination second to none in the literature of the game." .
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
game played in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1852 between Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
and Jean Dufresne
Jean Dufresne
Jean Dufresne was a German chess player and chess composer. He was a student of Adolf Anderssen, and lost the "Evergreen game" to him in 1852. Dufresne was an unsuccessful novelist under the anagrammatic pseudonym E. S...
.
Adolf Anderssen was one of the strongest players of his time, and was considered by many to be the world champion after winning the London 1851 tournament
London 1851 chess tournament
right|thumb|[[Adolf Anderssen]] won both the London International Tournament and the rival London Club Tournament.London 1851 was the first international chess tournament. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess...
. Jean Dufresne, a popular author of chess books, was considered a master of lesser but still considerable skill. This was an informal game, like the Immortal Game
Immortal game
The Immortal Game was a chess game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851 in London, during a break of the first international tournament. The very bold sacrifices made by Anderssen to finally secure victory have made it one of the most famous chess games of all time...
.
Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz
Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...
later described the game as the "evergreen in Anderssen's laurel wreath", thus giving this game its name. The German word Immergrün (Evergreen), used by Steinitz, refers to a specific evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
plant, called Periwinkle (Vinca
Vinca
Vinca is a genus of six species in the family Apocynaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. The English name periwinkle is shared with the related genus Catharanthus .-Description:Vinca plants are subshrubs or herbaceous, and have slender trailing stems 1–2 m long...
) in English. The symbolic meaning is expressed in the French translation, the "Forever Young Game" (La Toujours Jeune).
The game
White: Anderssen Black: Dufresne Opening: Evans GambitEvans Gambit
The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell, London 1827, although in that game a slightly...
, C52
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4
- This is the Evans GambitEvans GambitThe Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell, London 1827, although in that game a slightly...
, a popular openingChess openingA chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
in the 19th century and still seen occasionally today. White gives up material to gain an advantage in development.
4... Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 exd4 7. 0-0 d3?!
- This isn't considered to be a good response; alternatives include 7...dxc3 or 7...d6.
8. Qb3!?
- This immediately attacks the f7-pawnPawn (chess)The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
, but FIDE Master Graham BurgessGraham BurgessGraham K. Burgess is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In 1989 he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in mathematics...
suggests 8.Re1 instead .
8... Qf6 9. e5 Qg6
- White's e5-pawn cannot be taken; if 9...Nxe5, then 10.Re1 d6 11.Qa4+, forking the kingKing (chess)In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
and bishopBishop (chess)A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
to win a pieceChess pieceChess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...
.
10. Re1! Nge7 11. Ba3 b5?!
- Rather than defending his own position, Black offers a counter-sacrificeSacrifice (chess)In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
to activate his a8-rookRook (chess)A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
with tempoTempo (chess)In chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move. When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, he "gains a tempo" and conversely when he takes one more move than necessary he "loses a tempo"...
. Burgess suggests 11...a6 instead, to allow the b-pawn to advance later with tempo .
12. Qxb5 Rb8 13. Qa4 Bb6
- Black cannot castleCastlingCastling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
here because 14. Bxe7 would win a piece, as the knightKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
on c6 cannot simultaneously protect the knight on e7 and the bishop on a5.
14. Nbd2 Bb7? 15. Ne4 Qf5? 16. Bxd3 Qh5 17. Nf6+!?
- This is a beautiful sacrifice, although Burgess notes that 17.Ng3 Qh6 18.Bc1 Qe6 19.Bc4 wins material in a much simpler way . The ChessmasterChessmasterChessmaster is a chess playing computer game series which is now owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five million units sold .-Timeline:...
computer program annotation says "this [sacrifice] is not without danger, as Black now obtains an open g-file for counterplay."
17... gxf6 18. exf6 Rg8 19. Rad1! Qxf3?
- After 19...Qxf3 The black queenQueen (chess)The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
cannot be captured because the rook on g8 pinsPin (chess)In chess, a pin is a situation brought on by an attacking piece in which a defending piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable defending piece on its other side to capture by the attacking piece...
the white pawn on g2 (see diagram). Black now threatens to take either on f2 or g2, both major threats to the white king, but Anderssen has a shattering resource available.
20. Rxe7+! Nxe7?
- The passive alternative 20...Kd8 does hold longer, but White is better after 21.Rxd7+ Kc8 22.Rd8+ Kxd8 (22...Rxd8 23.gxf3) 23.Bf5+ (Chessmaster gives 23.Be2+) Qxd1+ 24.Qxd1+ Nd4 25.g3.
21. Qxd7+!! Kxd7 22. Bf5+
- Double checkDouble checkIn chess, a double check is a check delivered by two pieces at the same time. In chess notation, it is often symbolized by "++".-Discussion:...
s are dangerous because they force the king to move. Here it is not only dangerous but decisive.
22... Ke8
- 22...Kc6 loses to 23.Bd7 checkmateCheckmateCheckmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
.
23. Bd7+ Kf8
- If 23...Kd8, then either 24.Bxe7 or 24.fxe7 are mate.
24. Bxe7# 1–0
Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower
Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...
said, "A combination second to none in the literature of the game." .
See also
- Immortal GameImmortal gameThe Immortal Game was a chess game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851 in London, during a break of the first international tournament. The very bold sacrifices made by Anderssen to finally secure victory have made it one of the most famous chess games of all time...
- The Game of the CenturyThe Game of the Century (chess)The Game of the Century usually refers to a chess game played between Donald Byrne and 13-year-old Bobby Fischer in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City on October 17, 1956. It was nicknamed "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch in Chess Review...
- List of chess games