The 25 Most Beautiful Chess Games

1. Anderssen vs. Kieseritzky, 1851, The Immortal Game. Queen sacrifice, both rooks sacrificed, mate with minor pieces. The game that named attacking chess. (Full analysis)

2. Anderssen vs. Dufresne, 1852, The Evergreen Game. Another Anderssen masterpiece: a bishop sacrifice on d7 opens lines that lead to a mating attack from an apparently quiet position.

3. Morphy vs. Duke of Brunswick/Count Isouard, 1858, The Opera Game. 17 moves, queen sacrifice, back-rank mate. The perfect teaching game. (Full analysis)

4. Morphy vs. Allies, 1858. Morphy played simultaneous blindfold games in Paris; this one features a pure piece sacrifice for a mating attack of crystalline logic.

5. Steinitz vs. von Bardeleben, 1895. The first World Champion creates a mating net of extraordinary depth, von Bardeleben famously left the board rather than face the final combination.

6. Réti vs. Alekhine, New York 1924. Alekhine's counterattack against Réti's hypermodern opening produces what many consider the greatest single combination in chess history, a king march that walks Black's king to safety while opening lines for a mating attack.

7. Botvinnik vs. Capablanca, AVRO 1938. Botvinnik's exchange sacrifice against the great Capablanca, methodical, inevitable, and strategically perfect. (See AVRO 1938)

8. Alekhine vs. Réti, Baden-Baden 1925. A positional exchange sacrifice that transitions into a devastating passed pawn advance.

9. Capablanca vs. Tartakower, New York 1924. Pure Capablanca: a small endgame advantage ground out with absolute precision. Beauty in simplicity.

10. Tal vs. Fischer, Candidates 1959. Tal's wild sacrificial style against Fischer's clinical defence, a clash of two future world champions at their most combative.

11. Byrne vs. Fischer, 1956, Game of the Century. 13-year-old Fischer's queen sacrifice. (Full analysis)

12. Fischer vs. Spassky, Game 6, 1972. Fischer plays the English Opening for the first (and nearly last) time in a World Championship game, producing a positional masterpiece of such quality that the Soviet delegation applauded.

13. Karpov vs. Kasparov, Game 24, Moscow 1985. The game that made Kasparov World Champion, a fighting win in the most pressured game of his career.

14. Tal vs. Larsen, Candidates 1965. Tal at his peak: a piece sacrifice that creates a position so chaotic that only Tal could navigate it.

15. Petrosian vs. Spassky, 1966 WCC, Game 10. Petrosian's prophylactic masterpiece, winning without ever appearing to attack.

16. Kasparov vs. Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999, Kasparov's Immortal. A rook sacrifice followed by a king hunt of fifteen moves. The most analysed game of the modern era.

17. Anand vs. Aronian, Wijk aan Zee 2013. A knight sacrifice on move 15 that leads to a forced win thirty moves later, the calculation depth is staggering.

18. Carlsen vs. Anand, WCC 2013, Game 5. Carlsen grinds a "drawn" rook endgame into a win, pure technique at the highest level.

19. Aronian vs. Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2013. A double bishop sacrifice in the classical mould, proof that romantic chess lives in the 21st century.

20. Caruana vs. Ponomariov, Dortmund 2014. A piece sacrifice for a long-term initiative that is both objectively correct and aesthetically stunning.

1. Ivanchuk vs. Yusupov, Candidates 1991. Ivanchuk's creative zenith, a game of pure imagination.
2. Shirov vs. Topalov, Linares 1998. The famous Bh3!! bishop sacrifice that no engine initially understood.
3. Nakamura vs. Carlsen, Zurich 2014. A rare Carlsen loss, but a beautiful one, with Nakamura playing a flawless attacking game.
4. Wei Yi vs. Bruzon, Danzhou 2015. A mating attack from a 16-year-old that features three consecutive piece sacrifices.
5. Gukesh vs. Ding Liren, WCC 2024, Game 14. The game that made the youngest World Champion, imperfect but historically monumental.

Play through these masterpieces on our legends archive. Many of these games feature the tactical patterns taught in our pattern library. After studying the combinations, test your own tactical vision on puzzle training.