Relive Famous Chess Games of the Masters

What separates the famous chess games of the Romantic Era and the modern era from the millions of games that get played over the years? Chess is like any other human pursuit. When you see people excel in their discipline and perform insane feats you have to stand back and admire it.

Our potential and capabilities vary from person to person. You have the pack where most of us are. You have smaller groups at higher levels who are more gifted than most. And then you have the elite, a special club who through their own remarkable genius stand out from everyone.

Great painters fill museums with incredible works of art. We refer to their greatest paintings as masterpieces. Chess GMs also leave behind works of art at which we can only marvel. Their greatest games are called brilliancies and are also called masterpieces. I invite you to enjoy 32 of the greatest masterpieces in chess history. You can also add articles and games of your own.

Chess has developed over the centuries from an art to a science. Even 500 years ago the best players were capable of ingenious play. They could combine the pieces to coalesce into wonderful attacks.


Combinational patterns were a staple part of chess by the 19th century. Top players were experts in the art of the attack. Openings were designed to create open lines and diagonals and attacking patterns. Players showcased the tactical possibilities of chess to the fullest extent.


As the game moved into the 20th Century this way of playing had been swept away by scientific methods. Positional strategy was now the framework within which players planned their schemes. Initial fears that beautiful chess was a thing of the past were quelled when many extraordinary games were played within the positional paradigm.

Some of the greatest games in chess history took place during the Romantic Era in the 19th Century.


These games took place in chess cafes in all of the great cities of Europe. The game was also finding followers in North America with the US Chess Congress coming into being in the 1850s.


Romantic luminaries remained the heavyweights of chess until the end of the 19th Century. The Steinitz victory over Zukertort in the first World Championship represented a change of guard with respect to the dominant playing style.

William Steinitz changed the face of chess in the 1870s when he abandoned the Romantic School for new positional ideas. He was probably inspired by the games of Howard Staunton and Paul Morphy.


Both of these players demonstrated their understanding of positional fundamentals in their games. Steinitz must have identified this knowledge as the key to their domination of their contemporaries who lacked positional understanding.


Their games may have been the basis for Steinitz in his development as a positional chess player. Steinitz's successors adopted his ideas and improved on his interpretation of them.

The aforementioned Staunton and Morphy followed earlier greats like Philidor and La Bourdonnais.


They and many others storied the early history of chess. Staunton was very influential in opening theory in his era. Many openings underwent detailed analysis with many variations and sub-variations shaping chess in the image of skilled tacticians.


Later men like Steinitz, Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and others would pave the way toward the game we know today.

More geniuses followed through the decades of the 20th Century. Capablanca, Fischer and Kasparov were among the greatest of the century.


The 21st Century features the great players of today and of the very recent past. Kasparov's contemporaries like Karpov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Anand, Kramnik and Topalov among others have given way to Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Grischuk, Ding, Radjabov, So and company.


The game is much more scientific, more drawish than ever and yet still produces amazing games of chess. But which games are the greatest games of chess from today and yesteryear?

We start with the French legend, Philidor followed by his compatriot La Bourdannais. Morphy and Anderssen arrive next with Steinitz and Lasker soon after.

Rubinstein, Capablanca and Marshall show us how to play the game. Alekhine, Reti and Bogoljubov also have their say. Botvinnik, Tal, Fischer and Spassky then pick up the baton.

We come to more recent years as we hit the home stretch. Karpov and Kasparov are next to assume the mantle before handing over to their successors.

Anand and Topalov bring proceedings to a close. Two players from among our current standard bearers. The chess games are annotated to provide some strategic insight for you. Enjoy.

Some of the greatest chess players ever. Awesome combinations and at times strategy too deep for mere mortals to comprehend at first or even second glance. These games will live forever, coming to life on our screens every time we play through them.

One can only imagine the chess masterpieces that are yet to be played. With more players than ever, the standard ever rising, what gems lay ahead? Even in the silicon age there is still room for sparkling combinations. Those double exclamation marks!! With clocks ticking and furrowed brows sporting beads of sweat, chess is still a pressure test. Games will always hinge on human wit.

Having just witnessed the work of some of the brightest chess minds let's turn our attention to the prize they covet the most. The World Chess Championship has an interesting history.