7/2/2022 – Chess legends Paul Morphy, Adolf Anderssen, Henry Bird, Ernst Falkbeer, and Johann Löwenthal were star sign cancer in the age of romantic chess. With Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand, Anish Giri, Alexei Shirov, Alexander Morozevich, and of course Ian Nepomniachtchi, we have the almost 200 year older equivalent in the present time. Of the players listed, their merciless attack is often in focus. Does cancer really feel most comfortable with fire on board, or does the aggressive strategy have other reasons? | Photo: Pixabay

8/9/2021 – The game Adolf Anderssen against Lionel Kieseritzky, the "Immortal Game", played in London 1851, is arguably the most famous game in the history of chess. Anderssen won with a brilliant mating combination after sacrificing huge parts of his army. But his opponent Lionel Kieseritzky also played an "Immortal Game". Stephan Oliver Platz discovered this game and uses it as a starting point to take a close look at Kieseritzky's contribution to the King's Gambit.

6/22/2021 – 170 years ago, on 21 June 1851, Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky played one of the most famous games of all time: the so-called "Immortal Game", in which Anderssen sacrificed a large part of his army to mate the enemy king. Since then this game has been included in countless anthologies, it continues to be a popular choice for live exhibition games, it has been quoted in films, and the decisive position has been printed on T-shirts. It also played a role in the novel "Writers & Lovers" by American author Lily King.

4/6/2020 – There's a new book in the making, one that contains the classics of chess, but also of the intricate art of chess problems and studies. The author is Werner Keym, one of the most versatile composers in the chess world. The book starts with the most famous games in history. Most of them you will know, but have you looked carefully at the moves, have you understood the plans and the tactics. You can do that on our news page, using our interactive JavaScript player. It's an opportunity to understand chess history better.

3/30/2020 – In these strange times with no live tournaments going on, GM Simon Williams looks to the past. | Watch for free live and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account) starting as soon as Round 6 of the Candidates concludes. (Normally 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

6/27/2019 – With Falkbeer's Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 e4!?) Black tries to spoil the fun White wants to have in the King's Gambit. A number of top players have tried this countergambit which led to entertaining games. Today, the line is only rarely seen but today, June 27, 2019, Ernst Karl Falkbeer, who gave the countergambit its name, would have celebrated his 200th birthday.

5/26/2019 – As is well known, Wilhelm Steinitz justified positional chess theory and thus ended the Romantic era. It is less well-known that Steinitz himself was previously a great chess romantic. A contribution by Stephan Oliver Platz. | Photo: Austrian National Library

3/13/2019 – In addition to Lasker's 150th birthday, the German chess had another anniversary to celebrate last year. On July 6, 1818, 200 years ago, Adolf Anderssen was born in Breslau. After his victory in London in 1851, he was considered the best player in the world. He died 140 years ago today, on March 13, 1879. Replay his "Evergreen Game" with notes by Garry Kasparov! | Photo: German Chess Federation

3/24/2017 – The arguably most often reproduced game in the history of chess is the so-called "Immortal Game". Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky played it on June 21, 1851, during the London tournament, the first chess tournament ever. But the "Immortal Game" was not played in the tournament but during a series of skittle games with which Anderssen and Kieseritzky entertained themselves. Kieseritzky lost the game but made it famous.

2/4/2017 – The ChessBase Mega Database 2017 lists 35 casual games Adolf Anderssen (photo) played from 1851 to 1859 against Louis Eichborn. Eichborn won 32 of these games, lost 2 and only one game ended in a draw. Now Anderssen is considered as one of the best if not the best player of that time while Eichborn is relatively unknown. How then to explain his overwhelming plus against Anderssen?

4/24/2014 – In part one of his article Paul Lillebo claimed that the list of “official” world champions of chess, which begins in 1886 with the Steinitz-Zukertort match, does not do justice to the several earlier masters who were acclaimed by their contemporaries as the champion of chess. To the two masters from part one, Philidor and La Bourdonnais, he adds three more who were supreme in their time.

8/31/2008 – Over the years a number of correspondents have submitted to the Editor of Chess Notes their photographs of the final resting-places of various chess masters, including Anderssen, Capablanca, Grünfeld, Morphy and Nimzowitsch. There is even the remarkable case of the two masters who share the same grave. A pictorial record is presented here.