Classic games, played out

Playing a great game from a book means never daring to test your own idea at move nineteen. Here the coach speaks where a strong annotator had something to say, the eval bar keeps score, and at any position you can step off the page, try your idea against Stockfish, and see what history did.

10 games, every note traced to a published annotator. 5 more are still being sourced and stay off the shelf until they check out.

Paris Opera 1858 · Philidor Defense

The Opera Game

Paul Morphy vs Duke Karl / Count Isouard 1-0

A lead in development becomes decisive when every threat makes the defender spend another move without bringing a new piece into play.

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Łódź 1907 · Queen's Gambit, Symmetrical Tarrasch

Rubinstein's Immortal

Georg Rotlewi vs Akiba Rubinstein 0-1

Two tempi is a winning advantage if you spend them on the same squares your opponent needed. Nothing in the finish was calculated on move fifteen; the pieces were simply put where they belonged.

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World Championship, Moscow 1966 · King's Indian Defence, Fianchetto Variation

Petrosian's Invitation

Tigran Petrosian vs Boris Spassky 1-0

An attack is only as strong as the pieces that can join it. Track the defender or attacker stranded on the wrong wing.

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Berlin 1852 · Evans Gambit

The Evergreen Game

Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne 1-0

Castling is a move you have to spend, not a move you get to postpone. Black is never lost in the opening here and is offered the king's escape at least four times.

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Frans Peeters · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Stefan64 · CC BY-SA 3.0

World Championship, Singapore, game 11 2024 · Reti Opening, reversed Blumenfeld

The Hour on Move Eleven

Gukesh Dommaraju vs Ding Liren 1-0

A worse position is a problem to be solved, not a verdict. Gukesh spends an hour admitting he is worse, then plays for the squares his opponent has stopped watching.

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Frans Peeters · CC BY-SA 2.0 · ChessKelly · CC BY 4.0

Candidates Tournament, Paphos, round 6 2026 · Vienna Game

Playing the Other Man's Clock

Wei Yi vs Javokhir Sindarov 0-1

A weakness you chose is not the same as a weakness you allowed. Sindarov takes doubled pawns and an uncastled king on purpose, because both of them come with open lines attached.

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Harry Pot for Anefo ]] · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Bled International Tournament, round 2 1961 · Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation

The Move Tal Did Not Mean to Play

Bobby Fischer vs Mikhail Tal 1-0

One omitted pawn move in a Sicilian is not a small thing. Tal skips it by accident, and from that moment every natural-looking move he has costs him more than it should.

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Miroslav.vajdic · CC BY 4.0 · Frans Peeters · CC BY-SA 2.0

World Championship, London, game 6 2018 · Petroff Defence

The Win No Human Was Going to Find

Magnus Carlsen vs Fabiano Caruana 1/2-1/2

Nothing dramatic loses this position. A bishop sent to the wrong square, a rook on the wrong file, one careless stretch of five moves, and a symmetrical endgame has become a defensive job that lasts six hours.

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27th USSR Championship, Leningrad 1960 · King's Gambit Accepted, Modern Defence

Four Reasons for One Move

Boris Spassky vs David Bronstein 1-0

A sacrifice is a question put to a particular person at a particular moment. Spassky played one he knew was second best, because the answer that refuted it asked Bronstein to walk his king into the open with twenty minutes left for twenty-six moves.

Model game for King's Gambit

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18th RSFSR Championship, Sochi 1958 · Old Indian Defence

The Sacrifice He Could Not Calculate

Lev Polugaevsky vs Rashid Nezhmetdinov 0-1

Some combinations are too long to check and have to be judged instead. Nezhmetdinov gave his queen up on a position he could see rather than a line he had verified, and he said afterwards that the trusting was the hard part, not the counting.

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