Game Two: Anderssen-Kieseritsky, London 1851 "Chess is a domain in which criticism has not so much influence as in art; for in the domain of chess the results of the game decide, ultimately and finally."Adolph Anderssen and Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritsky played what has become universally known among Chess aficionados as "The Immortal Game" at Simpson's Divan at the same time the rest of the Chess world was transfixed by the nearby international Chess tournament. (Staunton described the event--the first of its kind--as "a series of grand individual matches.") Kieseritsky was weakened early in the so-called "friendly" game by his questionable use of Bryan's Counter-Gambit, a strategy that foreshadowed the inefficacious development that was to soon cost him the game. Anderssen capitalized in a most daring fashion by sacrificing a bishop, a rook, another rook, and finally his queen before checkmating Kieseritsky on the 23rd move. A diagram from this monumental game was immortalized on a German 75 pfennig currency coupon, along with Anderssen's austere intellectual likeness. The loser died penniless in the Hotel du Dieu--the charity hospital for the insane--in Paris on 18 May 1853; no one attended his burial in a pauper's grave. |
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