The "Immortal Losing Game" is a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 game between the Soviet grandmaster

International Grandmaster

The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....

 David Bronstein

David Bronstein

David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...

 and the Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 International Master  Bogdan Śliwa

Bogdan Sliwa

Bogdan Śliwa was a Polish chess master.Śliwa won the championship of Poland six times. In 1946, he won the first Polish Chess Championship after World War II in Sopot . In 1948, he took 3rd in Kraków . He won the Polish championship four consecutive times in 1951–1954...

 played in 1957 in Gotha

Gotha (town)

Gotha is a town in Thuringia, within the central core of Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gotha.- History :The town has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha . Its importance derives from having been chosen in...

. The name is an allusion to the more famous Immortal Game

Immortal game

The Immortal Game was a chess game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851 in London, during a break of the first international tournament. The very bold sacrifices made by Anderssen to finally secure victory have made it one of the most famous chess games of all time...

 between Adolf Anderssen

Adolf Anderssen

Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...

 and Lionel Kieseritzky

Lionel Kieseritzky

Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a 19th-century chess master, famous primarily for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, which because of its brilliance was named "The Immortal Game".-Early life:...

. The game acquired its name because Bronstein, in a completely lost position, set a series of elegant traps in an attempt to swindle

Swindle (chess)

In chess, a swindle is a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent, and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss. It may also refer more generally to obtaining a win or draw from a clearly losing position. I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld distinguish among...

 a victory from a lost game, although Śliwa deftly avoided the traps and won.

The game

White: Śliwa

Black: Bronstein

1. d4 f5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 Nf6

Both players have fianchetto

Fianchetto

In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward....

ed their bishops. If White had played the now-standard 4.c4 instead of 4.Nc3, the Leningrad variation of the Dutch Defence

Dutch Defence

The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:Elias Stein , an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.-Theory:Black's 1.....

 would have been reached.

5. Bg5 Nc6 6. Qd2 d6 7. h4 e6 8. 0-0-0 h6 9. Bf4 Bd7 10. e4 fxe4 11. Nxe4 Nd5 12. Ne2 Qe7 13. c4 Nb6?

13...Nxf4 14.Nxf4 Qf7

14. c5! dxc5 15. Bxc7! 0-0 16. Bd6

White wins the exchange

The exchange (chess)

The exchange in chess refers to a situation in which one player loses a minor piece but captures the opponent's rook. The side which wins the rook is said to have won the exchange, while the other player has lost the exchange, since the rook is usually more valuable...

 by skewering

Skewer (chess)

In chess, a skewer is an attack upon two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin. In fact, a skewer is sometimes described as a "reverse pin"; the difference is that in a skewer, the more valuable piece is in front of the piece of lesser or equal value...

 Black's queen and rook.

16... Qf7 17. Bxf8 Rxf8 18. dxc5 Nd5 19. f4 Rd8 20. N2c3 Ndb4 21. Nd6 Qf8 22. Nxb7 Nd4!

22...Rb8 23.Qxd7+−

23. Nxd8 Bb5! (see diagram) 24. Nxe6!

24.Nxb5?! Qf5! ...

• 25.Nxd4?? Nxa2#
• 25.Qxb4?? Qc2#
• 25.Nc3?? Nxa2+! 26.Nxa2 Nb3#
• 25.Rde1?? Nxa2+ 26.Kd1 Qb1+ 27.Qc1 Qxc1#
• 25.b3 Qxc5+ 26.Kb1! (26.Nc3?? Ne2+! 27.Qxe2 Qxc3+ 28.Kb1 Qa1#) Qf5+ 27.Kc1! Qc5+ draws
  Draw (chess)
  In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
  
   by perpetual check
  Perpetual check
  In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. Such a situation typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate; while failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance...
  
  
• White can still probably win with 25.Qf2! Nxa2+ 26.Kd2 Nxb5 27.Ke1

24... Bd3! (see diagram) 25. Bd5!

25.Nxf8?? Nxa2+ 26.Nxa2 Nb3#

25... Qf5! 26. Nxd4+ Qxd5! (see diagram) 27. Nc2!

27.Nxd5?? Nxa2#

27... Bxc3 28. bxc3!

28.Qxc3?? Nxa2+ wins the queen.

28... Qxa2 29. cxb4!

29.Nxb4?? Qb1#

1–0

External links

• The game on chessgames.com