The Most Beautiful Chess Game Ever Was Named "EVERGREEN" Because of THIS Quiet Move
Daily Checkmate
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The Evergreen Game: Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, 1852, Evans Gambit. The most beautiful chess game ever played, explained move by move, plus the answer to the question almost nobody answers: why is it called evergreen at all?
The name came from one quiet move. On move nineteen Anderssen doesn't capture, doesn't give check and doesn't even save the knight that's about to be taken. He just slides a rook from the corner to d1. The manual Dufresne published in 1873 gives that move a single word: ambush. In 1879, sixteen days after Anderssen died, Wilhelm Steinitz published his notes on the game, and his comment on that rook move began with the words "an evergreen in the laurel crown of the departed chess hero." That's where the name comes from. Half a century later, William Napier said it even shorter: a move in a billion.
In this video: the Evans Gambit and Dufresne's pet line on move seven; the seven times Black was allowed to castle, and why castling was actually good only twice; the flashy knight sacrifice that turned a winning position into an equal one; the knight capture on f3 after which White has exactly one non-losing move out of fifty; the rook sacrifice, the queen sacrifice, the double check, and mate by two bishops and a pawn while Black still has a queen and two rooks. Plus the two moves that would have saved Black, Bd4 and Qh3. For decades everyone believed there was no defense at all; the first real drawing chance was found in 1898, and both clean draws only in 1958.
And there are two people at the board. Anderssen is in his early thirties, teaches math and German at a high school in Breslau and plays tournaments only during school vacations. Dufresne is twenty-three and drops out of law school that very year because his father has lost his fortune. The man who lost never hid this game: he printed it in his own books again and again, including a small chess manual whose thirty-first edition came out in 2004. And at Easter 1868, Dufresne played Anderssen six games and won three of them.
If you enjoyed the game, subscribe to Daily Checkmate for more legendary games explained move by move.
The Most Beautiful Chess Game Ever Was Named "EVERGREEN" Because of THIS Quiet Move
Daily Checkmate
66 views
The Evergreen Game: Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, 1852, Evans Gambit. The most beautiful chess game ever played, explained move by move, plus the answer to the question almost nobody answers: why is it called evergreen at all?
The name came from one quiet move. On move nineteen Anderssen doesn't capture, doesn't give check and doesn't even save the knight that's about to be taken. He just slides a rook from the corner to d1. The manual Dufresne published in 1873 gives that move a single word: ambush. In 1879, sixteen days after Anderssen died, Wilhelm Steinitz published his notes on the game, and his comment on that rook move began with the words "an evergreen in the laurel crown of the departed chess hero." That's where the name comes from. Half a century later, William Napier said it even shorter: a move in a billion.
In this video: the Evans Gambit and Dufresne's pet line on move seven; the seven times Black was allowed to castle, and why castling was actually good only twice; the flashy knight sacrifice that turned a winning position into an equal one; the knight capture on f3 after which White has exactly one non-losing move out of fifty; the rook sacrifice, the queen sacrifice, the double check, and mate by two bishops and a pawn while Black still has a queen and two rooks. Plus the two moves that would have saved Black, Bd4 and Qh3. For decades everyone believed there was no defense at all; the first real drawing chance was found in 1898, and both clean draws only in 1958.
And there are two people at the board. Anderssen is in his early thirties, teaches math and German at a high school in Breslau and plays tournaments only during school vacations. Dufresne is twenty-three and drops out of law school that very year because his father has lost his fortune. The man who lost never hid this game: he printed it in his own books again and again, including a small chess manual whose thirty-first edition came out in 2004. And at Easter 1868, Dufresne played Anderssen six games and won three of them.
If you enjoyed the game, subscribe to Daily Checkmate for more legendary games explained move by move.