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I just found the following game

[Title "Carlos Torre vs Emmanuel Lasker, Moscow 1925"]
[FEN ""]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bg5 c5 4. e3 cxd4 5. exd4 Be7 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 b6 9. Nc4 Bb7 10. Qe2 Qc7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rfe1 Rfe8 13. Rad1 Nf8 14. Bc1 Nd5 15. Ng5 b5 16. Na3 b4 17. cxb4 Nxb4 18. Qh5 Bxg5 19. Bxg5 Nxd3 20. Rxd3 Qa5 21. b4 Qf5 22. Rg3 h6 23. Nc4 Qd5 24. Ne3 Qb5 25. Bf6 Qxh5 26. Rxg7+ Kh8 27. Rxf7+ Kg8 28. Rg7+ Kh8 29. Rxb7+ Kg8 30. Rg7+ Kh8 31. Rg5+ Kh7 32. Rxh5 Kg6 33. Rh3 Kxf6 34. Rxh6+ Kg5 35. Rh3 Reb8 36. Rg3+ Kf6 37. Rf3+ Kg6 38. a3 a5 39. bxa5 Rxa5 40. Nc4 Rd5 41. Rf4 Nd7 42. Rxe6+ Kg5 43. g3 Nf8 44. h4+ Kh5 45. Re7 Rdb5 46. Nxd6 Kh6 47. Nxb5 Ng6

and came to know that it is called "The Seventh Seal". There doesn't seem to be any obvious reason to call it so, and there are no insights available online. Is anyone here aware of any reason?

I initially came to know about this game from this Agadmator video where even Antonio had no idea about the name. But, you can find it here as well.

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    Haven't seen the movie. Looks like a pun considering chessgamescom does it a lot. One way to find out is through the comment section there I guess
    – cmgchess
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 7:16
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    Thanks for the reference
    – Brian Towers
    Commented Jun 10, 2023 at 7:19
  • @Starship-OnStrike thanks for pointing it out Commented Jun 11, 2023 at 18:48

2 Answers 2

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The best explanation I've seen is in the comments to the Agadmator video. Expanding on the comment, the rook windmill starting with 26. Rxg7+ through 32. RxQ is 7 moves long and the seventh move, RxQ, seals the win. The "seventh" move "seals" the victory. As cmhchess suggests in the comments above, this is a lame chessgames.com pun.

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It refers to the seventh rank.

Torre, who was clearly worse a few moves earlier, profits from Lasker's mistake (22...h6?! 23...Qd5?) by setting a powerful windmill (25.Bf6!!) that allows his rook to wreck havoc on the 7th rank (any rook's promised land): White wins two pawns and a bishop, refrains from snatching a7 in order not to activate the black rook on a8, and then goes back to pick the queen.

Although I had never seen that famous game called The Seventh Seal before (rather : The Windmill Immortal), its fate was undoubtely sealed on the seventh rank !

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