Questions tagged [master-games]
Games played by demonstrably skilled players such as FIDE IMs and GMs, or those of similar strength pre-FIDE.
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Searching games by chess positions
I have a somewhat weird question that is only indirectly related to chess. I am trying to solve a chess-related puzzle in which I have to find games played by Soviet chess players based on positions. ...
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Blunders that they didn't realise for some time
Any high-level GM games where somebody makes a big blunder but was in blissful ignorance about how bad the move was until several moves after the blunder?
EDIT thanks to comment: classical time format,...
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Do the majority GM losses came from "Not seeing the [opponent] move" or being outplayed in calculation/positional play
The best way to understand this question is probably imagine a situation where the player can peek at his opponent next move after each potential move of the player. In other words, The player knows ...
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Grimshaw in practical (OTB) game
Does anybody know of an example of the Grimshaw-Theme being used in a practical game?
For the Nowotny there are several examples (e.g. Navara-Dergatschova, Ordix, 2007) and for the Plachutta there is ...
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King + 2 Knights vs King + Pawn - win rate at master level at standard time controls?
After 80 moves of his game against MVL, Carlsen reached this theoretically winning endgame position, which ended in a draw:
[Title "Carlsen - MVL, Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, 2023"]
[...
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8 pieces on one file in a master game at standard time control?
In today's (21st May 2023) game in the Superbet Rapid and Blitz between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian they reached a position where the c-file was fully occupied with pieces and pawns.
[...
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What is the fastest loss by a GM in a FIDE classical game?
What is the shortest FIDE classical game a grandmaster lost? It can be either resigning or checkmate. The opponent doesn't necessarily need to be GM. Forfeits don't count. Only serious games count, ...
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How many games would Magnus Carlsen need to win to get an ELO of 3000?
For the purposes of this question, assume that he wins every game. Go according to his current schedule. Assume the opponents keep their current rating. If you run out of schedule, assume the rating ...
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Has simultaneous partial queen pinning, besides mutual queen pins, happened in a master game?
In a 3+0 blitz game, this humorous position arose. Have such mutual partial pins, wherein both players pin the others queen to their king, occurred in master games?
[FEN "r3k2r/1ppb1ppp/p2bqn2/...
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Positions where pawn promotion to queen is worse than to other piece
I'm looking for games from famous grandmasters, in which pawn promotion to a rook, a bishop, or a knight is a better move than queen promotion. I tried to Google some, but I couldn't find anything.
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How rare are double forks in high-level games?
I was playing a blitz game, when I saw my chance to produce an amusing position, to which my opponent unknowingly obliged; I was able to fork their rooks with my queen and rook simultaneously.
[Title &...
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling queenside in a high-level game?
This is to complement the kingside variant of that question
Has checkmate ever been achieved by a castling queen side in a high-level game?
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
I asked an AI large language model, but it listed games which certainly didn't achieve checkmate with castling kingside. I ...
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Moving a piece to a square protected by 5 opponent's pieces
At the 5th round of the 2022 FIDE World Team Championship, in the game between Ivanchuk and Van Foreest, White played the following winning move:
[FEN "1n1q2k1/2r1rp1p/pp1b1np1/3pN3/3P4/BP4PB/...
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How often do strong players (FM or above) miss under promotions?
In the April 2022 Reykjavik Open two players missed winning under promotions.
In the first Hjartson probably saw that the forcing line starting with Qf7 would lead to stalemate after the queen ...
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Have any Australians played Carlsen OTB, other than Smerdon and Smirnov?
There was Smerdon vs. Carlsen (2016) 1/2-1/2, and now there is Smirnov vs. Carlsen (2022) 0-1. I'm not aware of any other games between Australian players and Carlsen.
Question: Have any Australians ...
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What was the highest rated classical game that was lost on time?
Recently, I came across a game Vishwanathan Anand vs Veselin Topalov from Norway Chess 2022. In the second round, Anand who was playing with the black pieces won on time against Topalov as his clock ...
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Are there any games with 4 pieces (for the same player) pinned on the same rank?
In Caruana–Berg (Dresden, 2008), after 26...Ne6, White has pins on all three of Black's pieces on the 6th rank.
[FEN ""]
[Title "Caruana—Berg, Italy vs Sweden, Dresden Olympiad 2008 [...
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Utterly senseless move sequence
I noticed a game in my database with an utterly senseless move sequence , but approved from a database on the internet. I mean the game Viesturs Meijers - Roi Castineira Reinaldo , Pamplona 2008
Does ...
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Was White's last move actually Ne1?
[FEN ""]
[Event "Ubeda op 6th"]
[Site "Ubeda"]
[Date "2001.01.25"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "5"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Comas ...
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Moving absolutely pinned piece to give checkmate: has this ever occured in a master game?
We know that an absolutely pinned piece (a piece pinned against its own king) can move and give a check, and the check can even be a mate.
The following is an example of such a checkmate.
[FEN "8/...
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How do you analyze master games without annotations?
I am starting to analyze master games more often because I never really do. But I play openings most masters don't and most games with these openings don't have many annotated games. So, how do you ...
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A position with a choice between checkmate and perpetual check
For some odd reason I'm searching for a game, or rather a position, where one player can force a win via checkmate (can be check in n, where n is any number), but they can also force a draw via ...
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Benefits of studying annotated grandmaster games
I've started reading about the 1960 Tal vs Botvinnik match and I'm planning on studying many annotated games like these. I was curious about what benefits I can get out of doing this. I've already ...
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World championship games where underpromotion was necessary
I have been frequenting tactics puzzles and a few books over the past year. I come across these underpromotion puzzles frequently, however, I never find them in real games.
Has there ever been a ...
user25070
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Searching for players by primary opening choice
My opening repertoire consists mostly of openings that score respectably at the club level but rarely appear in high-level play, and far more rarely as any high-level player's primary choice rather ...
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Why is it seemingly impossible to follow high level chess games?
According to this, AlphaZero was a really good chess engine that learned through playing against itself, and it then it never lost against any other chess programs. I think it probably also said it ...
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Which classic master games to study? [closed]
Can somebody give list of classics to study according to your ELO?(like I don't know,Alekhine:1800)
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Have any top players intentionally thrown a game for tournament reasons?
I'm thinking something similar to Women's Badminton at the 2012 Olympics. There, some pairs actively attempted to lose their games to gain a more favorable draw in the next round.
Has anything like ...
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Games where a pawn checkmates the king
Could you please refer some examples of game where, on the last move, a pawn checkmates the king (preferably from grandmaster's games)?
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Is Gilbert Guerrero a 2500 US player?
According to the FIDE website, Gilbert Guerrero is from the US federation and 2500 Elo. I have never heard of this player, who mates GM Campora in ... 11 moves!
Here is the game from Chessgames.com
...
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Are there any repeated games between GMs?
I know there are almost an infinite numbers of games in chess, which is actually near 10^40.
But had a thought; in the games played between grandmasters, they usually they know what the best move is, ...
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What does it mean to ''analyze grandmaster games''?
I am currently rated 1850. My coach tells me that in order to get better at my game, I should ''analyze grandmaster' games''. On the surface, I understand that he wants me to learn from great players' ...
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Why don't we see more Kings Indian Defenses in top level chess?
One of the most interesting openings, in my opinion, is the Kings Indian Defense (KID). 2-4 decades ago it used to be very popular at the top level with Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov using it ...
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Fixed games in chess-is it real or just a conspiracy theory? If real, how bad is it?
One famous case of fixed chess games is the Keres vs. Botvinnik World Championship 1948. I ran across this example while looking for other such chess games from history.
It is known that Stalin was ...
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About castling “fights”
Today I played as White in an interesting bullet game in which a strange “fight” occurred.
[FEN ""]
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 b6 3. e4 Bb7 4. Bd3 g6 5. Be3 Bg7 6. Nc3 Qe7 7. Qd2 Nc6 8. a3 a5 9. h3 h5 10. Qe2 ...
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Is there an analysis of World Champions' games that shows the statistics of their game?
Is there an analysis of World Champion games, with the help of engines, that shows statistics like percentage of best moves played, blunders made, creative moves which computers can only see at high ...
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Has there ever been a grandmaster-level win where a queen did not move nor get taken throughout the game?
Has there ever been a grandmaster-level win where the queen of the side that won did not move nor get taken throughout the game?
I feel like this is possible even at such a level as the side whose ...
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Anderssen's 'immortal game'
I came across Anderssen's 'immortal game':
[FEN ""]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Qh4+ 4. Kf1 b5
5. Bxb5 Nf6 6. Nf3 Qh6 7. d3 Nh5 8. Nh4 Qg5
9. Nf5 c6 10. g4 Nf6 11. Rg1 cxb5 12. h4 Qg6
13. h5 Qg5 14. ...
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What is the record for the most pawn double-steps in a professional game?
Quite simply, what is the record for the most pawn double-steps in a professional game? Drawn and won games are both considered. Computer games of any kind are not to be considered.
The most I have ...
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Looking for a real game ending by ... Nf6! leading to a perpetual check by White
My colleague Prof. Dr. S. writes a fictional story with symbolic elements involved. One of them is a simultaneous game played by a grandmaster with a gifted schoolboy. Prof. S. wants to represent it ...
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Has promotion with double check ever happened in a professional game?
Promotion is common in many games, and is sometimes comes with check. But something I have never seen in a game is a promotion that comes with double check like this example illustrates.
[FEN "8/...
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Pawn Sacrifice Justification
A few weeks ago, Magnus Carlsen (White) played against Anish Giri (Black), and this position was reached on the board on move 17 after black had played exf4:
Here is the full game:
[White "Magnus ...
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What professional game has the quickest sequence, starting from move one, to quadrupled pawns?
In the blog "AJEDREZ, SIN DUDA", I came across a page that gives a game featuring quadrupled pawns.
[Title "Zheliandinov-T. Sereteli, 35th Championship of the USSR, Kharkov, 1967"]
...
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A master-level game in which one player did not move beyond the third or fourth rank?
Has there been a game of master level or above in which one player did not move any piece or pawn beyond the third or fourth rank?
user18768
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Nimzowitsch specific game with Nf6-g8
Is there any way to search for games by a player where the move "x...Ng8" took place?
I'm looking for a specific game.
And no, it's not Saemisch - Nimzowitsch, Berlin 1928.
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How come Paul Morphy has lots of weird and wonderful games? [closed]
Paul Morphy, from what I’ve seem, seems to have been a master of making weird and wonderful games, such as his famous kingside castling checkmate game. Are there any particular reasons for this?
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What is the record for the most pawns, of both sides, on a file in a professional chess game?
Some of us have heard about the famous game Kovacs-Barth, Balatonbereny 1994, which has the longest known surviving quadrupled pawn structure . It is one of many games with quadrupled pawns for one ...
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What is the longest professional chess game that ended in a checkmate?
Quite simply, what is the longest professional chess game that ended in a checkmate?
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Would studying the games of old players hurt my progress?
I was watching a video last night by Ben Finegold on Paul Morphy and some of his games. He mentioned that some current GMs would discount Morphy's ability since all of his opponents were "terrible". ...
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