Puzzles, traps & legendary games

Checkmate in 8 moves #31

The Göring Gambit — Southport, 1905

Checkmate in 8 moves #30

The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit — played by Diemer

Checkmate in 8 moves #29

The Caro-Kann — a queen sacrifice, London 1932

Checkmate in 5 moves #28

The Sicilian — the hole on d3

Checkmate in 7 moves #27

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit — Cologne, 1911

Checkmate in 8 moves #26

Greco, 1620 — the queen that came out too early

Checkmate in 10 moves #25

The Traxler — Black ignores the attack on f7

Checkmate in 8 moves #24

The Queen's Gambit Accepted — a queen for a mate

Checkmate in 5 moves #23

Alekhine's Defense — a smothered mate on d3

Checkmate in 6 moves #22

The Caro-Kann — a knight mate on d6

Checkmate in 6 moves #21

The Latvian Gambit — Eindhoven, 1974

Checkmate in 7 moves #20

Légal's Mate — Paris, 1750

Checkmate in 5 moves #19

The Vienna Game — one chance to survive

Checkmate in 8 moves #18

Owen's Defense — a 1623 trap, played by a robot

Checkmate in 7 moves #17

The Modern Defense — the king walks out to f6

Checkmate in 6 moves #16

The Sicilian — a knight mate on d6

Checkmate in 5 moves #15

From's Gambit — one pawn move, instant mate

Checkmate in 4 moves #14

The King's Gambit — a free pawn that costs the game

Checkmate in 3 moves #13

The first Bongcloud — Kiel 1893

Checkmate in 14 moves #12

Tartakower — Paris 1932

Checkmate in 13 moves #11

Magnus Carlsen, age 10 — Asker 2001

Checkmate in 12 moves #10

Zukertort vs Anderssen — Berlin 1865

Checkmate in 11 moves #9

Réti vs Tartakower — Vienna 1910

Checkmate in 9 moves #8

Capablanca, simultaneous — 1909

Checkmate in 7 moves #7

Magnus Carlsen, age 9 — Norway 2000

Checkmate in 10 moves #6

The Siberian Trap — Black's hidden mate on h2

Checkmate in 9 moves #5

The Halosar Trap — he wins the queen and gets mated

Checkmate in 8 moves #4

The Dutch disaster — three pawn pushes, one open king

Checkmate in 6 moves #3

The h3 blunder — one natural move, instant mate

Checkmate in 4 moves #2

The Scholar's Mate — and the move that stops it

Checkmate in 2 moves #1

The Fool's Mate — the fastest checkmate in chess

THE 6-MOVE CHECKMATE

The Caro-Kann smothered mate — every piece on its start square

THE STAFFORD TRAP

The Stafford Gambit punishment — 8 moves, checkmate

THE ELEPHANT TRAP

The Queen's Gambit trap that wins a piece — 150 years old

THE FRIED LIVER ATTACK

Why you never take with the knight on d5

THE PAWN THAT COSTS A ROOK

Queen's Gambit Accepted — the b5 trap

THE LASKER TRAP

The Albin Countergambit — an underpromotion on move 7

THE SHILLING TRAP

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit — greed mated in 7

THE FISHING POLE

The Fishing Pole trap — hang a knight, mate the king

THE ENGLUND TRAP

The Englund Gambit — mate 1.d4 players in 8 moves

THE KIENINGER TRAP

The Budapest Gambit — win a piece, get mated

THE COPYCAT TRAP

The Petrov punishment — why you never mirror moves

PUNISH SCHOLAR'S MATE

The Wayward Queen punished — win her majesty in 8

THE ICBM GAMBIT

The Tennison Gambit — a missile aimed at the queen

SURVIVE THE FRIED LIVER

The Na5 antidote — how Black beats the Knight Attack

THE F6 BLUNDER

The Damiano Defense — punished since 1512

THE 400-YEAR-OLD TRAP

NN vs Greco — Rome 1620

LÉGAL'S MATE

Légal vs Saint Brie — Paris 1750

THE IMMORTAL GAME

Anderssen vs Kieseritzky — London 1851

ANDERSSEN'S THUNDERBOLT

Mayet vs Anderssen — Berlin 1851

THE EVERGREEN GAME

Anderssen vs Dufresne — Berlin 1852

BODEN'S MATE

Schulder vs Boden — London 1853

MORPHY'S CROWNING GAME

Paulsen vs Morphy — New York 1857

THE OPERA GAME

Morphy vs the Duke & the Count — Paris 1858

ZUKERTORT'S IMMORTAL

Zukertort vs Blackburne — London 1883

THE DOUBLE BISHOP SACRIFICE

Lasker vs Bauer — Amsterdam 1889

THE ROOK THEY COULDN'T TAKE

Steinitz vs von Bardeleben — Hastings 1895

TWO ROOKS ON THE SAME SQUARE

Pillsbury vs Lasker — St. Petersburg 1896

RUBINSTEIN'S IMMORTAL

Rotlewi vs Rubinstein — Łódź 1907

RÉTI vs TARTAKOWER

Réti vs Tartakower — Vienna 1910

THE IMMORTAL KING WALK

Lasker vs Thomas — London 1912

THE GOLD COINS GAME

Levitsky vs Marshall — Breslau 1912

THE QUIETEST WINNING MOVE

Bernstein vs Capablanca — Moscow 1914

THE FORK THAT ENDS IT ALL

Capablanca vs Fonaroff — New York 1918

AN 8-YEAR SECRET WEAPON

Capablanca vs Marshall — New York 1918

THE QUEEN NOBODY COULD TAKE

Adams vs Torre — New Orleans 1920

THE IMMORTAL ZUGZWANG GAME

Sämisch vs Nimzowitsch — Copenhagen 1923

THE IMMORTAL BISHOP MOVE

Réti vs Bogoljubov — New York 1924

ALEKHINE'S LONGEST COMBINATION

Réti vs Alekhine — Baden-Baden 1925

THE WINDMILL

Torre vs Lasker — Moscow 1925

THE GREEK GIFT

Colle vs O'Hanlon — Nice 1930

MATE IN 11 MOVES

Alekhine vs Vasic — Banja Luka 1931

THE PERUVIAN IMMORTAL

Canal vs an amateur — 1934

THE PERFECT GAME OF HIS LIFE

Botvinnik vs Capablanca — Rotterdam 1938

THE GREATEST DEFENSIVE MOVE EVER

Geller vs Euwe — Zurich 1953

GAME OF THE CENTURY

Byrne vs Fischer — New York 1956

TAL'S BRILLIANCY PRIZE

Tal vs Smyslov — Bled 1959

THE JAMES BOND GAME

Spassky vs Bronstein — Leningrad 1960

PETROSIAN'S QUEEN SAC

Petrosian vs Pachman — Bled 1961

THE GREATEST QUEEN SAC

Nezhmetdinov vs Chernikov — Rostov-on-Don 1962

FISCHER'S PERFECT GAME

Byrne vs Fischer — New York 1963

TAL'S INVISIBLE WALL

Tal vs Larsen — Bled 1965

THE PAWN AVALANCHE

Larsen vs Spassky — Belgrade 1970

THE GAME SPASSKY APPLAUDED

Fischer vs Spassky — Reykjavik 1972

THE OCTOPUS KNIGHT

Karpov vs Kasparov — Moscow 1985

YUSUPOV'S IMMORTAL

Ivanchuk vs Yusupov — Brussels 1991

THE GREATEST KING WALK

Short vs Timman — Tilburg 1991

A ROOK SAC FROM MEMORY

Kasparov vs Anand — New York 1995

MAN vs MACHINE — GAME ONE

Deep Blue vs Kasparov — Philadelphia 1996

ANAND'S MOST BEAUTIFUL MOVE

Anand vs Lautier — Biel 1997

THE DAY THE MACHINE WON

Deep Blue vs Kasparov — New York 1997

KASPAROV'S IMMORTAL

Kasparov vs Topalov — Wijk aan Zee 1999

THE FIRST WOMAN TO BEAT A WORLD #1

Polgar vs Kasparov — Moscow 2002

ANAND'S IMMORTAL

Aronian vs Anand — Wijk aan Zee 2013