Anderssen game 1

I decided to start pretty early with Anderssen's 1848 match with Daniel Harrwitz.  This seems to have been Anderssen's big step up, for it was his performance in this match which propelled him toward the front of the German chess scene at the time and thus earned him the invitation to the London tournament in 1851.

Game 1 was won by Anderssen but it's not really an attacking game, and I had difficulty understanding why the game ended where it did.  I may run that position in the computer as I did spend a good amount of time trying to figure out why the position would be resignable and couldn't come up with anything.

This is game 2 from the match and its short and sweet.  Unfortunately, my model player is on the losing end.  It's a Bishop's Gambit.  One of the problems for black can be that despite taking away white's ability to castle by Qh4+, the queen can cause a loss of time for black when it gets chased away.  In fact Black gets chased into a corner in this game.  This is a nice study in taking the initiative and going directly for the win.

Harrwitz, Daniel - Anderssen, Adolf

Result: 1-0

Site: Breslau

Date: 1848.02.01

[...] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.♗c4 ♕h4 4.♔f1 ♗c5 5.d4 ♗b6 6.♘f3 ♕e7 7.♘c3 ♘f6 8.e5 ♘h5 Maybe Ng4 is better. There don't seem to be many options for black past this point. 9.♘d5 ♕d8 (9...♕e6 10.♘xc7 ♗xc7 11.♗xe6 dxe6) 10.g4 fxg3 The knight is trapped so this is forced, even though it allows the next move. 11.♗g5 f6 12.exf6 gxf6 13.♘e5 O-O (13...fxg5 14.♕xh5 ♔f8 15.♕f7#) 14.♕xh5 The game is clearly lost by now. 14...fxg5 15.♘f6 A beautiful move. Blocks the rook check and gives double check to the black king at the same time. 15...♔g7 (15...♔h8 16.♕xh7#) 16.♕xh7 ♔xf6 17.♘g4#

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One other note: I successfully memorized the Immortal game yesterday. It was much easier than I expected, but I guess there's not too many moves and the intent of them is all pretty clear so easy to remember.