chessgames.com
Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing
Efim Bogoljubov vs Alexander Alekhine
"Sacrificing the Queens" (game of the day Oct-01-2018)
Hastings (1922), Hastings ENG, rd 10, Sep-21
Dutch Defense: Nimzo-Dutch Variation (A90)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Click Here to play Guess-the-Move
Given 84 times; par: 106 [what's this?]

explore this opening
find similar games 93 more Bogoljubov/Alekhine games
sac: 31...c2 PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

TIP: As you play through the game, you can get the FEN code for any position by right-clicking on the board and choosing "Copy Position (EPD)". Copy and paste the FEN into a post to display a diagram.

PGN Viewer:  What is this?
For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.
PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

A COMPUTER ANNOTATED SCORE OF THIS GAME IS AVAILABLE.  [CLICK HERE]

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 10 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Feb-22-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: Someone sent me an e-mail last week, asking me if I had ever looked at this game.

My analysis can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/lifemaster...

Mar-21-07  kiadd: Nice loss of a queen and 2 rooks to move a pawn a few times
Mar-21-07  kiadd: Shows you Alekhin doesn't need to have queens to play, because he lost 3 of them. lol
Apr-04-07  Tactic101: Another game that deserves Game of the Day honour. Please chessgames, even to the untrained chess eye, this game is really amazing and beautiful. I played this over while reading a book on Alekhine. I was in awe. The commentary and analysis shows how deep this game is.
Apr-09-07  gambitfan: According to Wikipedia, the greatest game of chess ever played ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...

Jun-26-07  Timex: Wow!! Alekhine gives up most of his bank rank pieces to push a passed pawn!! Next, Bogo is forced to sacrifice a lot of material to stave off the threats. I have never seen this game before. Alekhine then uses his material advantage to win and Bogo resigns. What a masterpiece!!
Jul-12-07  gBizzle: Irving Chernev - "In my opinion, the most brilliant game of chess ever played."
Aug-11-07  MrSpock: The game was lost for Bogo long before move 53. But what was the last chance for White to draw this game? I think, this is one of the amazing secrets of this game and part of it's quality.
Sep-08-07  notyetagm: Wow.
Sep-20-07  xeroxmachine: Can you bolieve it!
Sep-20-07  Mortadulo: This was my first time seeing this game... What an interesting series of pawn pushes! To be fair however. Most of the people talking about how poorly Bogo played appear to be commenting on his "poor" moves when he was already in a clearly worse off position.

I bet you Bogo was a spite checker! "Insert random pawn push here..."

Nov-13-07  sanyas: Amazingly, this hasn't been the game of the day yet.
Dec-01-07  JYMMI: What a game! Beautiful!

A perfect example of the art of chess.

This is the kind of game that makes any chess player that see it wants to keep on playing chess for the rest of the life.

Dec-02-07  DuMaicco: I didn't know this game, but now I do and I actually think it's beautiful. That's chess..
Dec-02-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  ray keene: i chose this as one of the 12 best games ever played for my tv series duels of the mind which is now out as a dvd- i believe this dvd is one of the prizes being given away in the chessgames christmas competition-i arranged the games chronologically so as not to have to decide whether this was -for example-better than botvinnik v capablanca avro 1938. the full list of the 12 best games for duels of the mind was:

anderssen v kieseritsky the immortal game

paulsen v morphy the f3 q sac

zukertort v blackburne 1883 the qb4 coup

steinitz v tchigorin with rxh7 sac

pillsbury v lasker the black win with --ra3!!

bernsten v capa the qb2 thunderbolt

bogo v alekhine as above

samisch v nimzowitsch the immortal zugzwang game

botvinnik v capa 1938

larsen v spassky the rh1 blast

fischer v spassky game 6 1972

karpov v kasparov game 24 1985

Dec-03-07  zooter: Great play by Alekhine (especially the brilliant c2 push giving away his rook with check.

That being said, Bogo's play leaves much to be desired. No idea what he was trying to do with so many knight moves.

Alekhine plays superbly, gains space on the queenside and then suddenly attacks on the kingside and then again an attack on the queenside. Total control of the board!

Dec-04-07  rigel1503: What brilliant play by Alekhine! This is truly a stunning masterpiece worthy at the very least of being one the greatest masterpieces of all time. Sacrificing his whole back rank with check, then launching a fierce attack with his all powerful pawn become queen, which Bogo can only defend by sacrificing material back for a lost pawn ending. Bravo!
Dec-05-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eggman: GM Keene, I know 12 games is a short list and there are so many to choose from, but how, oh how could you leave out Mikhail Tal's favourite game: Steinitz vs Von Bardeleben, 1895?
Dec-05-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eggman: Never seen this game before. Simply awesome. I love games where the landscape of the battlefield changes so dramatically and more than once. In that sense it reminds of this other all-time gem: Tal vs Hecht, 1962
Jan-21-08  fourqueens: There was an earlier post about how a4 was a week move by white.

The reality is though that if white did not play a4, then Black would have played a4,axb3,dxc4, followed by a knight moving to d5.

White with 21.a4, tried to keep the queenside and the square d5 under control. Unfortunately for white, this allowed black to play Nc6-b4-d3. Even so, its hard to label a4 as a clear mistake.

Feb-11-08  arsen387: <fourqueens:if white did not play a4, then Black would have played a4,axb3,dxc4, followed by a knight moving to d5.

White with 21.a4, tried to keep the queenside and the square d5 under control. Unfortunately for white, this allowed black to play Nc6-b4-d3. Even so, its hard to label a4 as a clear mistake> Exactly what was going to happen if white didn't play a4. I know that not because I completely and perfectly understand this game particularly and chess in general but because I have this game annotated. And also I would like to mention another point here, which I had some troubles to find before seeing the explanation. Why whites after 40...Qe2 began to push their pawns? Because simply they were forced to do that. If 41.Rh1 or Rh3 then Ng4 threatening mate is decisive. If 41.Nh3 then again 41...Ng4 42.Rxe2 fxe2 and black will make a new Q next move. So whites are reduced just to that 'silly' pawn moves!

Apr-14-08  soberknight: Maybe somebody's already explained this: Why not 25.Qxc4 in order not to lose a pawn?

Great game. I first played through it about 9 or 10 years ago from Chernev's "Wonders and Curiosities of Chess." I'll be teaching it today to my once-a-week afterschool chess class of elementary students. I've never gone longer than 25 moves with them, but I hope they'll enjoy seeing what excited Chernev about this game: "Alekhine sacrifices three queens in one game!"

Aug-18-08  PhilFeeley: Has anybody explained why it was necessary to sac everything to get to a single pawn advantage? Couldn't he have won earlier?
Sep-10-08  Dr. J: <PhilFeeley> Alekhine himself explained it in his book, saying that Bogolyubov was right to concede the a-pawn and not the d5 square.
Sep-10-08  whiteshark: The Steeplechase!
Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 10)
search thread:   
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 10 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

  1. No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
  2. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
  3. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
  4. Nothing in violation of United States law.
  5. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
  6. No trolling.
  7. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
  8. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

Blow the Whistle

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.


NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.

Home | About | Login | Logout | F.A.Q. | Profile | Preferences | Premium Membership | Kibitzer's Café | Biographer's Bistro | New Kibitzing | Chessforums | Tournament Index | Player Directory | Notable Games | World Chess Championships | Opening Explorer | Guess the Move | Game Collections | ChessBookie Game | Chessgames Challenge | Store | Privacy Notice | Contact Us

Copyright 2001-2025, Chessgames Services LLC