Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Jon D'Souza-Eva · Post by **Jon D'Souza-Eva** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:05 am

Penrose vs Tal at the 1960 Olympiad:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1105990

Leonard Barden · Post by **Leonard Barden** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 8:25 am

'Top' is an ill-defined word. Quality of the game? Importance of the occasion? Strength of the opponent?

Penrose himself described his win over Tal as feeling like an Essex v Middlesex county match. Objectively, Tal fell headfirst into a prepared variation. I know, because I showed the line to Jonathan on the morning of the game.

I suggest Alekhine v Yates, Carlsbad 1923. Wonderfully deep combination, major international tournament, world No2 the opponent.

Others are better qualified than me to suggest candidate games from the last 30 years.

Paul Cooksey · Post by **Paul Cooksey** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:51 am

Top is a bit vague. But maybe that is good

. I'll get in first with some of the other obvious choices!

I agree with Penrose-Tal.

I'm a bit prejudiced against earlier games. I feel the British player is often just throwing big punches against a superior opponent and occasionally gets lucky. But Alekhine-Yates is indeed a good game:

I think we have to include Short's most famous game, even if he is reportedly sick of talking about it:

Although, arguable more important to his career was this fine game:

We also ought to have Miles' cheeky victory over the reigning world champion:

I feel I should include an Adams game, but no one game jumping out. I can think of several classy Be3 Sicilian wins, and the Rossilimo win against Kramnik at Dortmund 2000 is nice. But I'm undecided.

Matt Mackenzie · Post by **Matt Mackenzie** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:10 pm

Beliavsky-Nunn, Wijk aan Zee 1985 - pretty awesome

Geoff Chandler · Post by **Geoff Chandler** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:40 pm

One could argue all year about the top five as beauty is in the
eye of the beholder. I'd most likely choose 4 Nunn games and
a Blackburne game. There are also a few of Keene's game which I like
and found inspiring.

I'd say the most famous are indeed Alekhine-Yates, Penrose-Tal, Karpov-Miles,
Short - Timman (that glorious King march up the board), Lasker - Napier
('The best game I played was a game I lost').

Perhaps the most famous game by an Englishman, in the eyes of the Americans at least,
is the game that never took place. Staunton v Morphy.

John Collins · Post by **John Collins** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:51 pm

For an amateur player, how about Rumens - Franklin 1976 ?

Matt Mackenzie · Post by **Matt Mackenzie** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:08 pm

Does Napier count as English, though??

If he does, then one might throw in Sultan Khan - Capablanca as well......

John Upham · Post by **John Upham** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 3:15 pm

I've recently found Taulbut - Mikhalchishin (not in MegaBase) from the 1978 World U-26 Youth Championship.

A very good game indeed.

[Event "1st WTCh-U26 final A"]
[Site "Mexico City MEX"]
[Date "1978.09.02"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Taulbut, Shaun M"]
[Black "Mikhalchishin, Adrian URS"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C87"]
[WhiteElo "2405"]
[BlackElo "2460"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "1978.08.19"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 d6 7. Bxc6+ bxc6 8.
d4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Bd7 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Qf3 Rb8 12. Rb1 Rb6 13. h3 g6 14. Nb3 Nh5
15. Be3 Rb8 16. e5 dxe5 17. Bh6 Re8 18. Rxe5 Ng7 19. Rd1 Ne6 20. Ne4 Rb5 21.
Rxe6 fxe6 22. Qc3 e5 23. Qc4+ Kh8 24. Qf7 Rg8 25. Nf6 Bxf6 26. Rxd7 Qxd7 27.
Qxd7 1-0

Jonathan Bryant · Post by **Jonathan Bryant** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:15 pm

Leonard Barden wrote:'Top' is an ill-defined word. Quality of the game? Importance of the occasion? Strength of the opponent?

Indeed. If we're talking "gargantuan stones in a must-win situation" I'd nominate Gurevich-Short from the last round of the Manila Interzonal 1990. Obviously by most criteria that wouldn't rate very highly but it's still one of my favourite games ever (and ... Qb6 one of my favourite individual moves).

JonManley · Post by **JonManley** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:23 pm

I feel I should include an Adams game, but no one game jumping out. I can think of several classy Be3 Sicilian wins, and the Rossilimo win against Kramnik at Dortmund 2000 is nice. But I'm undecided.

Mickey Adams once described Ivanchuk-Adams, Terrassa 1991 as his 'most memorable' game. http://www.kingpinchess.net/?p=169#more-169

Colin Patterson · Post by **Colin Patterson** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:54 pm

If we include amateurs and thrills and spills are the order of the day, then F Parr-Wheatcroft London 1938 and T Wall-Ippolito Hampstead 1998 always make me smile.

Other contenders - Short-Kasparov Brussels 1986, Tartakower-Burn Carlsbad 1911?

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:38 pm

Warren Kingston wrote:I ask this because I have just gone through the game Markland - Hort @ Hastings 1970 and it made me think how good is this game compared to other English games?

It comes from an era when it was the exception rather than the rule that world top players were overturned by British players. Within not so many years, such wins were routine by Miles, Nunn, Speelman, Stean. Mestel and later generations.

Christopher Kreuzer · Post by **Christopher Kreuzer** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:26 pm

Thanks for posting the Markland-Hort game, Warren. 23.Bd5 is a lovely move. Took me ages to see that the threat was Nxh5+, and after gxh5 and Qg2+ the "deer caught in the headlights" annotation would be very appropriate. (Er, maybe Rxh5 is needed before Qg2+ - anyway, clearly still haven't seen all the lines yet!)

Mark Hannon · Post by **Mark Hannon** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:05 pm

I have to admit though I can think of lots of great Short games it is harder for me to think of Ones from Adams. Is it a stylistic thing?

Jonathan Rogers · Post by **Jonathan Rogers** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 9:41 pm

Mark Hannon wrote:I have to admit though I can think of lots of great Short games it is harder for me to think of Ones from Adams. Is it a stylistic thing?

Partly that, and also Adams seems to have less scalps against the world top. He never beat Gazza at all, and has big minus scores v Anand, Shirov and Carlsen (among the very top it is only Kramnik against whom he seems to have a reasonable/good score).

Still, I will nominate five of my own favourites

W v Carlsen, Olympiad 2010 - ok, carlsen was messing around in the opening, but still a very measured performance and a rare win
B v Anand, Linares 2005 (last round, I think?) again a measured performance, a rare win and compliments from Gazza
W v Morozevic, Sarajevo 1999
B v Radjabov, Tripoli 2004
W v Leko, Linares 1998 (or 1999?)

And against lesser players:

W v Georgiev, 1993, Greece or Eastern Europe (I think) - 20 move win with the Tromp!
W v Levitt, Dublin 1993 (see contemporary annotations in CHESS by the loser)
B v Tiviakov 1995 or 1996 - crushing win with the Caro against a formerly difficult opponent
a win as Black with QGA in Olympiad 1996 - sorry, I forget the name of the GM opponent
B v Fressinet in last round of 4NCL, May 2006

English Chess Forum

Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman

Re: Top 5 Games of All Time by an Englishman