The Best Game of Chess played by an English Player

[Geoff Chandler]

Maybe we have always, at heart, been a nation of counter attackers?

I'm already on game 6 of the counter title book. 'The Worst Game of Chess played by an English Player.' I'll have it finished by Midnight. Modesty forbids me including any of my games.

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The Keene-Miles game someone above mentioned. That one was a leg up for me.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1071404

[Nick Ivell]

I reckon that the Miles wins against Spassky would have to be up there too. Also Penrose v Tal if we're going back that far.

[Matt Mackenzie]

There is also a lovely win by Miles over Andersson with the White pieces - a positional crush that Ulf himself would have been proud of.

[John Clarke]

I was about to nominate the well-known LaBourdonnais-McDonnell game (1834), with the Q-sac on move 13 .... until I remembered that McDonnell was Irish.

[Andrew Smith]

"Neil Hickman's wonderfully presented book ' Memorable Games of British Chess' that I thoroughly recommend."

It's got interesting games, large font and large very clear diagrams which suit my ageing eyesight ! Lots of anecdotes, comments and observations made by the Masters of the various era's, and light annotations that don't get bogged down in detail.

[Andrew Smith]

So we are starting to get a few candidate games. I have a soft spot for Tim Wall - Ippolito game from 1998 because its a Steinitz gambit (game 81 in book)
Zukertort - Blackburne ( game 10) was an amazing attack which included the fantastic 28 Qb4!! move.
There must be a Littlewood (any of them!) game of note. They were always attacking !
As said before, Short's King march has got to be there. I also love the finish by Ted Mason ( extract is game 42 in book and the full game is in my book ' Off The Board Chess') who was my clubmate at Lewisham Chess Club when I started playing chess. I can recall him demonstrating the game to me personally in his own immitable way whilst smoking his pipe and sipping his whisky !

[Jonathan Rogers]

There is also a lovely win by Miles over Andersson with the White pieces - a positional crush that Ulf himself would have been proud of.

And Miles v Belyavsky 1984, with the shattering 16 f4 TN, and Baburin v Miles, 4NCL Sept 2000, and the time when Miles boxed in Smyslov's bishop on g7, Miles v Short, British 98, last round, just because it was Miles 1-0 Short on board one - and we soon get the problem alluded to earlier: you easily get to ten games or more per top English player from memory alone, and have some regret in discarding any of them.

Not that that need stop us. I daresay that we can work from a long list of 150!

[Jonathan Rogers]

So we are starting to get a few candidate games. I have a soft spot for Tim Wall - Ippolito game from 1998 because its a Steinitz gambit (game 81 in book)
Zukertort - Blackburne ( game 10) was an amazing attack which included the fantastic 28 Qb4!! move.
There must be a Littlewood (any of them!) game of note. They were always attacking !
As said before, Short's King march has got to be there. I also love the finish by Ted Mason ( extract is game 42 in book and the full game is in my book ' Off The Board Chess') who was my clubmate at Lewisham Chess Club when I started playing chess. I can recall him demonstrating the game to me personally in his own immitable way whilst smoking his pipe and sipping his whisky !

Does Zukertort count as English (presumably so)?

[Andrew Smith]

Good point...not sure ?!

[Andrew Zigmond]

One game that frequently finds its way into the anthologies is Nigel Short's famous king walk against Timman.

Also one game that has to be up there for significance (although it's not the flashiest game ever played) is Sultan Khan's win against Capablanca.

[John Townsend]

Zukertort was not an Englishman - or, at any rate, there is no evidence that he was ever naturalized.

[Andrew Smith]

Okay, so we can't count Zukertort - Blackburne. If we are initially narrowing down to 10 games, we have 2 games that have more than one vote :
1. Maczynski v Pratten
2. Short v Timman
Jonathan has mentioned several Tony Miles games. Which should we include ?
The Miles v Short game at the British was great to watch. I was there at the time. Seemingly simple chess, making chess look an easy game. Micky Adams does that all the time !
Shall we ruthlessly narrow down to 10 games ?
Is anyone able to post the 10 selected games on this forum ? I don't know how to do it.
Should we include Alekhine v Yates ?
Penrose v Tal ?

[NigelDonovan]

Short-Timman was the first game that came to mind, but there are many others.

10 games doesn't seem enough, but it depends how much interest there is.

I can post the games to the forum if people are interested. Perhaps we should have a separate thread for the games?

[Andrew Smith]

Yes maybe a seperste thread that just shows the games. The conversation/ comments remain here.

[John Moore]

Surely, the strength of the opponent is a highly relevant factor in deciding on the best game of chess by an English player. Amongst the older games, that might suggest the following (some of which have already been mentioned) - Yates v Alekhine (Karlsbad 1923), Sir George Thomas v Capablanca (and v Botvinnik?) Hastings 1934, Alexander v Botvinnik (Radio Match 1946), Penrose v Tal (Olympiad 1960). There is a much wider range of modern games to be considered.

Strength of opponent is to my mind a serious objection to the Pratten game.