Kasparov’s Immortal: Greatest Chess Game Ever?

The game is known as “Kasparov’s Immortal Game”, and Garry Kasparov himself has claimed this was the greatest game of chess he ever played.

This game was featured in Burgess, Nunn, and Emms excellent “Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games”.  Their introduction to the game states:

“You are about to witness one of the most extraordinary king-hunts in the history of chess.  The opening and early middlegame are relatively quiet:  Kasparov adopts an aggressive stance, but Topalov plays flexibly and obtains a fully acceptable position.  Indeed, Kasparov is fighting not to be worse from move 14 to move 24, but as so often when a great champion’s back is against the wall, he gives his opponent plenty of chances to go horribly wrong.  In a moment of inspiration, an amazing idea pops into Kasparov’s mind, and he embarks upon a sacrificial sequence.  Topalov bravely decides to play down the main line when he had a perfectly safe alternative, but it turns out that Kasparov had been right:  his pieces and pawns work in perfect harmony to hunt down the errant black king.”

This is indeed a very beautiful game. 24. Rxd4 was so shocking to players in that time, it looked like a blatant error when first seen. Topalov played a great game as well, but Kasparov prevailed by finding and making brilliant moves one after another.

Try guessing the 23rd move before viewing the entire game:

The video with the analysis can be watched here: