The Evergreen Game
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Moves
About This Game
The Evergreen Game was played in Berlin in 1852 between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne. It was nicknamed "Evergreen" by the Austrian chess master Wilhelm Steinitz because, as he wrote, "it will be evergreen in the memory of the chess world." The name has proven prophetic — the game remains as admired today as when it was first played over 170 years ago.
The game features the Evans Gambit, a bold opening where White sacrifices a pawn to gain rapid development. Anderssen played this opening with devastating effect, building up a powerful attack while Dufresne's pieces remained tangled and uncoordinated on the queenside.
The combination that concludes the game is one of the most beautiful in chess history. Anderssen sacrificed his queen and both rooks, using discovered checks and precise piece coordination to weave an inescapable mating net. The final sequence beginning with 19. Rad1 is a tactical tour de force that rewards deep study.
Together with the Immortal Game played a year earlier, the Evergreen Game established Anderssen as the greatest attacking player of the Romantic era and helped define the aesthetic standards by which chess brilliance is measured to this day.
Key Moments
Dufresne pushes the d-pawn aggressively, but this pawn becomes overextended. Anderssen calmly castles, preferring king safety and rapid piece deployment.
The knight sacrifice on f6 shatters Black's kingside pawn structure. After gxf6, exf6 creates a devastating passed pawn on the sixth rank that cuts off the black king's escape routes.
Anderssen sacrifices a rook on e7 and then offers his queen on d7. The point is that after Kxd7, Bf5+ leads to a forced checkmate sequence. The geometry of the position is astonishing.
After the queen sacrifice, Anderssen's bishops deliver the final blow. The bishop on e7 gives checkmate, demonstrating that the two bishops can be more powerful than any other pieces when lines are open.