Polish Immortal is the name given to a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 game between Glinksberg and Miguel Najdorf

Miguel Najdorf

Miguel Najdorf was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster of Jewish origin, famous for his Najdorf Variation....

 played in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. The game is celebrated because of Black's sacrifice of all four of his minor pieces.

Some sources give the date of this game as 1930 or 1935, and give the name of the player of the white pieces as "Glucksberg". Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 gives the date of the game as 1928, and the name of Najdorf's opponent as "Glinksberg", attributing these facts to Najdorf and his daughter.

Annotated game

(Unless otherwise specified, notes are based on those by Kasparov in My Great Predecessors, Part IV.)

White: Glucksberg

Black: Najdorf

1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3

Dutch Defense

Dutch Defence

The Dutch Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:Elias Stein , an Alsatian who settled in The Hague, recommended the defence as the best reply to 1.d4 in his 1789 book Nouvel essai sur le jeu des échecs, avec des réflexions militaires relatives à ce jeu.-Theory:Black's 1.....

 with 2.c4 and 3.Nc3 (A85).

3... e6 4. Nf3 d5 5. e3

Savielly Tartakower

Savielly Tartakower

Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...

 suggests 5.Bf4.

5... c6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. 0-0 0-0 8. Ne2

Tartakower recommends 8.Ne5 followed by 9.f4, "countering the Stonewall with another Stonewall".

8... Nbd7 9. Ng5?

This move looks like an elementary blunder, losing a pawn, but in fact the position is more complicated than that.

9... Bxh2+! 10. Kh1!?

After 10.Kxh2 Ng4+ 11.Kh1 Qxg5 Black is up a pawn for nothing. After 10.Kh1, White threatens both Nxe6, winning material, or to trap Black's bishop with g3 or f4.

10... Ng4! 11. f4

Defending White's knight on g5 and cutting off the escape route of Black's bishop; not 11.Nxe6? Qh4!

11... Qe8 12. g3 Qh5 13. Kg2 (see diagram)

White has surrounded Black's bishop and threatens to win it with Rh1, Nf3, and Nxh2.

13... Bg1!!

Sacrificing the bishop in order to continue the attack on White's king.

14. Nxg1

Not 14.Kxg1? Qh2#, or 14.Rxg1? Qh2+ and 15...Qf2#

14... Qh2+ 15. Kf3 e5! 16. dxe5 Ndxe5+ 17. fxe5 Nxe5+ 18. Kf4 Ng6+ 19. Kf3 f4!!

Threatening both 20...Ne5# and 20...Bg4+.

20. exf4

If 20.Bxg6 Bg4+ 21.Kxg4 Qxg3+ 22.Kh5 hxg6+ 23.Kxg6 Rf6+ 24.Kh5 Rh6#

20... Bg4+!! 21. Kxg4 Ne5+! 22. fxe5 h5#

External links

• The game at chessgames.com
• Edward Winter
  Edward Winter (chess historian)
  Edward Winter is an English journalist, archivist, historian, collector and author about the game of chess. He writes a regular column on that subject, Chess Notes, and is also a regular columnist for ChessBase.-Chess Notes:...
  
  , The Polish Immortal
• First day cover showing the moves in "La Inmortal Polaca"