[Event "World Championship 04th"] [Site "Havana"] [Date "1892.01.07"] [Round "4"] [White "Steinitz, William"] [Black "Chigorin, Mikhail"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [Annotator "Llewellyn, Alan"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1892.01.01"] [EventType "match"] [EventRounds "23"] [EventCountry "CUB"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1999.07.01"] {This was game 4 in the Second World Championship Match between these two. William Steinitz was world champion from 1886 to 1894, being the first official World Champion, originally from Austria but settled in the United States. In this game he blows away his illustrious opponent with a magical attack. Mikhail Chigorin the Russian does not play well making many unecessary Knight moves but what comes next was total destruction in a magical way.} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 {This is the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez Opening, it is extrememly common and is still played today. Its most notetable cotemporary is Vladimir Kramnik who often used it in World Championship Matches. It leads almost directly to well tested endgames so it is often derrided by chess enficianados but here it leads to something special though Mikhails play is extremely dubious to a modern master.} 4. d3 d6 5. c3 g6 6. Nbd2 Bg7 7. Nf1 O-O 8. Ba4 Nd7 $6 (8... Rb8 9. Bb3 d5 $15 {opening up the centre while White is struggling to castle looks right here with a small plus to Black.}) 9. Ne3 Nc5 10. Bc2 Ne6 11. h4 $1 {not messing about!!!} Ne7 $6 ( 11... Nf4 $11) 12. h5 d5 13. hxg6 (13. h6) 13... fxg6 14. exd5 Nxd5 15. Nxd5 Qxd5 16. Bb3 {pinning the Knight and also attacking indirectly the Mikhail King. Note notice how the lack of the f7 pawn allows a fierce attack by William.} Qc6 17. Qe2 Bd7 18. Be3 Kh8 19. O-O-O Rae8 20. Qf1 a5 21. d4 $1 exd4 22. Nxd4 Bxd4 23. Rxd4 $3 Nxd4 $4 (23... Kg8 {it still touch and go if he plays this but Nxd4 is disasterous and leads directly to mate.}) 24. Rxh7+ $3 { simply incredible.} Kxh7 25. Qh1+ Kg7 26. Bh6+ $1 (26. Qh6+ Kf6 27. Qh4+ Kg7 28. Bh6+ Kh7 29. Bxf8#) 26... Kf6 27. Qh4+ $3 Ke5 28. Qxd4+ {next comes 28... Kf5 and 29.g4# is it. Quite incredibly the Mikhail King isnt safe in the middle of the board despite all the sacrifices made by William and only few pieces remaining. It just shows the power of combining the two Bishops, here they totally outplay the two Rooks.} 1-0