The Immortal Zugzwang Game is a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

game between

Friedrich Sämisch Friedrich Sämisch (20 September 1896 – 16 August 1975) was a German chess player and chess theorist. He was among the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Background Sämisch was a bookbinder ...

and

Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch ( lv, Ārons Nimcovičs, russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич, ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimz ...

, played in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in March 1923. It gained its name because the final position is sometimes considered a rare instance of

zugzwang Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move ...

occurring in the middlegame. According to Nimzowitsch, writing in the ''

Wiener Schachzeitung ''Wiener Schachzeitung'' (or ''Wiener Schach-Zeitung'', "''Viennese Chess Bulletin''") was the name of several Austrian chess periodicals published in Vienna between 1855 and 1949. Original publications (1855 and 1887-1888) The original publicat ...

'' in 1925, this term originated in "Danish chess circles".

The game (notes by Nimzowitsch)

White: Friedrich Sämisch Black: Aron Nimzowitsch

Opening Opening may refer to: * Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an * The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron * Backgammon opening * Chess opening * A title sequence or opening credits * , a term from contract bridge * , ...

Queen's Indian Defense The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is a chess opening defined by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e6 :3. Nf3 b6 The opening is a solid defense to the Queen's Pawn Game. 3...b6 increases Black's control over the central light squares e4 and d5 ...

('' ECO'' E17) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 :Queen's Indian Defense. 6. Nc3 0-0 7. 0-0 d5 8. Ne5 c6 :Safeguards the position. 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. Bf4 a6 :Protects the outpost station c4, i.e., by ...a6 and ...b5. 11. Rc1 b5 12. Qb3 Nc6 :The ghost! With noiseless steps he presses on towards c4. 13. Nxc6 :Samisch sacrifices two tempi (exchange of the tempo-eating Knight on e5 for the Knight which is almost undeveloped) merely to be rid of the ghost. 13... Bxc6 14. h3 Qd7 15. Kh2 Nh5 :I could have supplied him with as yet a second ghost by ...Qe7 and ...Knight–d7–b6–c4, but I wished to turn my attention to the King's side. d: The author likely meant ...Qb7, as e7 has a bishop on it. 16. Bd2 f5 17. Qd1 b4! 18. Nb1 Bb5 19. Rg1 Bd6 20. e4 fxe4! :This sacrifice, which has a quite surprising effect, is based upon the following sober calculation: two Pawns and the seventh rank and an enemy Queen's wing which cannot be disentangled - all this for only one piece! 21. Qxh5 Rxf2 22. Qg5 Raf8 23. Kh1 R8f5 24. Qe3 Bd3 25. Rce1 h6 :A brilliant move which announces the

Zugzwang Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move ...

. White has not a move left. If, e.g., Kh2 or g4, then R5f3. Black can now make with his King, and White must, willy-nilly, eventually throw himself upon the sword.

Objections to the sobriquet

Andrew Soltis Andrew Eden Soltis (born May 28, 1947) is an American chess grandmaster, author and columnist. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in September 2011. Chess career Soltis learned how the chess pieces moved at age 10 when he ...

has objected to the characterization of this game as "the Immortal Zugzwang Game", explaining: "First, Saemisch could have moved one of his pieces, even though it would have returned the sacrificed piece to Nimzovich. The game could have then proceeded for a good long time after that with Saemisch gaining some breathing space. But, secondly, the game doesn't constitute a true zugzwang because at the very end Nimzovich had a threat to win his opponent's queen. What makes zugzwang such a painful death is that the deceased is executed not by a threat but by his own

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

."Andy Soltis, ''Chess to Enjoy'', Stein and Day, 1978, p. 55. . Similarly,

Wolfgang Heidenfeld Wolfgang Heidenfeld (; 29 May 1911 – 3 August 1981) was a German chess player and chess composer. Heidenfeld was born in Berlin. He was forced to move from Germany to South Africa in the 1930s because he was a Jew. There, he won the South ...

wrote, "''zugzwang'', in the proper meaning of the term, does not enter into the game at any stage. In the final position Black threatens ..R5f3 against which White has no reply."

Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...

wrote in his

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

of Nimzowitsch, "This is the so-called 'Immortal Zugzwang Game'. I prefer to see it as an example of total paralysis of the opposition; the ultimate express of , where the opponent's possibilities are reduced to that degree above zero required to avoid

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior ...

." However, as seen above, Nimzovich regarded it as a Zugzwang, and any piece move by White loses additional material compared to the R5f3 threat.

Other contenders for the title

Soltis writes that his "candidate for the ideal zugzwang game" is the game Podgaets– Dvoretsky,

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

1974: 1. d4 c5 2. d5 e5 3. e4 d6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 Bg5! 8. Bb5+ Kf8! Black exchanges off his , but does not allow White to do the same. 9. Bxg5 Qxg5 10. h4 Qe7 11. Be2 h5 12. a4 g6 13. g3 Kg7 14. 0-0 Nh6 15. Nd1 Nd7 16. Ne3 Rhf8 17. a5 f5 18. exf5 e4! 19. Qg2 Nxf5 20. Nxf5+ Rxf5 21. a6 b6 22. g4? hxg4 23. Bxg4 Rf4 24. Rae1 Ne5! 25. Rxe4 Rxe4 26. Qxe4 Qxh4 27. Bf3 Rf8!! 28. Bh1 28.Qxh4? Nxf3+ and 29...Nxh4 leaves Black a piece ahead. 28... Ng4 29. Qg2 (see first diagram) Rf3!! 30. c4 Kh6!! 0–1 (see second diagram) Now all of White's piece moves allow checkmate or ...Rxf2 with a crushing attack (e.g. 31.Qxf3 Qh2; 31.Rb1 Rxf2 32.Qxg4 Qh2#). That leaves only moves of White's b-pawn, which Black can ignore, e.g. 31.b3 Kg7 32.b4 Kh6 33.bxc5 bxc5 and White has run out of moves. Another contender for the title is "the Tomb Game", Bruce Harper–Robert Zuk, Halloween Open,

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

1971:Harper–Zuk, Halloween Open 1971
/ref> 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Bd2 Nh5 10. Rc1 c5 11. g3 Nf6 12. a3 Ne8 13. Ne1 f5 14. exf5 Nxf5 15. Bf3 b6 16. Bg2 Nd4 17. f4 Bf5 18. fxe5 Bxe5 19. Bh6 Bg7 20. Bxg7 Nxg7 21. Nd3 Qg5 22. Nf4 Rae8 23. Qa4 Qe7 24. Nb5 Nxb5 25. Qxb5 Qe3+ 26. Kh1 g5 27. Nh3 Bd3 28. Rxf8+ Rxf8 29. Rg1 Be4 30. Qd7 Bxg2+ 31. Rxg2 Qe4 32. Ng1 h6 33. h4 Rf2 34. Qh3 g4 35. Qh2 h5 36. b4 Rf1 37. b5 (see first diagram) Kh8 (accentuating White's predicament – he is literally forced to checkmate himself. In fact the manoeuvre Nf5–e3–d1–f2 would result in checkmate one move sooner) 38. a4 Kh7 39. a5 Kg8 0–1 (see second diagram) After 40.axb6 axb6 or 40.a6 Kh7, White's only legal move is 41.Qh3, after which 41...gxh3 and 42...Qxg2 checkmates White. However, in each of these games, White has only one or two pieces able to move and a handful of legal moves, compared with over 20 legal moves by 11 different pieces and pawns in the final position of Samisch-Nimzovich.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Game score
* Edward Winter
Zugzwang
(1997) Chess games 1923 in chess 1923 in Danish sport March 1923 sports events Nicknamed sporting events

The game (notes by Nimzowitsch)

Objections to the sobriquet

Other contenders for the title

See also

References

External links