| The Immortal Game presents the dramatic development from attack to defense, from loss to profit, from triumph to agony. We experience chess from an unique, an unusual visual angle in the midst of the event. Director Michael Mertineit used an exquisite set of military pieces from the 19th century to animate the game, which ends in the figure of Napoleon expriencing his Waterloo. The chess sequence is an animation without words. It depicts the course of the game.
The Immortal Game was an informal match played between Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky at the Simpson's-in-the-Strand Divan in London. Despite losing, it was in fact Kieseritzky who recorded and published the game during his period as editor of “La Regence“. It takes us back to the times when wild, romantic inspirations dominated the boards. The game is an excellent demonstration of the earlier style, when rapid development and attack seemed to be the most successful way to win, when gambits and counter-gambits were offered and not accepting them was considered ungentlemanly-like.
The Immortal Game depicts this famous game from the annals of chess. It presents the dramatic development from attack to defense, from loss to profit, from triumph to agony. We experience chess from an unique, an unusual visual angle in the midst of the event. Trailer 1:24
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (1818 - 1879) was a famous classical chess master from Germany and is world famous for his brilliant play even today. In 1851 he received an invitation to be the standard-bearer for German chess at the world's first international chess tournament in London. At that tournament, Anderssen defeated József Szén , Staunton, Marmaduke Wyvill and Lionel Kieseritzky, winning the tournament to everyone's surprise. Anderssen is celebrated particularly for two of his casual chess games in which he was victorious through combinations involving heavy sacrifice of the pieces.
Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky (1806 - 1853) was a mathematics teacher like Anderssen. Kieseritzky lived in Paris as a chess professional, giving lessons or playing games for five francs an hour, and editing a chess magazine. In 1851 he surpassed Phillidor's record by playing and winning four blindfold games simultaneously. Kieseritzky's combinations were outstanding, and a variant of King's gambit was given his name. He was one of the finest players of the so-called “romantic epoch“ in chess. |
