Instant classic

Wow. Today, in round four of the Corus Steel supergrandmaster event in Wijk aan Zee, Vishy Anand just played an amazing game. He beat Levon Aronian with Black in only 23 moves with one of the most bizarre sacrificial attacks I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, Chess Flash seems to be down this morning.  But you can play through this brilliancy (trust me, it's worth the trouble!) and follow the other Round 4 games live at the official website.

Here's Anand's post-game commentary (thanks to Jeremy Kane for reminding me that the interviewer is an ex-Chicagoan, IM Jan van de Mortel!), in which Vishy notes that the attacking idea was cribbed from Rubinstein's immortal win against Rotlevi:


 

Daniel King offers his praise:

The Greatest Game You've Never Seen

This is an amazing game by IM Nadanian, featuring his patented 5.Na4!? against the Grünfeld. The diagram shows the position before all hell breaks lose. The final position looks like a composition: despite Black's huge material advantage and all those pieces clustered around his king, he has no defense against the primitive threat of 18.Qh8#. Astonishing. This game deserves to be in all the anthologies.

So what's Chicago's Immortal Game?

The Illinois Chess Database  (updated earlier today by Tom Sprandel) gives us a good excuse to ask this question: what's the best game ever played in Chicagoland?  Your nominations are welcome.