Classic Combinations
The most famous combinations in chess history, taken apart move by move: why the sacrifice works, what the alternatives miss, and how to find the same ideas in your own games.
Some combinations are so striking that they have been replayed for more than a century. They are worth studying not as curiosities but as models: each one shows an idea, such as a queen sacrifice that opens the king or a double check, that turns up again and again in ordinary games.
Each lesson takes one or two famous games. A checklist shows the key moments, each with the move that was played and a natural alternative that misses the win; then the combination move by move, the full game, and positions to solve.
Lessons
- 1The Queen SacrificeGiving up the queen is the most spectacular sacrifice in chess, and it works more often than you might think: when the enemy king can be dragged into the open, or when a double check leaves it no time to escape.
- 2The WindmillA rook and a bishop take turns giving check: the rook takes a piece, the bishop gives a discovered check, the rook comes back, and the defender can only watch. Torre–Lasker, 1925, is the most famous windmill ever played.
- 3Rubinstein's ImmortalA queen, then a rook, given up to overload one defender. Rotlewi–Rubinstein, 1907, is the classic example of a piece that has too many jobs to do, and of how to take them away one by one.
- 4The Gold Coins GameFrank Marshall put his queen where three white pieces could take it, and his opponent resigned. Levitsky–Marshall, 1912, shows how a knight, a rook and a queen can cover every way of capturing.
- 5Anderssen's Immortal and EvergreenAdolf Anderssen's two most famous games end with the same picture: White has given up almost everything, and a few minor pieces mate a king that has nowhere to go.
- 6The Game of the CenturyA 13-year-old Bobby Fischer gives up a knight, then his queen, and his remaining pieces chase the white king to mate. Byrne–Fischer, 1956, shows what development and open lines are worth against a king left in the centre.
How these lessons were checked
Every position comes from a real game, so every board is legal and every move can be replayed. Every recommended move is within 0.3 pawns of Stockfish's first choice at depth 22, or a mate. A move shown as working wins, or keeps the position; a move shown as failing is at least one and a half pawns worse. Every exercise has a single solution, at least one and a half pawns better than any other move, or the only mate. Every number in the text comes from the engine.