Zukertort's Immortal

Johannes Zukertort and Joseph Henry Blackburne, the English champion nicknamed the Black Death for his taste for whisky and his dangerous attacking style, met in round six of the great London tournament of 1883, played on 5 May. Zukertort was in career-best form that year and eventually finished three points clear of the field, a result that helped set up the first official World Championship match two years later.

Unlike many romantic-era brilliancies that arrive out of a wild opening, this game is a slow squeeze. Zukertort builds a positional bind for twenty five moves before the position explodes, and the game is remembered chiefly for 28.Qb4, a queen move into the middle of the board that looks like it hangs the piece but in fact wins by force. Contemporary annotators gave the finishing combination two exclamation marks, and it is still admired today, though a chess historian later found that an even faster forced mate was available a move earlier with 31.Rg8+, a point most commentators, Zukertort included, seem to have missed at the time.

For a club player the lesson is patience: Zukertort does not rush the attack, he prepares it, and only strikes once every piece is ready. It rewards a slow replay rather than jumping straight to the tactics.