Relive the Romantic Era of Chess

Following on from the chess pieces, let's talk about some of the men who moved them. The Romantic Era defined chess in the 19th Century. The successors of Philidor, Stamma, Legall and La Bourdonnais had arrived. With them came a fierce desire to play chess in an all out attacking fashion using brilliant combinations to win.

Anderssen followed by Morphy followed by Zukertort were some of the leading players in the Romantic Generation. They played the one step ahead approach. In many of their games they would finish by mating with a breath taking five or six move combo. Their opponent would often be just one agonizing move from victory, yet denied the possibility to ever play it.

There were structural weaknesses to their approaches that were there to be capitalized on but this would not happen until much later when the Modern Era of positional chess was ushered in. Whatever about the foundations they were built on, the innovation and invention of these combinations at least have stood the test of time. They are as inspiring today as they were in the days that they were played. Add your own annotated Romantic Era game.

Chess came to Europe during the Moorish conquest of Spain in the 8th Century AD. They would remain there until the end of the 15th Century. By the time they were finally expelled, chess was woven deeply into cultural life on the Iberian peninsula.


The rule changes that evolved their Shatranj into Western chess came about soon after. Chess was seen as one of the arts by the royal courts and chess players studied their art. Secrets were unfurled one by one as the greatest players unearthed the secrets of the game.


Greco demonstrated the power of active pieces and later Philidor brought to light the pawn's role in the game. Armed with this knowledge, chess players took their discipline along with all the other arts into an enlightened period in the 19th Century.


Now the main emphasis was on the potential for beauty. Just as the great composers had done for music and theater, the great chess players were bringing chess into the Romantic Era of the 19th Century.

The ability to combine pieces into beautiful collaborations was the most celebrated attribute a player could have as the 19th Century dawned. It was more important than winning. The ones who could play like this and win became the greatest heroes.


The greatest players of this time calculated variations as well as anyone in modern chess. Their games may contain openings that wouldn't pass muster today, but the tactical play in the middlegame, the beautifully executed mating attacks are as impressive today as they were when they were played.


What are the characteristics of a beautiful game of chess? It has to have remarkable combinations complete with sacrifice. But not any old sacrifice. It has to be the kind of sacrifice that the mere mortal would never find. Something that requires a spark of genius. That's what makes us marvel.

The Art of the Sacrifice is the title of a book written by Rudolf Spielmann. Spielmann was operating in chess circles a century ago. He was a contemporary of Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein, Reti and Tarrasch.


Spielmann was a very strong player, appearing in many of the strongest tournaments between 1910 and 1930. He was one of the most famous of the Romanticists, at a time when that brand of chess had largely died out.


Spielmann's games show what is possible in chess and his words explain the landscape required for these combinations to arise.

As we moved into the Romantic Era, players more and more began to work on openings to gain an edge on their opponents. In any period, an opening will be shaped by the kind of game people want to play.


The openings of the Romantic Era were designed to create open lines and diagonals, development leads and initiatives against the opposing King.


Many of these openings contained sacrifices within them. These opening sacrifices are known as gambits. Spielmann was particularly fond of the King's Gambit and the Center Game.

Adolf Anderssen was a German master or perhaps more of a chess magician. He claimed to have developed his ideas through studying the amazing 85 game odyssey between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell. He was the world's leading player between 1851 and 1866 except for a brief interruption by a young man from Louisiana in 1858.

Johannes Zukertort was a Prussian master. He contested the first World Chess Championship in 1886 which marked a watershed in the history of chess. Zukertort, the hero of romanticism was vanquished by Steinitz, the pioneer of modernism (positional chess) and with his defeat the Romantic Era was brought to an end.

Paul Morphy was the ultimate chess enigma. The greatest chess mind the world had ever witnessed to that point and arguably since, Morphy swept aside all opponents that sat across the board from him including Anderssen. He had, through unswerving determination, emphatically conquered the chess world by the age of 21. He then had promptly walked away by 22, equally determined never to compete again. It should be noted that Morphy vanquished his opponents because he had a full grasp of positional realities and enveloped his tactics within a positional game.

What is the most famous chess game ever played? What are the most famous moves? Everyone has their favorites but the same old reliables keep coming up. You have Morphy's A Night at the Opera, Anderssen's Immortal and Evergreen games and Zukertort's own Immortal.



Steinitz was as fine a Romanticist as anyone else with remarkable victories playing in this style before converting to his positional style. Blackburne and Kieseritzky also played some memorable games.



Literally hundreds of games could have been chosen as examples of the Romantic Era at it's most exhilarating but I cut the roll of honor at 10. Enjoy these breath taking brilliancies.

Chess is just like anything else. It continues to evolve through a kind of arms race. Many a conventional main line of the past has been refuted and tossed aside. With every problem that is solved, a new question is posed. How to rebutt the rebuttal?


We like to think that the Romantic Era never completely died. We appreciate those fantastic tactical combos when they still pop up amid all of the sensible positional science.


Now that you've experienced some of the finest games from the Romantic Era and your appetite for masterful chess has been whipped up, I want to share with you some of the most famous chess games of all times.