Alexander Petrov

Warsaw 1836, against the massed players of the Warsaw Chess Club. Petrov had moved to Warsaw in the service of the Russian administration and was already regarded as the strongest player in the Empire; here he grinds the club down over 57 moves in a Bishop's Opening, trading into a bishop-and-rook ending and squeezing on both wings.

Petrov's Immortal, Warsaw 1844 — the most celebrated game of his career. With his queen attacked by 12.Nxf7, Petrov ignores it and castles: 12...O-O!, one of the most famous castling moves ever played. Hoffmann takes the queen with 13.Nxd8, and the king hunt begins — 13...Bf2+ drives the white king from h3 to g4 to h5 and finally to g5, where 23...Be3# ends it, Petrov a whole queen down.

Against Carl Friedrich von Jaenisch, the other pillar of early Russian chess and Petrov's collaborator in the analysis that made 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 the Russian Game. The record books this in a match Petrov won +1−1. Petrov takes the White side of his own defence and finishes with 21.Qg5+ and 24.Ne7+, dragging the king to e7 for 26.Bg5+.

Warsaw 1847, a sixteen-move miniature in the French Exchange. Szymanski's queen wanders after 10...Qxd4, and Petrov hunts it with tempo — 11.Rd1, 12.Ne4, 14.Bg4 and 15.Bf5 — until 15...Nxf5 16.Nf6+ forks king and queen. Black resigned on the spot.

Warsaw 1851, and a pure attacking finish. Petrov sacrifices on f7 as early as 10.Bxf7+, keeps the black king stranded in the centre, and mates in the middle of the board: 19.Nxe6+, 20.Nxg7+, the queen offered with 21.Qxf6+ and 22.Ne7# with the knights.

From the 1853 match against Sergey Urusov — one of Russia's strongest players and, with his brother Dmitry, a name still carried by the Urusov Gambit. The record books the match +3−0=1 to Petrov. Here Petrov wins with Black, seizing the d-file with 24...Rd4 and 25...Rxc4 and driving the rooks to the seventh.

The same 1853 match from the other side of the board: a 57-move Giuoco Piano in which Petrov, then approaching sixty, outlasts a much younger Urusov in a long technical grind rather than a combinative flourish.

Warsaw 1853, a King's Gambit Accepted against Alexander Hoffmann, his old Warsaw sparring partner. Petrov ignores the exchange, plays through 13.Rxh8+ and 14.Nxg5, and finishes with a bishop rampage — 21.Bxc7+, 23.Bd6+, 24.Re7+ and 26.Bf4+ driving the king to h6.

A later Petrov–Urusov match, 1859: Petrov, now sixty-five, builds the attack with doubled rooks on the h-file, breaks through with 24.Rxh7+, and converts with 35.Rd8+. Evidence that his strength survived more than three decades at the top of Russian chess.

Paris 1864, three years before his death — Petrov defending the King's Gambit Kieseritzky with Black and counterattacking hard. 21...g3+ and 22...Bxe2+ strip the white king, and after 24...Nd4+ and 25...Nxc2+ the checks never stop.