Kasparov's Immortal

Why It's Famous

Widely voted the greatest chess game ever played in reader polls run by major chess publications, this game features an astonishing sequence starting with 24.Rxd4!?, a rook sacrifice that opens a combination lasting more than 15 moves.

The most famous single moment is Kasparov's own king marching from b1 all the way up to c3, directly into the heart of the position, to shepherd his attack through — an almost unthinkable risk that modern engines have since confirmed was completely sound the entire way.

Kasparov himself calculated the full winning combination over the board, a feat of pure human calculation that still impresses engine-assisted analysts today.