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A chess game between the Soviet grandmaster David Bronstein and the Polish International Master...

A chess game between the Soviet grandmaster David Bronstein and the Polish International Master Bogdan Śliwa in 1957 in Gotha is referred to as the "Immortal Losing Game"—an allusion to the more famous Immortal Game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky. It is so called because Bronstein, in a completely lost position, set a series of elegant traps in an attempt to swindle a victory from a lost game, although Śliwa deftly avoided Bronstein's traps and won. Śliwa had White and Bronstein had Black in this game. The score of the game is as follows: 1.d4 f5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nf6 Both players have fianchettoed their bishops. If White had played the now-standard 4.c4 instead of 4.Nc3, a Leningrad variation of the Dutch Defence would have been reached. 5.Bg5 Nc6 6.Qd2 d6 7.h4 e6 8.O-O-O h6 9.Bf4 Bd7 10.e4 fxe4 11.Nxe4 Nd5 12.Ne2 Qe7 13.c4 Nb6? (13...Nxf4 14.Nxf4 Qf7) 14.c5! dxc5 15.Bxc7! O-O 16.Bd6 +- white has won the exchange by skewering black's queen and rook 16...Qf7 17.Bxf8 Rxf8 18.dxc5 Nd5 19.f4 Rd8 20.N2c3 Ndb4 21.Nd6 Qf8 22.Nxb7 Nd4! (22...Rb8 23.Qxd7+-) 23.Nxd8 Bb5! (see Figure 1) 24.Nxe6! (24.Nxb5?! Qf5! (a) 25.Nxd4?? Nxa2#; (b)25.Qxb4?? Qc2#; (c) 25.Nc3?? Nxa2+!