Chess Game Logs

[DiscipleofBob]

I have an odd request.

I'm writing a scene in which the two characters talk while playing a heavily metaphorical game of chess. I was wondering if there were any sites or play-by-play logs of particularly close or skilled chess matches for realism.

I'm kind of on a short deadline too (I have to post it tonight!!!)

Any suggestions?

[Winthur]

Don't have one of the characters intentionally move the king into check and the other refuse to take it because it would be cheap.

[Gizladlo]

There should be a whole slew of them for the taking.

Here is the link for one between a chess champion and a supercomputer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_versus_Garry_Kasparov

Seems like a lot of the games that went long in chess tournaments (in my experience) have the rook+bishop v. rook ending: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_and_bishop_versus_rook_endgame

Hope this helps!

[Tavar]

Just to try and help, here's a list to the wikipedia directory of Chess Games. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chess_games)

A few more here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_games)

[Silfir]

There's also chessgames.com (http://www.chessgames.com). To fit your criteria, you might try to search the collections made by users there, for instance look for ones titled "games won by one tempo" or "close fighting games" or ones with buzzwords such as "epic" and such.

There will be far more games there than on Wikipedia, and you might hit on a less well-known gem. If you pick one of the Wikipedia games odds are relatively high that chess players who read your story have played through them at some point.

EDIT: Checked the Wikipedia list: Yeah, those are going to be extremely well-known (among chess players). I'd look elsewhere.

[DiscipleofBob]

These links should be perfect. Thanks!

Unless anyone has a recommendation for how a chess match between Professor X and Magneto would turn out, I'm good here. :smalltongue:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Unless anyone has a recommendation for how a chess match between Professor X and Magneto would turn out, I'm good here. :smalltongue:
X gets Nightcrawler to BAMF in and steal Mag's helmet so that he can read his mind.

[Math_Mage]

chessgames.com is definitely the site I would use, though I don't have extensive reading to give you obscure games.

For Magneto I would suggest Aron Nimzowitsch, a founding father of chess theory in general and the pioneer of hypermodern chess; he was also vain and rather paranoid about being underappreciated.

Then, for Professor Xavier, you might try Emanuel Lasker, known for a 'psychological' style of play and deliberately playing inferior moves to mess with his opponents. He also wrote on, and played, other games at a high level, including Go and contract bridge, as well as making contributions in mathematics. The icing on the cake is that he was a strong activist for the financial rights of chess players (somewhat selfishly), and his efforts played a significant role in the development of chess as a viable full-time profession.

Unfortunately, there aren't many games between Lasker and Nimzowitsch; one draw, and one Nimzowitsch victory. (However, there is a game between one EDWARD Lasker and Nimzowitsch, which that Lasker won.) So, depending on what sort of game you want them to play, you may need to find another combination.