Games of Jacques Mieses

Eight games across six decades, all replayable on the board — from the international debut against Tarrasch at Leipzig 1888 to the brilliancy prize against Sergeant at Hastings 1948/49, won at the age of 83.

What makes a Mieses game

Mieses stayed loyal to the romantic attacking chess of the nineteenth century long after his contemporaries had moved on to the positional school of Steinitz and Tarrasch. In practice that means open lines rather than closed structures, material treated as currency rather than property, and a willingness to give up a pawn or a piece for an attack whose return cannot be calculated to the end.

That attitude cost him tournament points and earned him prizes. At least eight brilliancy prizes are documented, possibly twelve — more than almost any contemporary, surpassed only by Alekhine. Such prizes were not awarded for winning but for beauty: for the game that made the hall look up. Fred Reinfeld wrote of "a uniquely glamorous quality in a Mieses combination", and Tartakower annotated one of his games with the words: "A true Mieses game – bold and elegant!"

So when going through the games below, watch less for the result than for the moment Mieses stops calculating and trusts the attack. He did not win all of them — the loss to Reshevsky in 1935 is the best known of the lot, because it appears in Walter Tevis' novel "The Queen's Gambit" and in the Netflix series.

Featured Master Games

Games by Opening

Games by Tournament

• Leipzig 1888 - Mieses vs. Tarrasch
• Hastings 1895 - Bird vs. Mieses
• Margate 1935 - Mieses vs. Reshevsky from "The Queen's Gambit"