Andrew Soltis holds the world record for giving out exclamation marks. At least I think he does for giving the following game 21 of them. Just so you can get an idea of how many that is, here is what 21 of them look like: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The game has been considered by some as the Immortal Correspondence Game. Of course, what constitutes an immortal game is open to debate. Generally immortal games are ones that are so memorable that they are remembered and enjoyed by players down through the generations. As is always the case, engine analysis reveals flaws in the play of both sides, but that does not take anything away from the games...they are still classics and that is certainly the case with the following game. It’s a wild tactical fight that begins around move 27 and the advantage see-saws back and forth until, as Tartakower said, it was won by the player who made the next to the last error.
I did a post on the loser, Ramon Rey-Ardid a few years back (the game has disappeared from the post). The winner, Nils Johansson, was a Stockholm railway official who later changed his name to Tegelman.
Born in 1897, Tegelman learned chess in 1911 and began his first correspondence tournament in 1927. In 1930 he won the annual congress of the Swedish Chess Federation and earned the title of Swedish master.
Nils Johansson-Tegelman was a pillar in Swedish correspondence chess starting in 1929. During the Second World War activities grew under his leadership, but when he suddenly died on September 30, 1946, at the age of 49 after failing to overcome a long and painful illness, correspondence chess in Sweden was dealt a severe blow.
After his death, the Swedish Federation launched a correspondence tournament in his memory, in which it was mandatory to start with a variation of the Ruy Lopez which was not very popular, but frequently played by Johansson.
[Event "Sweden-Spain Postal Match "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1933.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nils Johansson-Tegelman"]
[Black "Ramon Rey Ardid"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Ruy Lopez} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7.
Bb3 d6 8. c3 Na5 9. Bc2 c5 10. d4 Qc7 11. h3 O-O 12. Nbd2 Nc6 13. d5 Nd8 14.
a4 b4 15. Nc4 Nb7 {Capablanca-Vidmar, New York 1927 continued 15...a5. Rey
Ardid's move is an attempted improvement. A good plan might be maneuvering the
N to g3: Nfd2-f1-g3.} 16. a5 {Some annotators deemed this move risky because
the P is isolated. According to Harry Golombek's book on Capablanca, white
should play 16 cxb4 which is better than Johansson's plan of playing with
two Ns and allowing black to open the b-file.} 16... Rb8 17. Bg5 Bd7 18. Bd3
Bb5 {If white plays his intended Nfd2 immediately he loses a P: 19.Nfd2 bxc3
20.bxc3 Nxd5!} 19. Bxf6 Bxf6 20. Nfd2 Bd8 {As the B serves no purpose on f6,
it joins the attack on white's a-Pawn.} 21. Nb3 {With the a-Pawn defended
white is threatening to open the c-file so black now exchanges on c3 in order
to keep the file closed.} 21... bxc3 22. bxc3 Qe7 {This loses time. A
reasonable plan might be ...g6, ...Kh8 and ...f5. Some Spanish analysis
recommended 23...Bg5 24.Qh5 h6 which is also satisfactory.} 23. Ne3 Qd7 24.
Qc2 Bc7 {White's next move wastes time. With 25.Bxb5 Qxb5 26.Reb1 he has the
initiative.} 25. Nc4 Qd8 26. Qa2 g6 {Here the game really begins. This move is
apparently aimed at preventing black from freeing himself with ...f5, but as
is often the case the cure is worse that the disease. Continuing the cat and
mouse game with 27. Nbd2 is plausible.} 27. g4 {All this does is weaken the
K-side.} 27... Qh4 {Even better than the immediate 27...f5} 28. Re3 f5 {How
much danger is white really in seeing that most of black's pieces are situated
on the Q-side? We will see. } 29. exf5 gxf5 30. Nbd2 {Now black would have
enjoyed a much greater advantage had he played 30...fxg4 and met 31.Rg3 with
...Kh8} 30... f4 {An old book by Tim Harding, 64 Great Chess Games, asked who
really stands better here? Old annotations, which praise this game so highly,
pass over in silence the crucial phase of the next few moves in which black
misses several lines that would possibly have won, spoils his strong position,
and lays the foundation for white's beautiful counterattack. Indeed, Stockfish
gives black a -/+ here. Harding said this gains space without loss of time
but, to his way of thinking, it is a superficial move that looks suspect once
you have seen the rest of the game. The idea is apparently to take control of
g3, so that blacks later breaking move ...h5 will be more effective. The
drawback is that after g4-g5 black will then have only the g-file to work
with. The move can also be criticized on the grounds that it puts yet another
P on the same color as the B on c7.Probably blacks main mistake is strategic:
he tries to win by attack instead of keeping his Kas safe as possible and
aiming to consolidate a material advantage. Stockfish is in agreement with
Harding and suggests that after 30...fxg4 black is near winning. A reasonable
move also is 30...Kh8, but Rey Ardid apparently didn't want white capturing on
f5. In that case black's advantage would not be as great.} 31. Rf3 Kh8 32.
Kg2 {Harding's recommendation of 32.Ne4 is better because then if black plays
32...h5 the K-side attack is stymied by 33.g5! Now white should probably have
played 32... Bd7 and 33...Rg8} 32... h5 {Spanish analysis says this opens
lines for the attack while Purdy wrote that both sides flirt with death.
Harding opined that black encounters problems in driving home his attack
because the P-structure makes it easier for white to feed reinforcements to
the K-side and in particular because black's 30...f4 ceded the fine e4-square
to the N. He added that Even so, 32...h5 should probably have won if
followed up correctly. Harding, it appears is correct.} 33. Rh1 {Black should
now have continued as in the note to the previous move and be satisfied with a
positional advantage.} 33... Rf6 34. Ne4 Rh6 35. g5 Rg6 36. Kh2 {Harding says
this usually gets an ! but is almost certainly a bad move. Not only does black
fail to spot white's combination at move 38; he misses his own last winning
chance. The B looks bad on c7 but it was performing a defensive function.
Harding recommended 36...Bd7 saying it may offer black winning chances. But
even better was 36...Nd8! Engines agree with him. Black will follow up with
36...Nd8 37.Qe2 Bxc4 38.Bxc4 Nf7 39. Rg1 Nxg5 40.Nxg5 Rxg5 41.Rxg5 Qxg5}
36... Bd8 {This transforms a winning position into a losing one.} 37. Rg1
Bxg5 {This move, bursting open black's center, launches the white's fierce
counterattack and it has left previous commentators impressed by the finish.
Stockfish found a much better and more subtle continuation. With 38.Qb2!!
white can play Nxe5 next move. The open b-file is not of consequence...it's
the the attack on e-Pawn after c4 that is decisive.} 38. Nxe5 dxe5 39. c4 Bd7
40. Qb2 Rg7 {The only move to defend himself, and it's a good one.} 41. Qb6
{No better was 41.Qxe5 Re8! with equal chances. Black's next move has been
highly praised in the past as being the only good defensive move, but in fact
it is a losing blunder. Black can draw with 41...Bf6!! 42.Nxf6 Rxg1 43.Kxg1
Bxh3 44.Qc7 Rg8+ 45.Nxg8 Qg4+ 46.Rg3 Qd1+ 47.Kh2 fxg3+ 48.Kxh3 Qxd3} 41...
Bg4 42. Nxg5 Qxg5 43. hxg4 Rf8 44. Qxa6 {Black could have delayed immediate
disaster by playing 44...h4. Instead he allows white a mate in 11 moves.}
44... hxg4 45. Rh3+ Kg8 46. Qe6+ Rff7 {White has a mate in 9.} 47. Rxg4 {Black
resigns because of 47...e4 48.Rxg5 Rxg5 49.Qc8+ Rf8 50. Rh8+ Kxh8 51.Qxf8+ Kh7
52.Bxe4+ Rg6 53.Qf7+ Kh8 54.Qxg6 f3 55.Qh7 mate} 1-0
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