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List of chess games

Wikimedia list article

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ1421276 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of notable chess games sorted chronologically.

Pre-1800

1475: Francesc de Castellví vs Narcís de Vinyoles, Valencia 1475. The first documented chess game played with the modern queen and bishop moves; the moves were described in the poem Scachs d'amor.

1623: Gioachino Greco vs NN, London 1623. Greco mates on the eighth move with a queen sacrifice.

1788: Thomas Bowdler vs Henry Seymour Conway, London. Bowdler offers the first example of a famous double rook sacrifice.

1790: Andrew Smith vs François-André Danican Philidor, London. Philidor, who was quoted as saying "Pawns are the soul of chess", demonstrates the power of a superior pawn formation.

1800s

1834: Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais vs Alexander McDonnell, Match 4, Round 4, London.

Editorial summary

“List of chess games” enters the record as wikimedia list article. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, chess and games can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1800, 1475, 1623, 1788—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, chess and games.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of chess games” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, chess and games provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1421276. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1800, 1475, 1623 and 1788.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of chess games”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of chess games primary sources, List of chess games archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of chess games” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.