An early Christmas Game

On the night before Christmas I normally go hunting for games that are played on Christmas day, For this years effort I decided to find the earliest Christmas game in my database. I expected this to be a difficult task, as a lot of early games only have the year played, missing the day and month. Surprisingly I quickly found a game from 1837, between Von Bilguer and Von Heyderband un der Lasa.
I am guessing the game is an authentic Christmas game, as it is a bit of a horror. White drops a pawn on move 6 and never gets close to equality. On the other hand Black misses a couple of crushing moves, but at least doesn't blunder back. The game ends abruptly when White moves a piece en pris. Possibly both sides enjoyed some Christmas cheer before sitting down to play, but if the quality of the moves is anything to go by, it was White who enjoyed it the most.


Von Bilguer,Paul Rudolf - Von Heydebrand und der L,Tassilo [C00]
Berlin m1 Berlin, 25.12.1837

1. e4 c5 2. f4 e6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Be2 d5 5. e5 Nh6 6. d4 Qb6 7. c3 cxd4 8. cxd4 Nf5 9. b3 Nfxd4 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Qxd4 Nxd4 12. Bd3 Bc5 13. Nc3 O-O 14. Bb2 Nc6 15. O-O-O Bd7 16. h3 f5 17. g4 Ne7 18. Kc2 Rac8 19. Ba3 Bxa3 0-1