History Awesome / Chess

** He/She has also managed the feat of promoting all eight of his/her pawns to [[http://en.lichess.org/Xr6mVHGU rooks]], to [[http://en.lichess.org/QhseQsbc/black bishops]], to [[http://en.lichess.org/i9EeG6yj/black knights]], and to [[http://en.lichess.org/IkrKHguO queens]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_game_(chess) Seven years later,]] in 1858, the American master player Paul Morphy visited Paris, where he was invited to the opera by the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. Both being fairly good chess players in their own right, they decided to challenge Morphy to a game of chess. As it was bad form to refuse such a challenge, Morphy accepted, even though he would rather watch the opera he came for. Going for as short a game as possible, he checkmated his cooperating opponents in only seventeen moves... after which he resumed watching the opera performance.

* A member of Lichess.org, MoralIntentions, has played [[http://en.lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/the-alphabet-of-chess 26 games against a handicapped AI]], where the final board position is both checkmate and displays one of the letters of the alphabet.

* The Turk, a supposedly robotic chess player that toured the courts of Europe in the Eighteenth century and convinced people that ''it really was an eighteenth-century robot that could play chess''. One story was that The Turk was hollow and had a midget or child in it who was taking signals from a hired ringer in the audience.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babson_task Babson Task]] is the task of composing a "White to play and mate" problem in which Black can promote a pawn, and whatever piece he promotes to, White ''has to'' promote to the same kind of piece. It sounds impossible: why should White have to promote to a rook or bishop when a queen is more powerful? The knight can make moves the queen cannot, but why should White's knight promotion be determined by a promotion at the other end of the board? Pierre Drumare worked on this task for ''twenty years'' before coming to the conclusion that it was impossible. It was solved in 1983 by Leonid Yarosh, hitherto a complete unknown in the chess problem world. He subsequently [[UpToEleven bettered this achievement]] by creating a version with a "perfect" key. [[hottip:*:In chess problems, it is an aesthetic demerit for the key to be a capture, since such moves are more obvious to solvers.]] (And there was a happy ending for Drumare, who subsequently succeeded in composing his own Babson Task, albeit one with certain aesthetic flaws compared to Yarosh's. In fact, over a dozen Babsons have been composed since then, and Yarosh's is still the best.)

* Bobby Fischer had many, starting with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_the_Century_(chess) "The Game of the Century"]], a brilliancy[[hottip:*:Chess slang for "crowning game of awesome".]] won against grandmaster Donald Byrne played in 1956 -- ''when Fischer was thirteen.''

* Just about any move marked with a double exclamation mark (!!). Especially those that result in checkmate. Some ! ermoves also count.

* In 1982, during a "chess awareness" publicity tour stop in Orlando, Florida, then-US Open Chess Champion Andrew Soltis invited a randomly selected twelve year old boy named Aaron Butler up onto the stage from the crowd to play against Soltis in an exhibition game. The idea being that Soltis would teach the boy (and the crowd) to play chess. Butler then proceeded to beat Soltis in two moves, using a combination of moves called the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool's_mate Fool's Mate]]", something that a player of Soltis's skill should never have been caught by. When asked about it later, the boy said, "It just seemed like the right thing to do."

* Forking enemy King, Queen and Rook with one's Knight.

* With only one pawn, a rook and the king still standing, this troper, in a school championship, a young guy managed to get to the finals in an incredibly disavantaged position, where his king had no other moves, defeat the champion of the last tournament. Goes to even more epic when the enemy had both his knights, both bishops, one rook, and one pawn that was going to be promoted. And, after sacrificing his pawn, defeating the enemy. Not only badass, but the enemy had participated three competitions and did not lose any of them, therefore, winning. The guy defeat a champion who had lost for the first time in over fifty games. AND IT WAS HIS FIRST TOURNAMENT!

* Deep Blue versus Kasparov . Whether it is more awesome that someone could [[GadgeteerGenius build a robot that could take on Kasparov]] or that [[TheChessmaster Kasparov could manage to take on a super robot]] you decide.

* Just about any move marked with a double exclamation mark (!!). Especially those that result in checkmate. Some ! moves also count.

* No consensus exists on the topic of the greatest game ever played but [[http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1011478 this]] is a popular choice among aficionados.

Back to Main/{{Chess}}.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babson_task Babson Task]] is the task of composing a "White to play and mate" problem in which Black can promote a pawn, and whatever piece he promotes to, White ''has to'' promote to the same kind of piece. It sounds impossible: why should White have to promote to a rook or bishop when a queen is more powerful? The knight can make moves the queen cannot, but why should White's knight promotion be determined by a promotion at the other end of the board? Pierre Drumare worked on this task for ''twenty years'' before coming to the conclusion that it was impossible. It was solved in 1983 by Leonid Yarosh, hitherto a complete unknown in the chess problem world. He subsequently [[BeyondTheImpossible bettered this achievement]] by creating a version with a "perfect" key. [[hottip:*:In chess problems, it is an aesthetic demerit for the key to be a capture, since such moves are more obvious to solvers.]] (And there was a happy ending for Drumare, who subsequently succeeded in composing his own Babson Task, albeit one with certain aesthetic flaws compared to Yarosh's. In fact, over a dozen Babsons have been composed since then, and Yarosh's is still the best.)

* Nobody taught Capablanca to play chess. He learned the moves by watching his father play with a friend, and he played his first game because he spotted his father illegally moving his knight two squares diagonally like a bishop. Teased by his son for cheating, Papa Capa crustily told him that he didn't even know how to play the game. So they set the pieces up, and Capablanca won the first game he ever played. Later he was taken to the local chess club and matched up against a proper player, who very kindly gave the untrained four-year-old a Queen start. Capablanca [[http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame? gid=1481959&kpage=1 hosed]] him.

* Deep Blue versus Kasparov . Whether it is more awesome that someone could build a robot that could take on Kasparov or that Kasparov could manage to take on a super robot you decide.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Game Immortal Game,]] a famous chess match between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky, is considered one of, if not ''the'' best chess game ever played. Especially the ending, in which Andressen's uses the very few remaining pieces on his side to win.
** Arguably, the decisive move is move 18: BD6.