7 BEST Queen Sacrifices In Chess History!

there are few tactics in chess more amazing than  the sacrifice of a queen the idea of giving up   your most powerful and majestic piece in order  to deliver an instant knockout blow or long-term   compensation is quite exciting and in this video  ladies and gentlemen we are going to look at seven   incredible queen sacrifices played by some of the  strongest grandmasters who ever lived let's go and   so we kicked things off in the year 1961. we are  currently in germany with the white pieces we have   romantoran albero he is a spanish international  master a fide arbiter a person deeply involved   in chess and with the black pieces we have mikhail  tal and uh well who better to feature in a video   about sacrifices uh the magician of riga was his  nickname and he very famously once declared there   are two types of sacrifices correct ones and my  own and mikhail tal sacrificed many pieces in   his life but this game was truly dazzling he plays  knight to c6 i know you're gonna say that's not a   queen sacrifice i'm building it up you don't just  go to the movie theater and then get the you know   main plot bishop to e3 develops his bishop and  then plays rook to e8 all his pieces have been   activated but white plays this move knight to g5  removing the knight out of danger and here bishop   d5 check is coming with the idea to jump in with  the knight and you can't deal with these pieces   now here any human being with a tolerance of risk  will play the move h6 and try to play king to h7   when the knight is removed but misha tal and  feel free to pause the video if you'd like to   think like he did decided um nah rook takes bishop  you're gonna say levy that's a sacrifice of a rook   and i'm gonna say no please be patient bishop  to d5 check king h8 remember this yeah he just   took it he just took it now on the surface  this might look like a typical 1000 elo game   on your favorite chess website just the player who  accidentally forgot that their queen was protected   by uh the knight was protected by the bishop but  this is not the case because now we get rook to d3   and we have bishop takes d4 check and king g2  so tal has sacrificed his queen for a knight in   a bishop uh if you notice both players have rooks  and both players have a light square bishop so tal   has a bishop knight and a pawn for a queen  so he's down two points of material however   he has something known as compensation  and in this case it's more long term   he plays knight to e5 and look at his pieces the  just fundamental understanding that you don't need   the royalty on the board that this bishop is a  target for this night going back all the pieces   defend each other and are coordinated super well  and at the end of the day these subtle moves   toward the king are going to be the difference  maker white played rook to d1 hoping for a trade   of rooks very logical but rook to e3 avoiding  that trade queen to f1 and now tal begins his   attack now computer later on ends up showing a  absolutely wild sequence of moves where black   can basically walk the king out to h4 and beg for  survival but we're also talking about the year   1961. so you know this wasn't available back then  uh not that they would use it during the games   but probably just i mean well frankly it's kind of  difficult to bring your king out here and actually   believe in your position so roman played the move  uh queen tsu f1 and now we got bishop to e4 check   king to h3 and rook f3 the subtle shuffling  of this rook to constantly attack the queen   and attack the other pieces and you'll notice  that if the queen sacrifices itself i'm just   going to protect my bishop and this endgame will  be winning and that's why i actually selected   uh this game because after queen to e2 bishop f5  check albero resigns because if king goes back to   g2 rook f2 takes takes takes and at the end of  it i take this and i have knight in bishop and   one pawn for a rook it's pretty funny that he  resigned in such a position because uh material   is actually more or less like close to balance  but he just didn't want any more part of tal like   it's like when you fight khabib nurmagomedov i'm  not speaking from personal experience but you get   absolutely mauled and furthermore if king2h4 were  to happen here you can play a handful of moves uh   rook f2 is just the easiest it attacks the queen  it is defended and rook h2 will lead to a mate   not to mention i'm fairly certain that  bishop to e3 with some sort of g5 is winning   massacre absolutely disgusting and uh the  reason i selected this game is because it's   it just shows sheer brilliance i mean the  the ability to see that long-term play   and at the worst case scenario maybe you are you  come out with just a slightly better position if   white defense perfectly but listen we have  to start with this now let's keep it rolling   this video would not be complete without  mikhail tsal and rasheed nish medinev as you   can see uh nijmegen of one of the most creative  fascinating uh aggressive players of all time   and definitely if you are looking for an oasis  of fascinating chess look up his name and look   up his games it's currently 1962 when we are  in rostov-on-don i'm not sure how to pronounce   that actually uh in russia even though i speak  russian i actually have no idea to pronounce   that city and his opponent is aleg chernukov  and i believe that chernika is blackberries   or blueberries or blackberries i'm not sure but  this is not russian class this is a chess game   and here chernikov plays the move bishop to f6  attacking the queen now option number one for   white is to play queen to h6 and repeat moves  option number two for white after bishop to f6   is to maybe play queen g4 d6 get hit and return  home but yes medinav is not that kind of player   and after the move bishop to f6 he takes the  bishop now again to the uninitiated this simply   simply simply looks like a giveaway of a queen  for a bishop it looks like your average triple   digit elo game on chess.com in some rare cases  double digits i'm joking that's not possible   not as as far as i know so the idea is that  after pawn takes f6 bishop takes d4 in some   very peculiar chain of events despite being a full  queen down just for two pieces black's position is   actually pretty terrible why strategic weakness  the knight will plant itself on d5 pressuring   f6 and because black does not have an operator on  the dark squares with the exception of the queen   you are not going to combat a knight in bishop  together fighting for these dark squares around   the king an absolutely beautiful strategic  concept now in the game chernikov gave away   his knight first he wanted to play knight takes  like this because now at least rasheed's knight is   gone but rasheed just moves the knight right back  and is knight to c3 rookie eight knight d5 i mean   everything that you expect bishop d4 everything  plays itself up until this moment the computer is   still convinced that black is fine with moves like  king g7 rook to d1 and d6 and all of a sudden here   rashid plays just a very logical follow-up to his  old previous plan which is rook to d3 and the idea   of root to d3 is to rotate the rook to pressure  and all of a sudden the computer goes ho lee   oh yeah this is really bad because you just  cannot defend anything like his position   is absolutely paralyzed because of the outpost  concept and the rotation of the rook and so   we get bishop d7 rook f3 and chernikov tries to  create a little bit of counter play but bishop c3   deflects the queen away and now knight takes f6 he  doesn't need this rook because if you play bishop   takes off if the knight g4 and this this rook is  hanging the king is under attack for example king   to f8 and you take and listen you crash through  the queen is not the only defender of the king   that that cannot happen okay the queen needs to  be attacking it was not made to defend right and   so in the game we get bishop to e2 which is kind  of a vague fork but after knight h7 and king g8   uh medina just finally finally finally finally  activated yet another piece this rook is just   immortal just standing here the whole time gets  taken um but in the process look at this i mean   this rook is under fire and you can't move the  rook the craziest thing about this position is   like for example if you were to move h8 becomes  a huge problem and the game ends with the   exactly that and you should look at this i mean  i mean i mean i mean ladies and gentlemen like   i'm sorry i should have been a parental advisory  warning i mean he literally sacrifices the entire   house of pieces to get to an end game much like  we saw in the tal game which would have ended   bishop and knight vs work so the beauty of these  queen sacrifices is the long-term pressure element   and the fact that they were able to ultimately  transition into positions where despite being   vaguely close in material it's just over  and actually here chennikov just resigned   why four pawn island uh well rather two pawn  islands but this pawn will definitely be lost   uh like a6 and you know something like this and  white's pawns are great very nicely positioned and   ah how about that let's go to example number three  so now we will jump to the modern era and move to   one of the most creative players of the past two  decades vasily vanchuk his opponent is sergey   kariaq in the year is 2008 the players are in  southern france i believe that is where niza is if   not i apologize please correct me in the comments  i am geographically challenged um this is a rapid   game so that means something like 25 minutes maybe  15 minutes and the evan chook in this position   plays the move e5 so what the idea of this move is  that you attack the knight and you attack this now   the beauty is that when your queen gets attacked  ivan chuk was really feeling it that day he really   did not want to have a queen on the board but it's  not yet a sacrifice because at least this is equal   danger so now he moves his queen out of the way  we have long castles by evan chuk and knight to c6   adding another layer of pressure here uh to  this uh to this knight which is pinned and   this sacrifice is potentially the most savage of  the entire video um and uh yeah it is i mean it is   like the queen gets in a car and drives full force  into a wall except well just watch queen takes e6   once again resembling your local 400 you  know chess tournament that's just a queen gun   but the knight jumps in the king is in the  middle the queen is hit the bishop is hit   so so karjakin plays the move queen to e5 which  simultaneously removes the queen from danger   defends the bishop targets this bishop uh and  uh well he doesn't take anything he just goes   for another pawn that forces the king to move to  a fate now he comes back so now the benefit here   for ivan chuk is that his opponent can no longer  castle and the king is wide out wide open right   aligned here but first he plays rook to e1 which  attacks the queen and now the queen sacrifices   itself for the rook now he didn't quite have  to do that he could have also sacrificed like   this given the queen back and maybe hit the king  on g6 but the problem is that now ivan chuk is   technically only down one piece he has night night  bishop his opponent has night night bishop bishop   but again all the open lines down the middle of  the board make this position extremely hard to   defend but kayaking takes the rook and well  ivan shook doesn't take back the queen yet   first he takes back with check then he takes the  queen and now after king takes g5 knight takes b7   we have emerged in a situation where evanchuk has  uh a bishop and three pawns for a rook uh that's   bad that's bad if you're kayaking and uh well evan  chook just very belligerently proceeded to weave a   net around this king on g5 harassing it throughout  the entirety of the game but ultimately what ends   up happening is they they transition to an end  game much as we've seen throughout this video   where white has a substantial advantage in uh  not substantial but enough of an advantage in the   material that he's able to very easily win it's  a four pawn advantage with a horse on the board   uh and some while later um after a kind of a slow  conversion process it was uh evan winning the game   but none of this could have been by the way he  went up five pawns and he kept all his pawns   which potentially is the most impressive thing  about this entire game is that he ended with   five pawns and his opponent had zero but  none of this would have been possible if   not for the absolute demolition of queen  takes e6 i mean what like when you look at   this position you think 96 maybe the problem  with this move is that this comes with check   there are many types of queen sacrifices  ladies and gentlemen yours mine and these   guys okay mine is slightly better than yours  theirs is far better than mine so you know   anyway let's move to example number four no  queen sacrifice video would be complete without   boris gelfand versus hikaru nakamura the year is  2010 we are in bursa in turkey and it's the world   team championship it's the united states against  israel and hikaru with the black pieces we have   to look at this from black's perspective because  of just how absolutely violent it is knight to h4   gets played and the idea is to go for the  base of operations which is the g2 square   here gelfin plays the move rook to e1 allows the  sacrifice but decides that he is going to get in   and take the queen right he's going to off make  this queen move but hikaru proceeds to go on a   series of moves here where he doesn't care about  his most beautiful possession first he begins with   knight takes e1 the idea being that after g2  it is mate if you take the queen that's number   one so golfing takes like this but now we have  g2 anyway so you cannot take the queen that's   self-explanatory but rook to g7 king back to h1  and bishop to h3 this threatens mate once again   if you were to take the queen the ship  to g2 would be made and black would be   checkmating white despite being down 15 points of  material and so we get bishop to f1 which defends   the diagonal the problem is now the queen flexes  its immortality once again with the absolutely   breathtaking move queen to d3 and the bishop once  again cannot take because bishop to g2 is mate   white plays knight takes e5 attacking the queen  from a different direction and guarding the f3   square but hikaru bulldozes in with bishop takes  f1 anyway because if the queen is taken in this   fashion the bishop just comes right back which  forces white to play the move queen takes f1   and now the queen finally cashes in after this  queen has been deflected there is a big fork   and a few moves later it was hikaru allowing  the promotion take stakes and queen to e6   and gelfand resigned because he has down a  horse and uh you know not all of us have a   horse but in this case being down a horse is far  less than not having one as uh hikaru would just   obviously win any middle game and any end game  ultimately but wow what a sequence of moves   um a long time fans of the channel will know  that i recently played hikaru in some training   games and i actually forgot this game that he  played and i forgot to play a critical move   but um an absolutely breathtaking sacrifice all  that began with this active operation knight to h4   sacrifice and his queen just withstood all  sorts of dangers ultimately belligerently   running headfirst into the position but uh it was  ultimately not taken and survived it's going to   be one of the rare queen sacrifices of the video  where taking it would have led to an instant death   and therefore uh wouldn't have been possible but  i had to include it because of its breathtaking   nature and the fact that the queen would stood six  six stares of death in the face and now we will   move on to the big three and when i say big three  ladies and gentlemen of course i am referring to   bobby fisher gary kasparov and magnus carlson not  in that particular order but those as far as i am   concerned are the three greatest players who ever  lived uh there is some debate who should be top   five top ten but for me it's not even close and  these guys did not speculatively sacrifice their   queens they sacrificed their queens when they  thought that they were going to be on the cusp of   victory for the most part we begin with the game  of the century donald byrne versus uh uh young   bobby fischer 13 year old bobby fischer i believe  he's 13. game played in the new york marshall   chess club and here bobby fischer sacrifices the  knight for the pawn on c3 he does this because if   queen takes c3 were to be played this bishop would  lose a guard and would very promptly be scooped   up so for that reason we got bishop to c5 and this  move is a way to get out of danger a way to attack   the queen and force it to move but here bobby  plays a nice move rook to e8 shaq which attacks   the king now the king can go to a few places  namely king to f1 is very logical and uh now it's   not so clear what to do because there's no way  for the queen to protect the knight if you take   the rook you lose the queen you move the queen you  lose the knight so what the heck are you gonna do   well you're bobby fisher you're going to sacrifice  your queen so you could end up in a youtube video   from gotham chess 65 years later bishop to e6  an absolutely beautiful move a move with so many   layers in the game the queen was taken however  you cannot take the bishop because if you take   the bishop i go queen b5 check you cannot go  to e1 because queen e2 is mate so therefore   you will go king to g1 and i will play check  king to f1 double check with queen and knight   and then i will sacrifice my queen and smother  you with your own pieces mutiny from the inside   of the castle isn't that absolutely beautiful i  would have loved it if the game ended like that   but sadly it did not knight to e2 was made and so  for that reason you cannot take the bishop on e6   you also could take the knight but here i will  play queen takes c5 with the pin on the pawn if   you take my queen i will take yours and this  position is a misery for white white is only   down one pawn and i understand that compared to  getting absolutely destroyed and smothered mated   it's one thing but you're down a pawn and you  have no activity whatsoever it's gonna take you   multiple moves to get your king out and then  i will go here and take the rest of your pawns   you will die a very slow and painful death in the  game you choose to die a very fast and fascinating   death bishop takes c4 check which i think is  better anyway isn't it just deep philosophical   question king to g1 and now bobby fischer plays  knight to e2 check king moves to f1 knight jumps   back and takes the pawn for free now we repeat now  i'm gonna go take the bishop first because your   queen is hanging and when your queen moves i will  play rook to a4 disallowing you from touching any   of my pieces once you have taken on b6 then and  only then will i take the rook i only have three   points of material but it's all i need and bobby  fischer went on to very confidently scoop up the   remaining pieces in the donald byrne army before  he converted what was an absolutely beautiful king   hunt where he forced byron's king from h2 to  b1 with a sequence of absolutely brutal checks   and the rook cutting him off on the second rank  and he did this all without a queen and delivered   mate rook to c2 13 year old bobby fischer  sacrificing his queen for a fascinating sequence   of moves that led to more material and frankly a  very very very nice day at the chessboard and now   let's move on to mr kasparov if you know anything  about chess or you're new to it the name gary   kasparov must certainly ring a bell but does  vladimir kramnik ring a bell maybe not so much   because obviously caspar was much more in the news  does have a master class very politically involved   and well frankly is regarded as the goat but  kramnik did dethrone him in the year 2000 but   we are in the year 1994. this is a blitz game  that the two played in some top tournament   and uh well kramnik is not yet kramnik kasparov  is very much kasparov and gotham chess does not   exist i was born in 1995. so i don't exist as  far as this game is concerned but that's okay   don't cry over that knight to d2 is played by  vladimir kramnik kasparov plays the very standard   knight to c5 king's indian outpost disallowing  kramnik from playing b4 having just played the   move a5 and here we get b3 and kasparov in this  position thought for a little while and said   i'm pinned but i'm gonna take now knight to e4  looks like the equivalent of a move that you play   after you know several beers or potentially  wine or harder liquor there's a group of folks   standing around and you know you're playing  some blitz and they're cheering you on and   you want to flex on everybody in the room so you  play knight to e4 lose your queen somewhere eric   rosen yells oh no my queen you take and then you  move on with life but we're talking about gary   kasparov this is a genius sacrifice so here's  the point you attack the bishop and the queen   and the queen has to go here because if it goes  to attack you you take with check and then you   will pick up the bishop so kasparov saw that the  queen had to be passive and that he would take   back he is down two points of material however  vladimir kramnik's pieces are stuck in a pathetic   rectangle now yes you would argue he has  some pawns out but none of them can move   literally two of them can literally not  move one of them can move and get taken   machine still gives you know white some chances  in this position but kramnik played the move rook   to c1 clearly clearly a little bit tilted wanting  to sacrifice another pawn to activate his own rook   but now he has no movement with his pawns he is  down another pawn so the difference of material   is only one point and after gary played the move  e4 rookie eight and f5 he just mobilized that side   of the board and the evaluation of the computer  has flipped from plus point six to minus two minus   two despite one guy not having a queen and being  down one point of material and the avalanche fell   faster and faster rook f8 rook e8 right that's  number one now that i jumps into d3 rook to g1   pawn to f4 and we are rolling because the queen is  not equipped to play defense i said this earlier   but the queen is not equipped to play defense  it's not supposed to be the defender of the   position it's not supposed to uphold all right  the the the sanity of the household right   the queen stands up to the patriarchy rook to h4  rook to f4 a little bit of repetition now we bring   in the rook and now we bring in the other rook and  kasparov won this game effortlessly knight to d3   i mean if you just look at this game it's crazy  it looks like kasparov played like uh you know in   some sort of cymbal i mean it's just an absolutely  beautiful game um and what kramnik's mistakes you   know i i suppose kramnik made a mistake to give  away uh the other pawn like maybe in this position   kremlin could have like paused for a moment and  been like all right i mean maybe i have to play f3   very slowly like out but my god is this position  absolutely brutal um i mean what more to say like   just the fact that you've had a queen sacrificed  against you like this and you have zero play   is astonishing so a beautiful sacrifice from  kasparov who ultimately ended up converting this   game by bringing in his knights and winning back  the queen and well just as is the running theme in   this video ultimately by the end of it uh material  is more or less in the balance but uh one guy has   dominant dark square coordination and  he will push his g pawn and he will win   and now ladies and gentlemen we will end our video  of queen sacrifices by looking at one by magnus   carlsen so we are in the year 2016 the setting new  york city the financial district in the seaport   magnus carlson sergey kariyakin and this is  the world championship this is the tiebreaker   round this is the potential final game of the  tiebreakers magnus carlson wins and he becomes   the world champion clearly if you look at the  position magnus carlsen is better he has up a   point of material he has rook versus bishop  but the game is far from over i mean he has   doubled h pawns number one this pawn is  very annoying his king is relatively safe   and this rook might come to e3 and maybe actually  black will get some counter play so magnus was   shuffling a little bit this is also a rapid game  time is relatively low rook to d5 rook to c7   both sides kind of not able to break through the  other because black has no way to access white's   position white doesn't really have a way to access  black's position but here karjakin got fed up he   said i'm not going to deal with this anymore my  queen is going to hang out on h4 and monitor this   area so magnus plays rook to c1 it's a very big  decision now do you trade rooks trading rooks   could be very dangerous and so karjakin plays rook  287 the danger of this is that your back rank is   very open if you take take he probably thought  he was going to suffer a long and painful death   and he was probably correct so instead he  played rook to a7 and now queen takes f4   and karjakin goes all in he plays rook to a2 the  benefit is that this queen protects the h2 pawn so   even though the rook sees it the king is able  to go to h1 now again if you trade queens you   have it looks like you have queen f4 rook  for and bishop to g5 and that is an x-ray   but because you abandoned your back rank i  will go rook to ca check and now both of my   rooks will be out of the scope of your bishop so  because of that cardiac and played queen to f2   and now we got rook to c8 and king to h7  the bishop could have also blocked but if   the bishop blocks then rook will sacrifice  and this rook and queen will bulldoze you   so karjakin played king 2h7 and probably  breathed a sigh of relief thinking he was ok   or at least that's what he thought prior  to the move rook to see it being played   when magnus carlsen shocked the entire world  probably sergey karjakin probably his fans   and spectators and delivered a move which is  the cleanest cut of a queen sacrifice that we   have seen yet in this entire video but it is  absolutely beautiful and the magnitude of the   sacrifice cannot be underappreciated and ladies  and gentlemen that move is queen to h6 check   which geometrically solves the problem of who  will win the 2016 world championship will we   have a new champion oral magnus carlson defend  for the second time and the game is over and   here karjakin resigned he did not even take  the poison because if he plays king takes h6   now we have rook to h8 mate and the king is in  a box if pawn takes rook to f7 to be cerebral   enough to spot this in the world championship  i think it's very impressive i don't care if   magnus carlsen could be potentially the greatest  player of all time so you would expect such things   but just to be cerebral enough to see this a  few moves out what a beautiful move queen to h6   glorious a move that just looks impossible to the  untrained eye it looks like you need to prepare   it but what's funny is that in this position the  circumstance is so dire for white because of all   of these threats that queen to h6 is not just a  queen sacrifice and matan2 it is the only move   so once you play rook to c8 you know what you've  signed up for the alternative is to play this move   and slowly try to attack but black will defend  this position so we end our exploration of seven   of the greatest queen sacrifices of all time in  my opinion with the move queen to h6 sealing the   deal from magnus carlsen in the 2016 world  championship match against russian sergey   karyakin and so ladies and gentlemen i hope you  enjoy those dazzling queen sacrifices we covered   from 1956 until 2016 that's 60 years of some of  the most dazzling queen sacrifices of all time   we saw seven now in the past month y'all have  probably yourselves lost seven queens maybe   not in this beautiful fashion but remember to  convince yourselves that it is really a long-term   sacrifice it was not a mistake in reality you  probably should keep your queen safe until you   are absolutely certain that you are going to  get enough material or compensation back for it   or you will be delivering a beautiful checkmate  to end up in a gotham chess youtube video   i thank you once again wholeheartedly for making  it this far in the video if you have you are   loved and appreciated do subscribe if you haven't  already there are useful links in the description   for you welcome back to the channel if you are a  long-term subscriber welcome for the first time   if this is the first video of mine that you've  watched and i will see you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 999,297

Keywords: gothamchess london, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna, queen sacrifice, queen sacrifice chess, mikhail tal, nezhmetdinov, nezhmetdinov queen sacrifice, magnus carlsen, magnus carlsen queen sacrifice, kasparov, garry kasparov, garry kasparov queen sacrifice, vassily ivanchuk, best queen sacrifice, best queen sacrifices, best queen sacrifices chess, botez gambit, botez gambit chess, queen sacrifice agadmator, queen sacrifice magnus carlsen, queen sacrifice opening

Id: _JzChhH-id0

Length: 26min 48sec (1608 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021