He forced 11-move checkmate with no Queen. You won’t believe this.

Watching this video will tell you if you love chess or not. A Symphony of chess pieces will amuse your senses.

The Game is
Alexander Hoffman vs Alexander Petroff, 1844

I stream Chess 6 days a week ►

My Socials:

Join our thriving Discord Community for Chess Players only ►

[ClaudeSpeed]

The queen was the group member who made up an excuse for not helping

[iinmfkx]

"blocking the king out of anything that has to with the letter F"💀💀
Poor queen....💀

[Doggy]

after 6 minutes of yapping bro says “but that didn’t happen”

[migsvlog]

damn. imagine being his opponent and getting checkmated like that, i wouldnt even play after that dude i would quit💀

[dragstoneg]

What a nightmare for his opponent, but already knew it ❤

[ClearReception]

You're enthusiasm for chess is infectious! Great video!

[danielkevin]

I am sorry, but this game was so mind blowing that I felt like crying tears of joy. Great content and great work!

[_RDMPTN]

I don't think he calcualted mate in 11, rather he saw a strong opportunity in sacrificing his Queen and ran with it.

[gheffz]

96 accuracy (and I think that depends on the bot) for 1844 ... as you say, what an incredible incredible game! Thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen this game and it was a treat!... I was unaware, I and I realised I shouldn't of been, that they played amazing chess centuries ago! I was under the impression this level of play didn't come into the landscape until Morphy. Petroff really did play this game like a bot!

[harry]

Such a beautiful game and analysis Zach, love the videos like this, keep up the great work alright. Doing great things as always.

[joescott]

Very cool! It also seems like, at 3:35, black's knight to F5 could result in some perilous queen-forking opportunities.

[Kamilistgud]

Funny thing is my first briliant move was a castle. I left my bishop hanging and then my opponent took it after that i could have moved my rook underneath his queen and pin it with my rook ofc that didn't happen but it was a cool briliant

[revengepassant]

The fact he calculated that is crazzyyyy, good vid as always :)

[robradomski]

Trying to watch chess matches while he commentates is just brutal. He could be done in less than 4 minutes but instead it stretched out to 14 ? Haha. I tried but just couldnt

[johns]

I never would have thought to castle and queen sacrifice in that position, in 100 years. I never would have seen/thought I could checkmate from there.

[Nufetto]

11:43 for anyone wondering the best move for white according to the engine in that position to get a mate in 13 instead of a mate in 8 was not, in fact, knight to e6, but knight to d7, which black would respond by taking the knight with the rook with xf7, and after that white would move the pawn to g3, then black would move the knight to d4 with a discovered check from the c8 light square bishop, so white's supposedly best move now would be king to g5, but then black would follow up with rook to f5 check, and since it's protected by the d4 knight it cannot be taken, after that, white's only 2 legal moves are either Kg4 or Kh4, of which Kg4 is the best one for the engine, to which black would respond to rook f4 check, and since the bishop pins the g3 pawn to the king, white can only go to h5 since Kg5 would be mate in 11 instead of mate in 13 _(knight to e6 check, king to h5 since it's the only legal move, pawn to g6 checking the king once again, followed up by Kh6, again, another forced move, which black would respond to with bishop to e3, since even if the white pawn were to take the f4 rook it'd still be mate with bishop takes back, so even if white were to instead of taking the rook with the pawn, move the h1 rook to e1, black can simply move the rook to h4 and it'd be mate)_ and then black would proceed with rook to f4, protected by the f2 bishop pinning the g3 pawn from taking it, leading to white's best move, according to the engine, be Kh5, giving the chance for black to check the king with pawn to g6, forcing white to go along with Kh6 _(Kg5 is also a legal move, however, that'd be a mate in 12 and not in 13, since the game would just proceed with knight to e6 check, this time leaving white with no other legal moves except Kh6, giving away the chance for black to respond with bishop to e6, and at this point, funnily enough, since white can't stop the checkmate no matter what, the engine grades every single of white's legal moves as the best move, since black just needs to move the f4 rook literally anywhere it can go for checkmate)_ whereas black should move the f2 bishop to e3, finally giving white some breathing space from all the checks, and therefore allowing them to finally move their queen to b3, checking the black king, that too, however, won't last long as the black knight takes the b3 square, once again a silent move. Now, white could take the knight back, however, that'd force checkmate simply with rook to h4, so instead, white should move the king to g5, avoiding just that, but still not safe for the forced check in 2 that's about to come from black with rook to g4, forcing the king to f6, and then FINALLY, checkmate with bishop to g5. One might think that black is either some sort of seer or just gave up the queen for the goofs lmao...

[Lovuschka]

8:23 Note that after Rf3+ to make the checkmate more beatufiul, White has g3 (instead of gxf3), blocking the f2-h4 diagonal.

[hfontanez]

The analogy to a school project was both accurate and funny as hell; especially the part of the late contributor. Nicely done! I'm subscribing now.

[phanindrakumar]

Its all about how active pieces we have than compares to how powerful pieces opponent have🎉great game by legends

[JatinsSerenade]

Damn! That silent castle move requires hours to calculate.