White vs Black
The shortest game there is · Traditional · 0–1
Two moves, both of them White’s, and the game is over before a piece has been touched.
- Opening
- Barnes Opening (A00)
- Moves
- 2 (4 half-moves)
- Ends in
- checkmate on Qh4#
The game, move by move
Two moves
- 1. f3 The f-pawn, one square It does nothing for the centre, and it opens the diagonal from e1 to h4 — the one line a king cannot afford to have opened in front of him.
- 1… e5 A centre pawn Black takes the middle and, without meaning anything by it, lets his queen out.
- 2. g4 And the g-pawn The second and last mistake. g4 abandons f3 and g2, and there is now no square on that diagonal where anything of White’s can stand.
- 2… Qh4# Checkmate The queen comes out once and the game is over. She covers f2 herself; d1, e2, d2 and f1 are all White’s own men, sitting on their opening squares, having never been asked to move.
How it ends
Qh4 covers f2 and White's own bishop on f1, queen on d1, pawn on e2 and pawn on d2 are in the way.
White gave up nothing; Black lost nothing.
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