The Peruvian Immortal

The game, move by move

A pawn snatched

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn
2. 1… d5 The Centre Counter Black hits e4 at once and will spend the next three moves moving the queen.
3. 2. exd5 Taken
4. 2… Qxd5 The queen recaptures
5. 3. Nc3 Out, hitting the queen
6. 3… Qa5 To a5 The queen goes to the one square where she is not hit again, and where in nine moves she will take a rook and never come back.
7. 4. d4 The centre
8. 4… c6 A pawn to c6 Solid — and it opens b7 to a bishop on a6, which is how this game ends.

Development, both sides

1. 5. Nf3 Out
2. 5… Bg4 The bishop pins
3. 6. Bf4 Out
4. 6… e6 Making room
5. 7. h3 Asking the bishop h3 costs nothing and forces the trade that leaves Black without a light-squared bishop — the colour his king is about to be mated on.
6. 7… Bxf3 Taken
7. 8. Qxf3 The queen recaptures
8. 8… Bb4 A bishop to b4 Hitting the knight on c3, which is pinned to nothing and defended twice. Black is playing for a trade and White is playing for the a-file.

Black castles into it

1. 9. Be2 A quiet bishop
2. 9… Nd7 A knight to d7
3. 10. a3 A pawn to a3 It attacks the bishop, and it is also White offering the rook in the corner. Black is one move from taking it.
4. 10… O-O-O Castling the wrong way The king walks to c8 with the bishop on b4 still hanging and White’s pieces all pointing here. This is the move that loses, and it looks like the safe one.

Two rooks and a queen

1. 11. axb4 Taking the bishop
2. 11… Qxa1+ The first rook, with check Black takes a1 and is a rook up. He will be two rooks and a queen up in three moves.
3. 12. Kd2 The king steps aside Kd2 — the only move, and it puts the king somewhere the queen on h1 will never be able to reach him.
4. 12… Qxh1 The second rook Taken in the far corner, as far from the black king as a piece can be. That is the whole idea of the last four moves.
5. 13. Qxc6+ The queen, on c6 Given away to a pawn, for one reason: taking her removes the pawn from b7 and opens the diagonal to the king.
6. 13… bxc6 It cannot be refused
7. 14. Ba6# Checkmate Boden’s mate: two bishops crossing, and the king walled in by his own rook and pawn. White has given up both rooks and the queen, in a simultaneous display, against a man whose name nobody wrote down.