# What is a brilliant move in chess?

> A brilliant move (!!) is a strong move that is hard to find, most often a sacrifice: material is given up on purpose and the position gets better for it.

25…gxf6?! 26.Rg1!! 26…fxg5?

After 25...gxf6, White leaves the knight on g5 to be taken and quietly brings the rook to the open g-file with 26.Rg1. Taking it with 26...fxg5 opens the file for the queen, and 27.Qxg5+ mates next move. From a game between two players rated around 1250.

A brilliant move is the kind you remember: it looks like a mistake, it often gives up a piece, and it turns out to be the best thing on the board. In annotated games it is marked with !!, and in a game review it gets its own badge.

## What does !! mean in chess?

Chess writers have used !! for a long time to mark an exceptional move that is hard to find, and they hand it out rarely. A single ! means a good move. Game reviews on sites like chess.com borrowed the symbol and turned it into a label of their own.

## What makes a move brilliant?

A brilliant move usually has these things in common:

- It is one of the best moves in the position
- It gives up material on purpose, most often a piece
- The sacrifice holds up: your opponent can take, but comes out worse
- It is hard to see, because at first glance it looks like a blunder

Chess.com describes its own label as a good piece sacrifice that is the best or nearly the best move. A 2024 study from the University of Toronto, which asked what makes players call a move brilliant, points the same way: the moves that feel brilliant look bad at first and turn out strong when you look deeper.

## Does a brilliant move have to be a sacrifice?

Nearly always something is given up. It can be a piece left where it can be taken, a capture that loses material on purpose, or a rook given for a bishop or a knight. The sacrifice does not have to take anything, and the piece given up is not always the one that moved: sometimes a quiet move leaves another piece hanging, and taking it is what loses.

What a brilliant move is not is a move that only looks spectacular. A sacrifice that does not hold up is a blunder, however bold it was.

## Brilliant, great or best: what is the difference?

| Label | What it usually means |
| --- | --- |
| Brilliant | A strong move that is hard to find, most often a sacrifice |
| Great | The only good move, or the one that punishes your opponent’s mistake |
| Best | The strongest move in the position, with nothing special about it |
| Blunder | The other end of the scale: a move that throws the game away |

For the other end of the scale, see [what counts as a blunder](https://chesslord.app/resources/what-is-a-blunder-in-chess).

## What do brilliant moves look like?

Most brilliant moves follow a few patterns. Here are three from real games on chess.com, each with the sacrifice and the reply that takes it.

### Setting up a pin

37.Ne1?? 37…Rxe3!! 38.Qxe3

37.Ne1 takes the knight away from e3. Black gives up the rook for the bishop with 37...Rxe3. After 38.Qxe3 the bishop comes to c5 and pins the queen to the king on g1, so White loses the queen for a bishop. From a game between two players rated around 1430.

### Stripping the king

30.Rg2?? 30…Rxb2+!! 31.Nxb2

After 30.Rg2, Black is still worse and throws a rook onto b2 with check. After 31.Nxb2 the other rook follows with 31...Rxb2+, the white king loses its cover, and mate is only a few moves away. From a game between two players rated around 1850.

### Pulling the king away

29…Kd8 30.Bc7+!! 30…Kxc7

With 29...Kd8 the black king steps in front of White’s pawn. 30.Bc7+ offers the bishop to pull the king away, and after 30...Kxc7 the pawn queens with 31.d8=Q+, backed by the rook on d1. From a game between two players rated around 1350.

## What are the most famous brilliant moves?

Some brilliant moves are so well known that players recognise them by name:

- Paul Morphy’s 16.Qb8+ in the Opera Game, Paris 1858, a queen sacrifice that forces 16...Nxb8 and ends with 17.Rd8 mate
- Bobby Fischer’s 17...Be6 in the Game of the Century, New York 1956, played at 13, which gives up his queen and wins the game
- Alexei Shirov’s 47...Bh3 against Veselin Topalov, Linares 1998, a bishop sacrifice in an endgame and one of the most famous moves ever played

## Can beginners play brilliant moves?

Yes. The patterns behind brilliant moves are the same at every level, and what changes with experience is how often you spot them. This one comes from a game between two players rated around 640.

### A discovered attack

24.a4? 24…Bxh2+!! 25.Kxh2

After 24.a4, Black gives up the bishop with 24...Bxh2+. After 25.Kxh2 the rook on d8 suddenly sees down the file and takes the knight with 25...Rxd2, and a game that was slipping away is level again.

## Why didn’t my sacrifice count as brilliant?

Because a sacrifice is not brilliant just for being a sacrifice. If your opponent can take the piece and come out ahead, it was a blunder, however good it looked. If you were already winning easily, giving material away is not special. And every site uses its own label, so the same move can get !! on one review and not on another.

## Does Lichess show brilliant moves?

No. Lichess’s computer analysis marks inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders, but it has no brilliant label: players add !! by hand in their studies. Chesslord reviews your Lichess games too, and marks the brilliant moves in them just as it does in chess.com games.

## How do you play more brilliant moves?

Brilliant moves are not luck. They come from a few habits that make you see the sacrifice instead of throwing it out.

### Look at every check and capture, even the ones that lose material

Brilliant moves hide behind the thought that it cannot work. Before you throw out a sacrifice, play it through in your head: what does your opponent have to do, and what do you get?

### Look for a defender doing two jobs

A piece that guards two things can only keep one of them. Giving up material to make it choose is how many brilliant moves start.

### Look for pins and a king that cannot move

A pinned piece and a king stuck guarding a square are weaknesses. A sacrifice that removes the pinning piece or pulls the king away often wins on the spot.

### Count before you sacrifice

Work out what you get back before you give anything away. A sacrifice that never pays you back is just a lost piece.

### Do tactics puzzles

Most brilliant moves are patterns you have seen before. Puzzles make them faster to spot in your own games.

Then look back at your own games. Chesslord’s [insights](https://chesslord.app/chess-insights) collect the brilliant moves you played, each in its position, and a [game review](https://chesslord.app/chess-com-game-review) walks you through any game move by move.

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[Stats from your games](https://chesslord.app/chess-insights)

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