Articles
The Craziest King Moves Ever

The Craziest King Moves Ever

Gserper
| 44 | Other

In one of my recent articles, I mentioned a funny story where an illegal king move was played, which made me wonder: what are the craziest king moves in the history of chess?

So here I am presenting the games where such moves were made. In order to be considered, the king moves should be:

  1. Legal
  2. Good
  3. Crazy

I mean really crazy -- the move that would be the last that comes to your mind when you look at the position!

Unfortunately, it immediately disqualifies the Bogo-King's Indian move from the above-mentioned article, since it is illegal. That's really a shame as that would be definitely the craziest king move in the history of chess:

 

The following game, which also had a touch-move accident, gets disqualified too since the king move was very bad:

Wikipedia explains that at that time, the rule required the player who played an illegal move to move his king. In this game, White played an illegal move and therefore was forced to move his king, where he was promptly checkmated.

The craziest king move I have ever seen is both legal and strong.

Unfortunately, it wasn't played in a real game and was just a brainchild of a famous composer, Sam Loyd. We already analyzed this puzzle in this article. Try to solve this problem on your own. White starts and checkmates Black's king in three moves.

If you cannot solve this problem, think what would be the most ridiculous move in that position happy.png

You would agree that the first move of the solution is the most unlikely move to play and that's what I call crazy.
Now let me present my favorite three king moves played in tournament games:
I was playing next to this game and therefore saw this famous move live. I was so impressed by the unexpected king move in a well-known position that called it the "novelty of the century" in an article I wrote for a magazine.  
As time passed, I still like the move, but considering it was all Karpov's home preparation, I rate Petrosian's move in the following game higher.
The crazy king move forward, towards the whole of White's army, impresses even more if you consider that White was Kasparov -- probably the most dangerous attacking player in history!
When we talk about crazy king moves, it is difficult to miss the next game. It wasn't just a king move; it was a crazy king hike!
These are the games that popped up in my mind first, but I won't be surprised if I missed some spectacular others. 
What's your favorite king move?

Update: Many readers mentioned the game Khismatullin - Eljanov. Thank you! How could I forget?
More from GM Gserper
Learn How To Spot Winning Tactics With "Mr. Chess Combinations"

Learn How To Spot Winning Tactics With "Mr. Chess Combinations"

The Most Important Tactical Pattern In Chess

The Most Important Tactical Pattern In Chess