The Funniest Rook Moves Ever Played
We continue our discussion about the funniest, craziest moves ever played and today it is the rook's turn.
While it is difficult for me to choose the funniest rook move ever played, I know for sure what was the funniest rook move that was not played, or to be precise, which was never completed.
Many decades ago GM Gufeld played an open tournament and his opponent was a young, attractive lady. At some point, Gufeld executed a standard combination, which was supposed to lead to a back-rank checkmate.
But when Gufeld lifted his rook to complete his intended move Rd1-d8, which would checkmate his opponent, he realized to his horror that his combination had a major flaw: the key d8 square was covered.
No, it wasn't attacked by any of his opponent's pieces, but since the lady was very curvaceous, the d8 square was literally covered! So Gufeld's rook froze in mid-air since the grandmaster didn't know what to do.
Fortunately for him, his opponent realized what was going on and just resigned the game. Of course, just like many of Gufeld's stories, this one should be taken with a grain of salt.
If we talk about real rook moves in real games, it is not that easy to find our champion. The problem is, most of the beautiful rook moves are so well known that they don't shock you anymore. Take for example the next famous game.
I bet you'll enjoy finding Black's combination if you never saw it before. If you've seen it thousands times since your childhood, you'll still enjoy it, but the shock value of the first move will be gone.