What is a brilliant move in chess?
A brilliant move is a good sacrifice: you leave material where your opponent can take it, and the engine agrees it was the right thing to do.
See Morphy’s 13.Rxd7!! → The Opera Game, Paris 1858: a rook given for a knight, and mate four moves later.
What makes a move brilliant
Four things have to be true at once:
- It gives up material. After the move, the opponent can win at least a minor piece for a pawn, once you take off anything the move itself captured. Material you would lose whatever you played, say to a fork, doesn't count. Often nothing new is offered: a piece that was already attacked is simply left where it is while you play something stronger.
- It's sound. The engine rates it as the best move, or within a whisker of it. A sacrifice that just loses material is a blunder, however dramatic it looks.
- It doesn't leave you losing. You can be a little worse after the move, but not lost.
- It wasn't needless. If another move forced mate, you had no reason to give material away.
Giving up pawns doesn't count. A gambit can be excellent chess, but a brilliant move has to put a piece on the line.
Brilliant, best and great
A best move is the engine's top choice. A brilliant move is a best (or near-best) move that is also a sacrifice. So every brilliant move is a good move, but most best moves are quiet ones nobody would call brilliant.
Some review tools also mark great moves: the only move that holds, or the one that turns a game around. Those don't need a sacrifice. Chess Compass's review doesn't mark great moves. Its grades are brilliant, best, good, inaccuracy, mistake and blunder.
Famous brilliant moves
- Morphy's 13.Rxd7 and 16.Qb8+ (the Opera Game, 1858). A rook for a knight to rip open the d-file, then the queen given away outright so the last rook can mate on d8.
- The smothered mate: 1.Qg8+!! Rxg8 2.Nf7#. The queen is given up to make the rook block its own king's last square. See the pattern on the smothered mate page.
Why your brilliant moves get rarer as you improve
The same sacrifice isn't judged identically at every level. Players rated under 1400 get a little more room: a sacrifice slightly short of the engine's best still counts. Higher up, it has to be very close to the best move. (The rating comes from the game's PGN; without one, the stricter standard applies.)
Keep going
Game review
Review a game and see its brilliant moves, best moves and blunders.
Smothered mate
The most famous brilliant pattern, and puzzles to practice it.
Analysis board
Put a sacrifice on the board and see what the engine makes of it.
Frequently asked questions
What does !! mean in chess?
It is the annotation for a brilliant move. The others: ! is a good move, !? interesting, ?! dubious, ? a mistake and ?? a blunder.
Why didn't my sacrifice count as brilliant?
Usually one of five reasons: the engine found a better move, only pawns were at stake, the piece would have been lost whatever you played, you were losing afterwards, or another move forced mate anyway. Open the move on the analysis board and check the engine's lines to see which.
Can I find my brilliant moves for free?
Yes. Paste a Chess.com or Lichess game link, or a PGN, and open the Report panel. It counts each player's brilliant moves alongside their best moves, inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders, and the move list marks every brilliant move with a teal circle. You don't need an account.
Do pawn sacrifices count?
No. A brilliant move has to put at least a minor piece at stake. Gambits and pawn sacrifices can still be the best move, but they aren't marked brilliant.