Jon once wandered into a little chess-reading spell and landed on Deep Blue, Bobby Fischer, and the legendary Game of the Century. So here is a velvet-curtain replay room where you can step through the attack, feel the pressure build, and test whether you would have spotted the deliciously rude queen sacrifice.
The Grünfeld begins politely enough. Byrne owns space. Fischer is already laying traps.
After 10...Bg4
Black is behind in space, ahead in menace. Byrne's queen is starting to feel less like a queen and more like an exposed celebrity.
Fischer invites Byrne's queen forward, then keeps nudging it toward awkward squares until it becomes a tactical liability.
The first thunderclap. A knight lurches to the rim and somehow everything gets sharper instead of sillier.
Material is treated like kindling. Fischer throws pawns and pieces into the fire to pry open lines against the uncastled king.
17...Be6!! is the kind of move that makes bystanders walk over to the board. It looks illegal to common sense and perfectly legal to genius.
After the queen comes off, Black's rooks, bishops, and knight form a machinery of checks so coordinated that White's queen becomes an expensive bystander.
You're at move 17. White has just played Kf1 and is threatening Black's queen. Choose the move that turned this game immortal.
Tell him this is a boss battle where the villain throws away his fanciest weapon because the rest of the team is already in perfect position.