23...Qg3 in Levitsky v. Marshall (Breslau 1912)   I don't completely disagree. Thoughts?

It was a great move, would you have seen it?  It's certainly one of the most famous moves in chess history, but probably not the greatest move ever made. BTW Marshall says in his Best Games of Chess that yes, the board was showered with gold coins after he made the move BUT he fails to mention the coins weren't for him - they were tossed out by disgusted gamblers who had bet on Levitsky to win since he had previously beaten Lasker and Rubinstein (I think) in the same tnmt.

The most over-rated move in chess.com history is 2. Ke2

Fixed.

Dueds

Attempts were made to find corroborating evidence for this fact, but unfortunately all the spectators said they had been momentarily distracted by the herd of pink elephants that were flying past.

I have got some canidates ...

• Bobby Fischers Queen sac in the Game of the Century (20th).
• Andersson Immortal game, 18. Bd6!
• Classic game by Paul Morphy, Qxb8 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404

• There is a famous game from the Steinitz Zukerhort world championship match that often shows up in chess puzzles.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1228294

Bxh6 is overrated.

1. d4

Shirov's 47...Bh3 vs Topalov, Linares 1998

Great move? Yes. Greatest move? No

1...e5

This sort of conversation always leaves me wondering how other people play chess. Marshall almost certainly didn't see 23. ... Qg3 on move 23 and go "oh, that looks good guess I'll play that." He saw it moves earlier (how much earlier only he can now) and he played down that line knowing he had that continuation. That is a very hard move to see from the board position on move 18 or 19.

I doubt many non-masters could be given the Marshall game at move 18 and suggest all the winning continuations from there for Marshall and provide the correct analysis that leads to better positions. To then judge the move as "over rated" when you could never have gotten to that position in the first place requires such an amazing level of unsupported ego and hubris I just don't get it.

Do you look at Kasparov's games and think "Oh, well that's nothing special. I could do that" while nursing 1600 OTB ratings?

Still extremely difficult to believe. A) why would the audience members have gold coins, since that probably wasn't their currency? (B) After losing money on a bet, what sane person would throw away a bunch of additional money in the form of gold coins (which would be worth a lot of money) out of disgust? Throwing the equivalent of pennies or low-value coins is very plausible though. Perhaps the tale got exaggerated from bronze coins to gold coins.

nah i dont think so, even so its not hard to understand and do it. its pretty seldom and therefore pretty hard to see. i never got such a position or i always overlooked it. i think its pretty nice in its simplicity

i dont find fischers queen sac overrated, but i dont know of the others... bxh7 is just essential...

in my tournament of the best chess moves ever played (link below) I have found that Tal's h5!! in Portisch-Tal is relatively unknown, and when people saw it for the first time, they treated it like an amazing new discovery and it made it all the way to the finals, only to be defeated by Levitzky-Marshall, another overrated move.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-players/tournament-to-determine-the-best-chess-moves-ever-played