How To Get Your First Brilliant Move: The Complete Guide

There's just something satisfying about seeing those two white exclamation points on a brilliant teal background. It's even more satisfying to see a move - YOUR move - light up in teal and see a little brilliant symbol show up on your screen. Many people have experienced this pleasure, this sense of accomplishment, and others haven't. So whether you're trying to get your first or trying to add to your portfolio, you're in the right place. Let's jump in!

What Is a Brilliant Move?

Chess.com's brilliant move algorithm is, well, a secret, but but it is widely recognized that a brilliant move follows these criterion:

A brilliant move must be...

A Sacrifice: A brilliant move is almost always a sacrifice. It can be of a major piece, minor piece, pawn, or even an exchange where your opponent seemingly gains material.

A Unique or Difficult to Spot Move: A brilliant move must be a move that requires deep foresight and calculation.

The Best Move in the Position: A brilliant move must be the best move in your position and lead to significant gains or even a checkmate.

Gains Are Not Immediately Obvious: Tactical gains from a brilliant move should not be initially apparent and should delve many moves ahead.

Important Consideration

In your quest to get a brilliant move, it is important to take into account these important points:

Brilliant Moves Get Harder the Higher Rated You Are: Brilliant moves are moves that the ordinary player your level would not see. Therefore a move that may be brilliant for a 400-rated player may not be brilliant for a 1100-rated player.

Brilliant Moves Must Have a 100% Chance Of Success: Brilliant moves are analyzed by Stockfish, so any, even hard-to-see consequences, will  disqualify you and your move might even turn out to be a blunder. No risk taking!

So, How Do I Get One?

Glad you asked! There are many ways to get a brilliant move. Below you will find a sacrifice guide, brilliant gambits, and tips.

Method One: Sacrifice

The Guide To Sacrifices

Read on to find out about common sacrifices!

Pawn Sacrifices: Pawn Sacrifices open lines or expose the king using pawns.

The Four D's of Sacrifices: The four D's of sacrifices are Decoy, Deflect, Distract, and Destroy Cover. 

Minor Piece Sacrifices: Sacrificing a knight or bishop to gain an advantage

Exchange Sacrifices: To sacrifice a rook for a bishop or knight, leading to a tactical advantage

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How To Spot A Sacrifice                                                                               

Take a look at your position. Are there any attacks you can perform? Is there a piece that is getting in the way? Try sacrificing a piece to lure it away. It just might be brilliant! Are there some temporary  sacrifices that can win material later on? Try them! In an endgame, especially for lower-rated players, sacrificing a pawn to create a passed pawn can be brilliant as well.

Can you spot the brilliant sacrifice I (965-rated) played against my opponent?

Sacrifice Examples

Below are some sacrifices stemming from common positions that are easy to remember and are likely brilliant.

                       1. The Greek Gift

  The idea of the Greek Gift is simple: Sacrifice a bishop to expose a castled king. To my knowledge, this is brilliant at least up to 12-1300 elo but it definitely could be more.

                         2. Deflection Sacrifice

In this sacrifice, you sacrifice a piece to deflect your opponent's piece and win material.

Above is an example of this sacrifice. White sacrifices its rook, forcing black to capture and promoting.

                                3. Stalemate Sacrifice

A stalemate sacrifice is a sacrifice used to force a draw from a losing position. Above, White's rook is the only moveable piece, so if captured the game is drawn even though black is up serious material. This particular sequence gave white 3 brilliants, but some have gotten up to 13 using this tactic.

Method 2: Use a Gambit

There are plenty of gambits that will get you that brilliant. I have linked one below and will explain the other.

                                1. The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Gambit

(Click the link above. It will redirect you to my blog post on this gambit)The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Gambit involves sacrificing two pieces to win a queen and can lead to up to two brilliant moves! While I encourage you to read the whole thing, as there are many sneaky responses, the uninterrupted gambit can be found in the conclusion of the linked article.

                                2. The Alien Gambit