Lesson
White to move. Main line: 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 O-O 5. Bf4 d5 6. Qb3 dxc4 7. Qxc4 c6 8. e4 Nbd7 9. Rd1 Nb6 10. Qc5 Bg4 11. Bg5 Na4 12. Qa3 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe4 14. Bxe7 Qb6 15. Bc4 Nxc3 16. Bc5 Rfe8+ 17. Kf1 Be6 18. Bxb6 Bxc4+ 19. Kg1 Ne2+ 20. Kf1 Nxd4+ 21. Kg1 Ne2+ 22. Kf1 Nc3+ 23. Kg1 axb6 24. Qb4 Ra4 25. Qxb6 Nxd1 26. h3 Rxa2 27. Kh2 Nxf2 28. Re1 Rxe1 29. Qd8+ Bf8 30. Nxe1 Bd5 31. Nf3 Ne4 32. Qb8 b5 33. h4 h5 34. Ne5 Kg7 35. Kg1 Bc5+ 36. Kf1 Ng3+ 37. Ke1 Bb4+ 38. Kd1 Bb3+ 39. Kc1 Ne2+ 40. Kb1 Nc3+ 41. Kc1 Rc2#
The famous move is 17...Be6!!. Fischer leaves his queen on b6 under attack because taking it permits ...Bxc4+, starting a forcing sequence that drives the white king across the board.
Black receives a rook, two bishops and a lasting initiative for the queen. More important than the material count is coordination: the knights, bishops and rooks enter with check while White never gets time to organize.
The final net is exact. The knight checks force the king onto c1, and 41...Rc2# ends the game with every escape square controlled.
A thirteen-year-old against an established master
Bobby Fischer was thirteen when he beat Donald Byrne in the Rosenwald Memorial in New York in 1956. Byrne was a strong, experienced master; the result was an upset before anyone looked at the moves.
The name came from Hans Kmoch’s annotation of the game, and it stuck — helped by the fact that the winner went on to become World Champion.
The queen was never the point
The famous moment is Fischer giving up his queen. What makes it work is what he receives: a set of minor pieces that coordinate perfectly and a white king that cannot get organized.
The pieces then win the game by themselves, picking up material with a series of discovered attacks. The queen sacrifice is not a leap of faith — it is the entry point to a position where the smaller pieces simply do more work.
What to take from it as a player
The instructive part is not the sacrifice; it is the move before, when Fischer chooses activity over safety while a rank below in material.
Replaying it slowly, note how often Byrne is technically fine and practically lost — every reasonable-looking move runs into another piece that is already placed.
Coordinated minor pieces can outperform a queen when the queen has no targets.
A discovered attack is worth two moves — one piece moves, two pieces threaten.
Being objectively fine is not the same as being practically fine, and over the board only one of them saves you.
Source: The Game of the Century — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_the_Century_(chess)
Source: Bobby Fischer — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
Source: Donald Byrne — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Byrne