Black's King Takes a Long Walk: Wei Yi's Famous Attack at 16

Illustration of Wei Yi at the chessboard. This is not a real picture of him, and the board shown is not a position from a real game.

Let us start with a puzzle. It is White's move in the position below. Black's knight has just taken White's knight on d5. The easy move is to take the knight back with the e-pawn. Is there something much stronger? Look at the pawn on f7, right in front of White's rook. You will meet this position in the game below.

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White to move. Black's knight on d5 has just taken a white knight. White's rook on f1 faces the black pawn on f7, and White's queen is on h3. What should White play?

Analyze this position in the full game

The player with White was Wei Yi from China. He was 16 years old. The player with Black was Lázaro Bruzón, a grandmaster from Cuba. They met at a grandmaster tournament in Danzhou, on the island of Hainan in China, in July 2015.

A Boy from Jiangsu

Wei Yi was born on 2 June 1999 in Yancheng, in the Jiangsu province of China. He won titles early.

• As a boy he won a world school championship for players under 11.
• In 2010 he won the World Youth Championship for players under 12.
• In 2013 he became a grandmaster at 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the youngest in China's history at that time.
• In 2014 he played for China at the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway, and China won the team gold medal.
• In March 2015, at 15, he became the youngest player ever, up to then, to reach a rating of 2700.
• In May 2015, still 15, he won the Chinese Championship.

He kept climbing as a grown player. In 2024 he won the Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands, one of the oldest and strongest tournaments in chess, and in 2025 he reached the final of the World Cup.

The Game: Wei Yi vs. Lázaro Bruzón, Danzhou 2015

Wei Yi 1-0 Lázaro Bruzón 6th Hainan Danzhou GM Tournament · Danzhou 2015 · Round 2 White: Wei Yi · Black: Lázaro Bruzón

Getting ready to attack

The game began as a Sicilian Defense, where Black answers 1.e4 with 1...c5. Both sides castled on the kingside. Wei Yi then moved his queen to the kingside, close to Black's king.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.Be2 Nc6 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Qc7 7.O-O Nf6 8.Be3 Be7 9.f4 d6 10.Kh1 O-O 11.Qe1 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Qg3 Bb7 14.a3 Rad8 15.Rae1 Rd7 16.Bd3 Qd8 17.Qh3 g6 18.f5 e5

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Position after 18...e5, with White to move. White's queen on h3, rook on f1 and pawn on f5 all point at Black's kingside. Black's king is on g8.

Analyze this position in the full game

Look at White's pieces: the queen on h3, the rook on f1 behind the f-pawn, and the bishop on d3. All of them point toward Black's king. For the first 18 moves our own Stockfish 17.1 run, at depth 22, had White a little better, by about one pawn.

The knight jumps in

19.Be3 Re8 20.fxg6 hxg6 21.Nd5

White took on g6, and when Black's h-pawn took back, White's queen on h3 could now reach h7. Then Wei Yi put his knight on d5, in the middle of the board. Black can take it with the knight from f6, and that is what Bruzón did.

21...Nxd5

This capture was the big mistake of the game. Our engine's choice for Black was 21...Bxd5, taking with the bishop instead, and after that White would only be a little better. After 21...Nxd5, our engine had White ahead by about four pawns. Now we are at the puzzle.

The rook sacrifice

22.Rxf7

The answer to the puzzle is 22.Rxf7, and it was our engine's first choice too. White gives up a whole rook for a pawn. If White takes back the knight with 22.exd5 instead, our engine has Black a little better. So the easy move was not the right one.

22...Kxf7 23.Qh7+ Ke6 24.exd5+

Black took the rook, and now his king had to come out. White's queen gave check on h7, the king went to e6, and White's pawn took the knight on d5 with check.

Black had three moves here, and one of them loses at once. You will try this position at the end of the article.

24...Kxd5 25.Be4+ Kxe4

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Position after 25...Kxe4, with White to move. Black's king has taken White's bishop and stands on e4, deep in White's half of the board. White is down a rook and a bishop.

Analyze this position in the full game

Wei Yi gave up his bishop too, just to pull the king forward. Count the pieces: White has a queen, one rook and one bishop. Black has a queen, two rooks and two bishops. White is behind by a rook and a bishop, but our engine had White ahead by about seven pawns. A king in the middle of the enemy's pieces is worth more than all that wood.

The quiet move

26.Qf7

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Position after 26.Qf7, with Black to move. White's queen has moved to f7. It gives no check, but White now threatens checkmate in more than one way.

Analyze this position in the full game

This move gives no check and takes nothing. But look at what it threatens. Qf3 would be checkmate. Some bishop moves, such as Bf2, would also be checkmate, because the bishop would get out of the way and the rook on e1 would give check down the e-file. A quiet move that makes two threats at once is very hard to stop.

Chasing the king

26...Bf6 27.Bd2+ Kd4 28.Be3+ Ke4 29.Qb3 Kf5 30.Rf1+ Kg4 31.Qd3 Bxg2+ 32.Kxg2 Qa8+ 33.Kg1 Bg5 34.Qe2+ Kh4 35.Bf2+ Kh3 36.Be1

Black's king kept running, from e4 to d4, back to e4, then to f5, g4, h4 and finally h3. White's pieces chased it all the way. After 32.Kxg2, our engine found a forced checkmate for White.

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Final position, after 36.Be1. Black's king started the game on g8 and is now on h3, in White's half of the board.

Analyze this position in the full game

In the final position our engine finds checkmate for White in at most six moves, whatever Black plays. The game ended there with a win for Wei Yi. Black's king had walked from g8 to h3, almost the whole way across the board.

What to Learn from This Game

• The easy capture is not always best. 22.exd5 took back the knight, but 22.Rxf7 was much stronger.
• A king in the open is in danger. Once Black's king left its pawns, White's pieces could check it again and again.
• Material is not everything. White was down a rook and a bishop, but his pieces were all attacking, and Black's were not helping the king.
• Look for quiet moves in an attack. 26.Qf7 gave no check, but it made two threats of checkmate.

A Position to Try

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Wei Yi's game, after 24.exd5+, with Black to move. Black's king on e6 is in check. Black has three moves: 24...Kf6, 24...Kxd5 and 24...Bxd5. Which one loses at once?

Analyze this position in the full game

24...Kf6 loses at once to 25.Qxg6, checkmate. Bruzón played 24...Kxd5, and the king went on its long walk. Our engine's choice was 24...Bxd5, taking with the bishop, but even then it had White ahead by about four pawns.

A Champion Who Started Young

Wei Yi became a grandmaster at 13 and the champion of China at 15. In this game, played a month after his 16th birthday, he gave up a rook and a bishop to bring Black's king out of its corner, and then chased it across the whole board.