CHESS HISTORY

1991 (Interpolis tournament, round 4) · Tilburg

The King Walk: Short vs Timman, Tilburg 1991, the king that walks to mate

The King Walk is a 1991 game from Tilburg in which Nigel Short, playing White, moved his king up the board with 33.Kf4!! and 34.Kg5!! to deliver mate. It is one of the most unusual attacks in modern chess: the king, normally the weakest piece, walks in and mates.

Date
1991 (Interpolis tournament, round 4)
Place
Tilburg
Players
Nigel Short (White) vs Jan Timman (Black)
Result
1-0
Opening
Middlegame from move 22 (the course starts after 22.Be3)
On Chess History
You play Short, and the king is the piece that walks

Play the story Interactive: the moves, the characters, the endings to find.

A king in the middle of the board

In the middlegame the king is usually kept safe, but in this game the White king could walk up the board to join the attack, because Black’s pieces were tied up. The story the course tells is literal: the king sets off on a walk, narrated from a balloon.

The key idea is that Black’s bishop on b7 is pinned to the knight, and after 31…Bc8? Ng5! the knight is free. The engine rates 32.Kg3 and 33.Kf4 as the moves that make the walk possible.

The finish

33.Kf4!! is the move that surprises: the king is in the middle of the board, and only one line wins. 34.Kg5!! is the only mate, and the course shows that Black’s alternative 34…Bxd7 35.Kh6 ends in 36.Qg7#.

The lesson is that the king can be an attacking piece when the opponent has no checks and no way to trade. Study the position before you decide where the king is safe.

Questions and answers

What is the King Walk?

A 1991 game in which Nigel Short walked his king into the centre of the board to mate Jan Timman in Tilburg.

What is the most famous king move?

33.Kf4!!, followed by 34.Kg5!!, the only mate in the line.

Is the King Walk a real game?

Yes. It was played in the Interpolis tournament at Tilburg in 1991, round 4. The course uses the score of that game from move 22.

Sources and checks

  • Short–Timman, Tilburg 1991, Interpolis round 4 (Lichess study; Free Press Journal annotation)
  • Engine check on this site: Stockfish 17 (depth 20-22)

The moves on this page are checked for legality, and the engine evaluations come from Stockfish 17. Where a game is more legend than fact, the story says so.

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