How To Paint The Mona Lisa Checkmate

"You guys are not going to see a nastier thing on the chessboard, maybe in your lifetime." That's what GM Aman Hambleton said right after delivering what is, without exaggeration, probably one of the most incredible checkmates the world has ever seen.

You guys are not going to see a nastier thing on the chessboard, maybe in your lifetime.
— GM Aman Hambleton

The clip of Aman's checkmate has quickly gone viral, with recaps by Gothamchess, Agadmator, and others. In a recent blitz game, when his IM opponent declined to resign in a totally lost position, Hambleton promoted all the pawns he had left to fully remake the starting setup of the white pieces. However, he was just getting started. Hambleton premoved a 20-move sequence to force a checkmate by re-setting his entire army in their starting squares in the end. 

The most incredible thing about this unique checkmate is that Hambleton had the final 20 moves figured out entirely in advance. He played the entire sequence and then waited as his opponent's king walked forward to its demise, and right in the nick of time, too! Aman finished the game with only 0.9 seconds on his clock. You can watch him do it here.

But how could the grandmaster do it? How did he know what to premove to create his "Mona Lisa?" Well, if you want to recreate this masterpiece yourself, here are the paint-by-numbers steps to do it.

1. Win a lot of material and promote all of your pawns to reset your back rank

This was the position that Hambleton achieved in his game. Note that your bishops have to be on opposite-colored squares when you promote!

2. Bring your queen to g2

Now, Aman mentioned that you can't pre-move step two because it's important to avoid stalemate or a premature checkmate. You need to be a bit careful how your queen gets to g2. For instance, if the black king had been on g3, then Aman's Qd1-e2 would have been a stalemate. He explained that he knew Black's king was on the queenside so his queen's path worked well in the game.

3. Maneuver the h1-rook to f3 and walk the black king to the seventh and eighth ranks

From the f-file, the rook will always be protected by the queen as they walk up the board, controlling one rank at a time. Of course, you could continue all the way to the eighth rank and checkmate the black king, but we're going for something more stylish.

4. Use the queen and rook to force Black's king to the queenside

The rook and queen carefully box the black king in on the queenside. The white a1-rook, queen and f1-bishop cover the fifth rank, so Black's king is cornered, but won't ever be stalemated.

5. Force the king to the b-file

Next, white controls the d- and c-files with the rook and queen. Once the king is stuck on the b-file, between the b4- and b3-squares, we are ready to return the rook to its home square.

6. Send the rook home

Aman chose the Rd6-d2-h2-h1 path. It's also OK to immediately bring the rook to the h-file, but it's important to take three moves to reach the corner so that our next step works properly.

7. Queen to d6 and d1 to finish the painting

The final two moves are the beautiful finishing touches on our work of art. Qd6 covers the b4-square and opens the c2-square so Black's king must walk into the mating net. Then, Qd1# is the perfect finish. We have reset the whole back rank for a beautiful checkmate.

8. Practice makes perfect

Now that you've learned the theory behind this work of art, do you think you can do it yourself? Click the button below to practice the checkmate. You don't have to pre-move the whole thing—after all, even the greatest artist had to practice a lot before they mastered their craft.

Practice The Checkmate

Were you able to complete the Mona Lisa checkmate? Let us know in the comments!