EpisodesRound 06

Levy's Best Game

GothamChess calls it the best game he ever played. A king walks from g1 to c2, straight into a mating net.

Now playing2:54

Levy's Best Game: the video's cover

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Emilio CórdovaK.O. · material 25/39

Levy RozmanWins · material 25/39

White: Emilio CórdovaGrandmaster from Peru, rated 2624. Age 26.
Black: Levy RozmanGothamChess. Rated 2417. Age 22.
Event: World Open, round 5
Place: Philadelphia, USA
Date: 6 July 2018
Opening: Réti Opening, Navara Gambit (A09)
Result: 0-1White resigned, facing a forced mate, 32 moves
Video: 2:54Published 11 November 2026

The story

Philadelphia, 6 July 2018, round 5 of the World Open. Levy Rozman is 22 and rated 2417. His opponent, Emilio Córdova of Peru, is a grandmaster rated 2624, more than 200 points above him. They have met before: two years earlier Levy lost a six-hour game to him in a time scramble. In his notes he writes that "revenge is always nice".

With Black, Levy offers a pawn on move 3: 3...g5, the Navara Gambit. According to his notes, Córdova thought for 48 minutes over the reply.

The black king cannot castle, so the rook comes out another way. 15...h5 is, in Levy's words, one of his favourite moves ever, and 16...Rh6 lifts the last sleeping piece into the attack.

On move 22 the white king takes its first step, 22.Kf2, and that is the losing move: only 22.Bc1 held, and both players missed it. Córdova gives up a rook for a knight to slow the attack. Levy gives one back with 27...Rxf5, and his queen comes in on h2.

The king keeps walking: g1, f2, e2, d1, c2, across the whole board. On c2 it walks into the net. 32...Bc6 threatens mate on a4, every one of White's 23 replies loses, and Córdova resigned.

Two years later Levy made a video about the game. Its title: "The Best Chess Game I Ever Played".

Key moments

Frames from the video, one for each turning point.

3...g5!?
The Navara Gambit
A pawn offered on move 3. By Levy's notes, Córdova spent 48 minutes on his reply.
16...Rh6
The rook lift
The king cannot castle, so the rook leaves the back rank through the h-file.
22.Kf2?
The king steps out
The losing move, and the first step of a long walk. Only 22.Bc1 held.
27...Rxf5!!
The exchange sacrifice
A rook for a knight. One move later the black queen lands on h2.
32...Bc6!
Córdova resigns
The threat is 33...Ba4 mate. Of White's 23 replies, 18 allow mate in one.

Command list

Córdova vs Rozman · 64 plies · 0-1

The PGN file

[Event "World Open 2018"]
[Site "Philadelphia, PA USA"]
[Date "2018.07.06"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Cordova, Emilio"]
[Black "Rozman, Levy"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A09"]
[WhiteElo "2624"]
[BlackElo "2417"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[Source "chessgames.com gid 2119602 (annotations by Levy Rozman); the same score in the description of GothamChess, The Best Chess Game I Ever Played (YouTube hF9NYZrNjD0, 2020-09-21)"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 d4 3. b4 g5 4. Qa4+ c6 5. Qb3 Bg7 6. Nxg5 e5 7. Qg3 Qe7 8. Ne4 Kf8 9. b5 Nd7 10. bxc6 bxc6 11. Ba3 c5 12. Qf3 Bb7 13. e3 Ngf6 14. Bd3 Rc8 15. O-O h5 16. Qf5 Rh6 17. f3 Rc6 18. Qh3 h4 19. Nxf6 Nxf6 20. Bf5 Kg8 21. exd4 exd4 22. Kf2 Rh5 23. Re1 Qd6 24. d3 Bh6 25. Re4 Nxe4+ 26. fxe4 Qe5 27. Ke2 Rxf5 28. Qxf5 Qxh2 29. Qh3 Qf4 30. Qf3 Qg5 31. Kd1 Rb6 32. Kc2 Bc6 0-1

Behind the edit

What it took to turn 64 plies into 2:54 of video. Counted from the finished edit.

Effects: 757
Kinds of effect: 98
Sound cues: 98
Moves, each with its own light: 64
Seconds of video: 174

What we checked

Every caption in the video was checked against the sources. Some well-known stories did not survive.

Córdova was checkmated.
He resigned after 32...Bc6, with no mate on the board. The threat was 33...Ba4 mate. All 23 of White's legal replies were checked: each loses to a forced mate, 18 of them in one move, and the longest defence, 33.Kd1, lasts seven. The video shows the mate as the threat, after the resignation.
13.e3 was too slow, and it lost the game.
Levy's notes call it too slow. The engine sees only a small slip there. White's real mistakes came later: 17.f3, and then 22.Kf2, the losing move.
A perfect attack.
Not quite, and Levy says so himself: he calls his own 20...Kg8 "completely unnecessary and too slow". One move later White could still have held with 22.Bc1.
48 minutes on one move.
This comes from Levy's own annotations of the game. No clock record of the game was found to check it against, so the video gives it as his note.
International Master Levy Rozman.
He earned the title in 2018, but no source gives the date, and the game was played in July. The video's player card shows his rating and age and no title.

Credits

Photos: Emilio Córdova by Andreas Kontokanis (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped and cut out, via Wikimedia Commons. Levy Rozman by Piaras Ó Mídheach / Collision via Sportsfile (CC BY 2.0), cropped and cut out, via Wikimedia Commons.
Music and voices: original.

Sources

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