BRILLIANCY Game or Best Game

The first brilliancy game prize was awarded during the New York Clipper Tournament in 1876. A silver cup was offered by Mr. Lieders, proprietor of the cafe where the tournament was held, to Henry Bird for his game against James Mason. The first brilliancy in a match game, 300 francs, was awarded to Wilhelm Steinitz against Mikhail Chigorin in the World Championship in 1889.

A record could be the one made by Akiba Rubinstein in 1921 at Teplitz-Schonau when he won only six games out of thirteen but was awarded four brilliancy prizes. His victims were Jacques Mieses, Paul Johner, Heinrich Wolf and Siegbert Tarrasch. Few books have been published with brilliancies and awarded games. The best seller was the one written by Le Lionnais

Few books have been published with brilliancies and awarded games. The best seller was the one written by Le Lionnais Les Prix de Beauté aux Echecs.

In 2000, in his book The 100 Best (McFarland), the American GM Andrew Soltis selected the correspondence game between Yakov Estrin and Hans Berliner as the best game of the last century.