Chess historian Edward Winter traces the aphorism back to a simultaneous display given by Blackburne in Birmingham in 1890.
What could be more powerful than giving check? Well, giving checkmate is certainly up there, and giving double-check is usually not bad either (but then both of these are also examples of giving check).
My database of my games has 26 examples of games containing a double-check.
Perhaps surprisingly, the double-checker only won 14 of the games, losing seven and drawing five. That is a score of 63.5%.
Here is the second-oldest example among my games.
Anthony D Brown (143) - Spanton (156)
Highbury (rapidplay) 1991
Evans' Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.b4!?
Captain Evans first played his gambit in a similar way in 1836, except that in that game Black played 4...d6 rather than 4...Nf6.
5...d5?!
The move ...d5!? is an interesting try against 4.b4, but here it is almost certainly inferior to 5...Bxb4.
6.exd5 Nxb4 7.Nxe5 Nbxd5 8.d4 Bb6?
Harry Pillsbury played the better 8...Bd6?! in a loss to Emanuel Schiffers in 1896.
Stockfish10 and Komodo10 reckon Black keeps his disadvantage to a minimum with 8...Be7 or 8...Bb4.
9.Ba3 Be6 10.Re1 Nf4?
Better is 10...c6.
11.Bb5+?
11.Qf3 is strong, as is the consolidating 11.c3. In both cases the black king makes a miserable impression.
11...c6
 |
| How should White proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
12.Nxc6?
Unclear is 12.Bxc6+!? bxc6 13.Qf3, but the engines' 13...Qd5!? (13...Nd5 14.c4) 14.Qxf4 Bxd4 15.c3 Bxe5 16.Qxe5 Qxe5 17.Rxe5 0-0-0 seems to be at least fine for Black.
Also far from clear is 12.Nc3!?
12...bxc6?
The engines' 12...Qd5! 13.Nxa7+ Kd8 looks good for Black.
13.Bxc6+ Nd7 14.Qf3 Rc8 15.Qxf4 Rxc6 16.d5 Rxc2 17.dxe6 Nf6?
Better is 17...Qf6, but Black still succumbs to a double-check, eg 18.exd7+ Kxd7 19.Qa4+ Qc6 20.Qg4+ Kc7 21.Nd2!?
18.Qa4+ Nd7
Now comes double-check and mate.
19.exd7#
My most-recent game featuring a double-check came against a junior in August.
Spanton (1881) - Boris Stoyanov (1592)
Northumbria Masters 2019
Scandinavian Tiviakov
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 g6!?
Kramnik, Caruana, Nakamura and Tiviakov are among grandmasters who have tried this, but the main move is 5...a6.
6.Bc4 a6 7.Ne5!?
The engines reckon 7.Ng5 is even stronger.
7...e6 8.Bg5 Bg7 9.Qf3
 |
| Black to make his ninth move |
*****
*****
*****
*****
9...Nbd7
An improvement on 9...Nc6?? 10.Ne4 Qb4+ 11.c3 Nxe5 12.Nxf6+ Kf8 13.dxe5 Bxf6 1-0 in Davide di Trapani (2090) - Sergio Garofalo (1826), Modena (Italy) Championship 2012.
10.Ne4 Qb4+?
The engines give 10...Qxd4 11.Bxf6 Nxe5 12.Qf4 0-0 13.0-0 Qxc4 14.Qxe5 Bh6 15.Rfd1 with a strong attack for White.
11.c3 Nxe5
The game has transposed to di Trapani - Garofalo.
12.Nxf6+ Kf8 13.dxe5 Qxc4
Marginally better than 13...Bxf6, but still hopeless.
14.0-0-0 Ke7
Now comes double-check …
15.Ng8+ 1-0
… and it would have been mate, after 15..Kf8 or 15...Ke8, by 16.Rd8#.
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