Winning by Taking Your Opponent by Surprise
A surprise move is a great trick to pull off on your unsuspecting opponent. It is a really potent way to beat your opponent or otherwise gain material or positional advantage. It is true that surprise moves do exist in chess though that may prompt the question if that is really the case since all you have is really displayed right in front of you.
Though at times, it would take a lot of experience and a little foresight to pull off a surprise move since what is implied is that you can see something that others don't. Here's where you a bit of concentration comes in handy mixed with a little imagination.
There are surprise moves where you can make a stunning reply when your opponent makes too many preconceived notions or moves during a game. Your opponent would be playing his moves, executing every part of the plan when you suddenly make a move that destroys the whole thing. This might come like an unlikely position where you can capture a major piece, like a Queen for example, who seemed to be in a safe position.
Another moment where you can pull off surprise moves is when you find a chance to improvise. Occasions where you can do this is when your opponent is partially safe then you can move in when your opponent makes slight little mistake. Given this opportunity you can either win the game or force your opponent to resign.
As an example of this principle to play chess to win, we'll look into a match by Robert James Fischer in 1962 where he clashes heads with Victor Ciocaltea. The game starts innocently as: 1 e4 e5; 2 Nf3 Nc6; 3 Bb5 a6, which are the opening lines for a Ruy Lopez-Modern Steinitz Defense. The rest of the moves play innocently enough with Black doing a marvelous job at fending off White's threats.
The game continues as follows: 4 Ba4 d6; 5 c3 Bd7; 6 d4 Nge7; 7 Bb3 h6; 8 Qe2 Ng6; 9 Qc4 Qf6; 10 d5 b5, at this juncture both Queens have come out to join the battle, which is pretty common during this part of the game. Notice that the black Queen is quite safe since she still has places to run, but things will change later on.
The game continues: 11 Qe2 Na5; 12 Bd1 Be7, this is a very slight mistake made by Black that White quickly capitalizes on in the next moves: 13 g3 0-0; 14 h4 Rfc8. At this point Black still hasn't figured out the trap White has prepared until the Black Queen is to be compromised by: 15 Bg5 hxg5; 16 hxg5 Qxg5; 17 Nxg5 and the Black Queen is captured!
Surprise moves are ingenious ways to play chess to win. It will take a bit of experience and foresight to pull something off like this in chess.