In The Devil’s Checkmate (1831), Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch depicted a chess match between a young man and the Devil, with the man’s soul at stake.

When chess master Paul Morphy studied the painting years later, he noticed something surprising.

By carefully analyzing the position of the pieces, he concluded that the young man was not actually in checkmate, as it seemed. There was still one move that could place the Devil in check and turn the game around.

This interpretation transformed the painting into a symbol of strategic hope: even when all seems lost, a clever move can change fate.