Il Vaticano is a fictional chess move invented by /r/AnarchyChess where two same-colored bishops flanking two enemy pieces swap positions and capture the pieces between them.

Where did Il Vaticano come from?

Redditor /u/MidnightFireworks posted the original graphic naming Il Vaticano to /r/AnarchyChess on December 20, 2022.

What does Il Vaticano mean?

It refers to a hoax chess 'special move' for bishops modeled on the real en passant pawn move, presented as if it were a genuine rule.

How do you use Il Vaticano?

Most posts either show a board diagram of the fake capture and ask about it deadpan, or invoke it inside broader chess drama posts as a punchline.

Is Il Vaticano still popular?

It is still one of /r/AnarchyChess's recurring bits, sitting alongside en passant jokes as part of the subreddit's running fake-rules humor.

Il Vaticano

2022hoaxsemi-active

Published August 15, 2026

Il Vaticano is a fake chess special move invented as a hoax by the /r/AnarchyChess subreddit in December 2022, where two same-colored bishops flanking two enemy pieces swap positions and capture the pieces between them. It became a running gag on the subreddit alongside its long-standing en passant jokes.

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Overview

Il Vaticano is a made-up chess move popularized by the /r/AnarchyChess subreddit. The supposed rule lets two same-colored bishops sitting on the same rank or file with two enemy pieces between them swap places and capture both middle pieces in a single move1. It does not exist in official chess rules and was invented purely as an in-joke.

The bit works because /r/AnarchyChess regularly leans on the real but obscure en passant pawn capture to bait newcomers, so bolting a fake bishop equivalent onto the same graphic feels plausible at a glance2. Screenshots of boards set up for Il Vaticano started circulating beyond the subreddit within days of the first post3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (r/AnarchyChess)

Creator

/u/MidnightFireworks

Date

2022

Redditor /u/MidnightFireworks kicked off the joke on December 20, 2022 with a post to /r/AnarchyChess showing normal and 'special' moves for each chess piece1. The pawn's special was the real en passant, while the bishop's special was the newly invented Il Vaticano. The graphic pulled over 7,000 upvotes within about a month3.

How It Spread

Comments under the original post treated the move as if it were real. Redditor /u/HylianPikachu speculated about how Il Vaticano supposedly originated, and /u/Quarterdillon offered a rival origin theory two days later4. On December 22, 2022, /u/KnewAgedMancHind posted a screenshot of an unrelated user asking /r/chess whether Il Vaticano was a real move, and that meta-post cleared 14,000 upvotes2.

The gag kept building through the following week. On December 23, /u/TheHayLord published a diagram claiming two rooks could 'block' Il Vaticano, playing along with the fiction5. That same day, /u/kamiland posted a compilation image bundling every recurring /r/AnarchyChess bit at once, including a Deal With It knight-rook, an en passant setup, and Il Vaticano6. A week later, /u/DaStalkingBiscuit posted a fake distress message reading, 'shit shit shit guys I accidentally performed Il Vaticano on my king and queen, how do I undo this???'7

How to Use This Meme

The joke typically works one of two ways. People either post a chessboard mid-Il Vaticano and treat it as a straight rules question, or they drop the move into wider chess drama posts as if it decided a real game. Urban Dictionary's example entry runs with this, using a fake line about 'Hans Niemann used Il Vaticano against Magnus Carlsen'8.