2017 Christmas Quiz - the Answers

I'm sure everybody has been on tenterhooks over the festive period, waiting for the solutions to the KCC Christmas Quiz, so I'd better put you all out of your misery right now. Apologies for any lapses into puerile humour (what did you expect from me??) and for any excess obscurity in the clues, or in the GM selection. I'd heard of all of them, though!

Anyway, here we go with the answers:-

1 As wielded by executioners of old (3 – Hungary)                              Peter ACS

2 Known as Himself in Ireland (6 - England)                                          Keith ARKELL

3 Half of a musical pair in overdrive? (8 - Paraguay)                           Axel BACHMANN

4 Courting couples favourite place in the cinema (6 - France)          Etienne BACROT

5 Is he also a scraper? (5 - France)                                                          Christian BAUER

6 Was he a private in the US Army? (8 - USA)                                       Joel BENJAMIN

7 The Titanic should have tried to avoid this (4 - Sweden)                 Emanuel BERG

8 Oh no he can’t (3 - Turkey)                                                                    Emre CAN

9 Shame he wasn’t born in Hastings (8 - England)                                Stuart CONQUEST

10 Half of your front door bell? (4 - China)                                            DING Liren

11 Eat at your own risk – usually after 5 pints. (6 - Netherlands)      Jan Hein DONNER

12 There are a couple of them in Mumbai (4 - England)                     John EMMS

13 Agreed, Agatha. Why didn’t they ask him? (5 - USA)                      Larry EVANS

14 Robert Angler (7 - USA)                                                                         Bobby FISCHER

15 Strongman’s athletic event (6 - Norway)                                           Jon Ludvig HAMMER

16 The greatest Trojan of them all? (6 - Sweden)                                  Jonny HECTOR

17 No relation to Rudolf, nor a fan of Spandau Ballet? (4 - USA)        Robert HESS

18 Two GMs with the same surname (6 - England)                               David and James HOWELL

19 Sounds like a born Royalist (4 - England)                                           Danny KING

20 Where you’ll find Milan (8 - USA)                                                       William LOMBARDY

21 Nissan pick-up truck model (6 – Czech Rep)                                     David NAVARA

22 Area where Crystal Palace play (7 - Andorra)                                   David NORWOOD

23 What sex life does a monk have (4 - England)                                 John NUNN

24 It’ll never heal if you do this (5 - Netherlands)                                Jeroen PIKET

25 Played in many a jazz band (3 - Hungary)                                         Gyula SAX

26 He’s actually quite tall (5 - England)                                                  Nigel SHORT

27 A needle pulling thread (2 - USA)                                                      Wesley SO

28 What Rick might drink his beer from? (5 - USSR)                           Leonid STEIN

29 He half-inched something?! (5 – Slovakia)                                      Igor STOHL

30 Was it heat or nerves that made him perspire? (6 - USSR)          Alexey SUETIN

31 Sounds like he’d fall if you nudged him (7 - Bulgaria)                   Veselin TOPALOV

32 A long, open container for animal feed (5 - USA)                          Kayden TROFF

33 The other half in overdrive (6 - Scotland)                                       Matthew TURNER

34 Elementary, my dear (6 - England)                                                   William WATSON

35 A female sheep (2 - China)                                                                 YU Yangyi

So how did your performance rate?

Pts

36         Your name is Mark Page and you set the quiz

35         You cheated, but couldn't even do that properly!

30-34    You scored a Chess Quiz GM norm - many congratulations!

25-29    You scored a Chess Quiz IM Norm - I suppose that's something to be proud of.

20-24    You scored a Chess Quiz FM Norm - Calm down, calm down. It's not that great

15-19    Your favourite pop group was probably Middle of the Road

10-14    You know very little about chess, but have a well-rounded approach to life I can only envy

5-9        You know even less about chess, but have an even better lifestyle. I want to be you.

0-4        You must have been drunk all Christmas! If you sober up by the next quiz, try cheating!