2020 Christmas Quiz - the Answers

It wouldn't be fair to keep you all in suspense any longer, so here are the answers to the latest KCC Christmas Quiz. How did you get on? Better than  Joshua, I hope.

1	Name Bobby Fischer’s wife. (Mrs Fischer is not an acceptable answer!) And just for interest (no points!), what is her current FIDE rating?	Miyoko Watai (2032)
2	Which Grandmaster lost 28 consecutive games, over 2 tournaments, in 1969, all of them on time?	Friedrich Saemisch
3	Who is the highest rated player in the world who consistently wears an earring? (Clue – its not a woman!)	Peter Svidler (2723) Unless there’s a rival claimant I don’t know about!)
4	In 1971 Bobby Fischer won 3 Candidates Matches to qualify for the 1972 World Championship match against Spassky. Where were these 3 matches played? (1 pt each)	Vancouver (QF v Taimanov) Denver (SF v Larsen) Buenos Aires (F v Petrosian)
5	Who is the youngest ever world chess champion (a) Male and (b) Female (1 pt each)	a) Garry Kasparov (22) b) Hou Yifan (16)
6	Who won 7 classical World Championships in tournaments and 2 more in matches, running up a combined game score of +90 = 9 -4	Vera Menchik
7	Magnus Carlsen first became World number 1 by rating in 2010, since which time only one other player has held that position. Who?	Vishy Anand
8	Which KCC member fell asleep during a tournament game and still won?	Bruce Holland (at the Shropshire Congress, Telford)
9	Which famous chess player once lived at 117 Landsdowne Rd, Notting Hill, London W11? It is now commemorated by a Blue Plaque.	Howard Staunton
10	What have Garry Kasparov, Teimour Radjabov and Emil Sutovsky got in common? (Besides all being GMs!)	All born in Baku
11	In Rd 14 of the 1955 Gothenburg Interzonal, 3 Argentinians lost against 3 Soviets after each playing the same opening novelty. Name the 3 Soviet players (1 point each) and the 3 Argentinians (2 pts each). And take a bonus point if you can guess, within 5 either way, the total number of moves played in the 3 games. And a further point if you get the exact number! Clue: None of them lasted very long!!	Boris Spassky; Paul Keres; Efim Geller (1 pt each) Hermann Pilnik; Miguel Najdorf; Oscar Panno (2 pts each) 79 moves (2 pts) (74-78 and 80-84 moves = 1 pt)
12	Which group of people did Bobby Fischer describe as ”petty; mean minded; small minded and stupid”?	Chess Players (yes, us!)
13	Identify these 5 Russian Super GMs from their chess.com usernames (1 pt each): Fair_Chess_on_youTube Sibelephant Duhless IachesisQ Bigfish1995	Dmitry Andreikin Vladislav Artemiev Daniil Dubov Ian Nepomniatchi Vladimir Fedoseev
14	How many times have the following been British Champion? Including any shared titles. (1 pt for each correct answer) Michael Adams Nigel Short David Howell John Nunn	Adams = 7 Short = 3 Howell = 3 Nunn = 1
15	As of December 20th 2020, 2 players had bullet ratings of over 3400 (!!) on chess.com. Name them for 1 pt each.	Hikaru Nakamura Daniel Naroditsky
16	Name the husband and wife who make up the world’s highest rated married couple (classical chess, December 2020 FIDE list). (1 pt each)	Alexander Grischuk 2777 (7th in world) Kateryna Lagno 2546 (5th in world)
17	When Phil Wood made his immortal illegal knight move in a Leamington League match, who was his opponent?	Ben Graff (playing for Leamington)
18	The Chess Olympiad has been held twice in England. Name the two host cities/towns. (1 pt each)	London (1927) Folkestone (1933)
19	Who is the only man to have been both World Champion and World Senior Champion? And who is the only woman to have done the same? (1 pt each)	Man – Vassily Smyslov Woman – Nona Gaprindashvili
20	!n 2011 the 79 year old Viktor Korchnoi defeated a player rated 2721 who was 61 years his junior. Who was it?	Fabiano Caruana (at Gibraltar)
21	In the BBC Master Game programmes, which GM – whose English was otherwise impeccable – always referred to the long “dionagal”? Clue – he was once believed to have the largest private chess library in the world!	Lothar Schmid
22	What is the first name of Magnus Carlsen’s father? (1 pt) And of his mother (2 pts) And of Magnus himself? (3 pts – Clue, its not Magnus!)	Henrik (1 pt) Sigrun (2 pts) Sven (3 pts)
23	Who is the world’s youngest ever Grand Master?	Sergey Karjakin (12 yrs 7 mos)
24	Who ended Magnus Carlsen’s record run of 125 classical games unbeaten at the 2020 Norway Chess tournament?	Jan-Krzysztof Duda
25	Who were Adolf Anderssen’s opponents in the Immortal Game (1851) and in the Evergreen Game? (1852) (1 pt each)	Lionel Kieseritzky Jean Dufresne
26	Which GM did Andy Baruch once play in a blitz game, without having a clue who his opponent was? (Clue – a major opening variation is named after him)	Evgeny Sveshnikov (at Radebeul 2018 - the birth-place of Lothar Schmid!)
27	In the period 1993-2006, when there was a schism in the chess world, which 6 players held the title of FIDE World Champion? (1 pt each)	Anatoly Karpov Alexander Khalifman Vishy Anand Ruslan Ponomariov Rustam Kasimdzhanov Veselin Topalov
28	Which current member of the Shadow Cabinet was a British U-14 chess champion?	Rachel Reeves (Though this may not be 100% correct! I'm told she never actually won the official BCF - U14 Girls title) Minus 1 point to the question master.
29	The 1934 World Championship Match between Alekhine and Bogolyubov was held in Germany in 12 different cities/towns. Name them! (1 pt each)   Warning for cheats – the list in Wikipedia is incomplete!!   Everyone should be able to get at least 4 of these by pure guesswork!	Baden Baden (3) Villingen (2) Freiburg (3) Pforzheim (2) Stuttgart (2) Munich (3) Bayreuth (1) Bad Kissingen (2) Nuremburg* (2) Karlsruhe* (1) Mannheim (3) Berlin (2)
30	Since 2000, 2 KCC members have won the Leamington League Blitz/Lightning Tournament. Name them (1 pt each)	Carl Pickering (2008) Mark Page (2018)
31	The ten youngest GMs ever have come from only 5 different countries. Name the countries (1 pt each)   No points for the players, but feel free to amuse yourselves by guessing!	India – 4 (Gukesh, Praggnanandha, Negi, Sadhwani) China – 2 (Wei Yi, Bu Xiangzhi) Uzbekistan – 2 (Sindarov, Abdusattorov) Ukraine – 1 (Karjakin) Norway – 1 (Carlsen)
32	Who is the highest rated English player who is not a Grand Master? (December 2020, FIDE Classical Chess List)	Ameet Ghasi (2485)
33	And who is the highest rated English player born in the year 2000 or later? (December 2020, FIDE Classical Chess List)	Matthew Wadsworth (2416) (Born 2000) – but recently beaten by a certain Jude Shearsby in the British Online Bullet Championship!
34	Since 2000, who is the only KCC member to have won the Stanley Gibbins Trophy, for the highest percentage score in a Leamington League season?	Joshua Pink (2014)
35	Which English Grand Master and one time British Champion was born in Baghdad in 1962? And which World Champion described this person’s play as that of “a drunk machine gunner”? (1 pt each)	William Watson   Boris Spassky
36	Which English GM is married to the actress Tara MacGowran?	Mickey Adams
37	When the 2020 Candidates Tournament was suspended, which two players were tied for the lead? (1 pt each)	Ian Nepomniatchi Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
38	How much money did GM Jim Plaskett win on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2006? (Exact amount required!)	£250,000
39	What nationality are the following 5 GMs (all rated over 2600!):- Illya Nyzhnyk Nijat Abasov Bogdan-Daniel Deac Eduardo Iturrizaga David Baramidze (1 pt each)	Ukraine (2679) Azerbaijan (2668) Romania (2625) Venezuela (2607) Germany (2601)
40	Which Grand Master and 4 time Candidate is the highest rated active player aged 70 or more (ie born 1950 or earlier). Clue – he lost one Candidates Match on the spin of a roulette wheel; and forfeited two others when the matches were still undecided! (December 2020, FIDE Classical Chess List)	Robert Huebner, 2574 (Age 72; born Nov 1948)
41	What unique place in chess rankings (December 2020 FIDE Classical Chess List) is currently held by the Russian, Vassily Malinin?	World’s lowest rated active GM at 2100. (And 1861/1911 in rapid/blitz.)
42	To whom did Gary Kasparov lose in the last round of Linares 2005, his last classical chess game before he retired?	Veselin Topalov
43	Which player has the monstrously improbable score of +4 =3 -0 against the Club Organiser, with all games having been played in Leamington League matches?	Alan Lloyd of Olton. But I will beat him one day!  Won’t I?

Now you could all have got one point at least on question 25, if you had been given the same sweatshirt for your last birthday as I was! (Amazingly, the birthday present came after I had thought of the question for the quiz, not before.)

Who needs a supermodel, when the Club Organiser can do such a splendid job?

But I can't leave you without one more question. What designer brand of sweater has been made famous in the chess world by the one and only Daniil Dubov?