Mea Culpa. It seems that despite spending what seemed like 10,000 hours assembling this year's quiz, I still managed to make several mistakes with some of the questions. Thanks to Joshua and Bernard R for pointing these out, though a bit less glee on their part at discovering my fallibility would have been welcome. The questions affected were numbers 8 and 59, while numbers 1 and 26 were apparently slightly ambiguous - and yes I agree, this was very shoddy work by the Quizmaster. Anyway, the correct versions of the two clearly wrong questions, for anyone remotely interested, should have been:-
8 What did the relatively unknown John Keynes and Samuel Meredith do 8 times and 6 times respectively, that GMs/future GMs Luke McShane, Michael Stean and Daniel Fernandez only managed 3 times each?
59 Name the 5 players in the England team that won the World U-26 Team Championships, ahead of the USSR, in 1978 in Mexico City.
The issues with questions 1 and 26 are discussed below - so, spoiler alert, look away now if you don't want to see the answers yet.
|
1 |
Name the
players in these World Championship Matches:- a) Havana
1889 b) New York
1890-91 c) Moscow
1896-97 d) Berlin
1910 (1 pt each - 8
pts total) |
a) Steinitz
& Chigorin b) Steinitz
& Gunsberg c) Lasker
& Steinitz d) Lasker
& Janowski (The 1910 Lasker-Schlechter match was played in Vienna and Berlin) |
|
2 |
Since 1992, Peter Svidler has famously won the Russian Championship 8 times. Name the 4 other
players who have managed to win the title more than once in the same period. (1 pt each - 4
pts total) |
Alexander Morozevich
(‘98. ‘07) Dmitry
Andreikin (‘12, ’18) Evgeny
Tomashevsky (’15, ’19) Ian
Nepomniatchi (‘10, ‘20) |
|
3 |
Who is the
only man to win the World Junior Championship title twice? (1 pt) |
Shakhriyar
Mamedyarov (2003 & 2005) |
|
4 |
Who is the only English player ever to have beaten Tigran Petrosian (World Champion, 1963-69)? Where, and in what year, did this occur? And how many moves did the game last? (within 5 either way) (I pt each –
4 pts total) |
John Nunn Interpolis Tournament, Tilburg (NL) in 1982 Just 20
moves!! |
|
5 |
Karpov and
Kasparov played 5 World Championship matches. a) Name the 6
cities in which the matches were played. (1 pt each) b) What was
the points difference between the players over these 5 matches (144 games in
total!) (1 pt) (7 pts total) |
Moscow (1984,
1985) London (1986) Leningrad
(1986) Seville
(1987) New York
(1990) Lyons (1990) 2 (Kasparov
73/Karpov 71) |
|
6 |
a) Who preceded Yuri Averbakh as the world’s oldest Grand Master until his death in 2010, at the age of 99 yrs and 3 days? b) How old was Averbakh’s opponent in his last ever published game, played in 2017 when he was 96? c) And who succeeded Averbakh, after his demise in 2022, as the world’s oldest GM? (1 pt each – 3
pts total) |
a) Andor Lilienthal (Hungary) b) 4 years old! (Misha Osipov) c) Aleksandar
Matanovic (Serbia, b 23.05.30) |
|
7 |
What was the
FIDE Budget for 2022? Any figure within 1 million Euros either way gets a point! (1 pt) |
12.84 million
Euros |
|
8 |
What did the
relatively unknown John Keynes and Samuel Meredith do 8 and 6 times respectively,
that GMs/future GMs Luke McShane, Michael Stean and Daniel Fernandez only
managed 3 times each? (1 pt) |
Number of
games won in the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Match. |
|
9 |
a) Which GM, infamous for two major cheating controversies at the board, served 9 months in prison for vehicular manslaughter? b) Against which player did he retract a losing move at the 1967 Sousse Interzonal, in an incident which generated a less than flattering nickname? c) And who was the opponent when he was accused of throwing a game for $400 at the 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal? (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
a) Milan
Matulovic b) Istvan
Bilek (Hungary) c) Mark
Taimanov (USSR) |
|
10 |
Which two Grand Masters had a street brawl in St Louis in 2018? (1 pt each - 2
pts total) |
Hikaru
Nakamura and Eric Hansen |
And here's the evidence for Question 10. Though its not exactly a Rumble in the Jungle, or a Thriller in Manilla!
|
11 |
Since 2010
Magnus Carlsen has only twice failed to win against opponents rated under
2500. Name the 2 players who have held him to a draw. (1 pt each – 2
pts total) |
Nino
Batsiashvili (2015 Qatar Open) Geir Sune
Tallaksen Ostmoe (2022 Norwegian team Championship) (Note: Ivan
Schitco was rated 2509 when drawing at
the 2022 Olympiad, Moldova v Norway) |
|
12 |
Character
played by Oscar Homolka: “Do you play chess?” Character
played by Michael Caine: “Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of
cheating.” In which 1966 film did this exchange occur, and who wrote the novel on which it was based? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Funeral in
Berlin Len Deighton |
|
13 |
a) Who was
the first person to not win a single game in an official World Championship
Match? (1 pt) b) And how
many classical games has Magnus Carlsen won and lost (1 pt each) in his 5
World Championship Matches? (3 pts total) |
a) Frank
Marshall (1907) v Lasker b) Won 11,
Lost 2 |
|
14 |
Between
2009-22, the 14 US Championships have been shared between just 5 players.
Name them. (1 pt each –
5 pts total) |
Wesley So
(2017/20/21) Hikaru
Nakamura (2009/12/15/19) Sam Shankland
(2018) Fabiano
Caruana (2016/22) Gata Kamsky
(2010/11/13/14 – and 1991 for good measure!) |
|
15 |
Name the
Norwegian player (peak rating 2264), arbiter and organiser who has written 5
crime novels in which Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen (K2) and the wheelchair
bound Patricia Borchmann are the leading protagonists. (And very good the
books are, too!) (1 pt) |
Hans Olav
Lahlum |
|
16 |
Which eminent
critic and man of letters (1819-1900) was a Vice-President of the British
Chess Association, and in regular correspondence with Henry Bird? Clue: his 6
year marriage to Effie Gray was famously never consummated. (1 pt) |
John Ruskin |
|
17 |
Who was the
only non-GM to play in a Grand Chess Tour event in 2022? (1 pt) |
IM David
Gavrilescu (Romania), in the Warsaw Superbet Rapid & Blitz |
|
18 |
Which GM played
1 e4 c5 2 Qg4 against SP Sethuraman, a 2600+ GM, in an important play-off
game at the 2021 Sunway Sitges Open? (1 pt) |
Lucas van
Foreest (and he won!) |
|
19 |
a) Which World Champion had a cat called Chess? b) Which super-GM (the best chess commentator in the world!) has a chihuahua called Chessy?(Spelling uncertain!) c) Which GM’s daughter is this super-GM married to? d) And which super-GM (possibly the second best chess commentator in the world) has a dog that is usually referred to on air as Doggo? (1 pt each –
4 pts total) |
a) Alexander Alekhine b) Peter Leko c) Arshak
Petrosian d) Peter
Svidler |
|
20 |
Which GM is an elected member of the Dutch Senate? And which GM played professional football for 9 seasons, and made 8 appearances for his country, scoring one goal? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Loek van Wely Simen Agdestein (Lyn Oslo and Norway) |
|
21 |
Who literally fell off his chair at the 2021 World Blitz Championship after blundering into mate against Tigran Petrosian (no, not the famous one!)? And which
player (and chess author) collapsed at the end of the 1954 British
Championship, after losing a last round game that would have given him a tie
for 1st place? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Polish IM,
Pavel Teclaf Gerald Abrahams (author of The Chess Mind) |
And here's the evidence - if it were needed, because I can hardly believe you haven't seen this before - for the first part of Question 21.
|
22 |
Identify
these GMs from their online usernames:- a) Atomrod b)
DrNykterstein c) Chefshouse d)
Lordillidan |
a) Keith
Arkell b) Magnus
Carlsen c) Ding Liren d) Richard
Rapport |
|
|
23 |
How many
times were the following World Champions married:- Capablanca Alekhine Spassky |
2 4 3 |
|
|
24 |
a) Unknown
new GM: “Good-day, Grand Master Korchnoi. We are now colleagues.” Korchnoi: “
You are no colleague of mine. You are
a colleague of …..” Which Yugoslav GM did Korchnoi reputedly now
disparagingly name? b) Korchnoi (in winning position): Do you speak English? Unknown
opponent (possibly GM Al Modiahki): Yes What did
Korchnoi now say? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
a) Mato
Damjanovic b) Then why don’t you resign? |
|
|
25 |
a) Who once
famously claimed: “There is a God and he is not Bulgarian!” |
a} Nigel Short b) Wijk aan Zee (2008) c) Ivan
Cheparinov |
|
|
26 |
When Captain
Kirk played Mister Spock at 3D Chess, who won? (1 pt) |
Perhaps
surprisingly, it was Captain Kirk! (Though a would-be Trekkie tells me there was a match won by Spock. So take a point whichever answer you chose! It's all the same to me!) |
|
|
27 |
Identify the
3 most recent holders of the record for the longest unbeaten streak at elite
level:- a)
95 games from 1973-74 b)
100 games from Aug 2017 - Nov 2018 c)
125 games from Aug 2018 - Oct 2020 |
a} Mikhail
Tal b} Ding Liren c} Magnus
Carlsen |
|
|
28 |
a) What chess
World Championship took place (partially) at the Sibree Hall in Coventry? b) Where was the rest of the event played? d) And which
English player came second? |
a) The first
ever World Junior Chess Championship, 1951 – Rds 1 & 2 were held in
Coventry b) Birmingham
University c) Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia) d) Malcolm
Barker |
|
|
29 |
Which 2022
Grand Chess Tour participant responded to the question, “What are you goals for
this event?” with the answer, “To eat all the sandwiches!” (1 pt) |
The one and
only Anton Korobov (Ukraine) This is possibly the only Un-Google-able question, other than 36b, in the Quiz. |
|
|
30 |
Of which IM
& Honorary GM compatriot, a national champion and 12 times Olympiad
player, did Jan Hein Donner write: “He hasn’t got a clue. He is the worst
player in the whole wide world…… It is a sad thing that a player of his level
must rate officially as the strongest in Holland…… Ugh!” (1 pt) |
Lodewijk
Prins |
|
|
31 |
The BCF Laws
and Regulations sub-committee of 1950 had four members (JT Boyd, W Ritson
Morry, W Winter and AF Stammwitz), supported
by the BCF Hon Sec, Frank Chetwynd. What, ironically in the circumstances, linked 4 of these 5 names? And who was the odd man out? |
Four had
spent time in prison. Only JT Boyd
had not. They don’t have Laws and Regulations sub-committees like that anymore! |
|
|
32 |
In which 3
countries has Anish Giri lived for at least 5 years? |
a) Russia
(1994-2002) b) Japan
(2002-2008) c)
Netherlands (2008-present) |
|
|
33 |
Name any 10
of the 26 Russian Grand Masters who signed the Open Letter to Putin demanding
an end to the war with Ukraine. (1 pt each –
10 pts total) |
Any 10 from:- Kirill
Alekseenko Igor
Berdichevsky Maksim
Chigaev Anton
Demchenko Daniil Dubov Andrei
Esipenko Artur
Gabrielian Evgeny
Gleizerov Valentina
Gunina Ildar
Khairullin Alexander
Khalifman Mikhail
Kobalia Alexandria
Kosteniuk Dmitry
Kryakvin Igor Lysyj Maxim
Matlakov Alexander
Motylev Evgeny Najer Ian
Nepomniachtchi Nikita Petrov Pavel Ponkratov Ivan Rozum Alexandr
Shimanov Peter Svidler Pavel
Tregubov Daniil Yuffa |
|
|
34 |
Identify the
following chess legends:- a) Born Wroclaw, Poland 1862; died Munich, Germany 1934 b) Born
Somerville, USA 1872; died Philadelphia, USA 1906 c) Born Rostov,
Russia 1887; died Paris, France 1956 d) Born
Odessa, USSR, 1925; died Peredelkino, Russia 1998 ( 1 pt each – 4 pts total) |
a) Siegbert Tarrasch b) Harry
Nelson Pillsbury c) Savielly
Tartakower d) Efim
Geller |
|
|
35 |
Which two
Chinese GMs played a 3 game match in 2022 that sounded like they were crying? |
Bu – Hou (Boo
hoo – geddit?!) (Bu Xiangzhi – Hou Yifan) |
|
|
36 |
a) Name the 6
members of the Hungarian team that broke the long standing (excluding the
boycotted 1976 Olympiad in Haifa) USSR monopoly on the Olympiad when
triumphing in Buenos Aires in 1978. b) And a
bonus question – which of the 6 got mated by the Kenilworth Chess Club
Organiser in a 1979 simultaneous display in Coventry? |
a) Lajos
Portisch Zoltan Ribli Gyula Sax Andras
Adorjan Istvan Csom Laszlo Vadasz b) Istvan
Csom |
|
|
37 |
And name the
6 members of the USSR team that “only” won the silver medal from that same
Olympiad. ( 1 pt each –
6 pts total) |
Boris Spassky Tigran Petrosian Lev
Polugaevsky Boris Gulko Oleg
Romanishin Rafael
Vaganian |
|
|
38 |
Which future
super-GM lost first place on tiebreak in consecutive years in the World U-10
and World U-12 Championships? (1 pt) |
Ding Liren
(2003 & 2004) |
|
|
39 |
a) When
Karjakin was suspended for 6 months by the FIDE Ethics Committee in March
2022, which other Russian GM was found not guilty of a similar disrepute
charge? b) Which
super-GM said that Karjakin would be “a very interesting subject for a
scientist”? c) And which
super-GM said of Karjakin, “I think he has lost his mind in the last couple
of months”? (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
a) Sergei
Shipov b) Daniil Dubov c) Wesley So |
|
|
40 |
Who was the
first English born person to be awarded a Grand Master title by FIDE? Clue:
it wasn’t Tony Miles! (1 pt) |
Comins
Mansfield was made a GM for Chess Composition in 1972. |
|
|
41 |
What is
particularly significant about the game Francisco De Castellvi – Narcisco
Vinoles? (1 pt) |
Oldest
recorded game of chess, dating from 1475, and played in Valencia |
|
|
42 |
a) Who is the
youngest player ever to achieve a rating of 2700? b) At what
age did he do this? c) And
talking of ratings, which player has a lifetime live rating peak of 2799.6?
So near, yet so far away! (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
a) Wei Yi (China) c) Teimour
Radjabov |
|
|
43 |
Tony Miles
famously beat Karpov at the 1980 European team Championships, but which other
English player also won (against Lev Polugaevsky) with Black in the 4-4 draw
between England and the USSR? (1 pt) |
John Nunn |
|
|
44 |
These people
have all given their names to opening variations. What nationality were they? a) Caro b) Kann c) McCutcheon d) Winawer e) Richter f) Trompowsky g) Grob h) Morra i) Breyer j) Colle (1 pt each –
10 pts total) |
a) British – Horatio
Caro b) Austrian –
Marcus Kann c) American –
John Lindsay McCutcheon d) Polish -
Szymon Winawer e) German –
Kurt Richter f) Brazilian
– Octavio Trompowsky g) Swiss –
Henri Grob h) French –
Pierre Morra i) Hungarian
– Gyula Breyer j) Belgian –
Edgard Colle |
|
|
45 |
In which US
states are the following, all locations of famous 20th century
tournaments? b) Lake
Hopatcong (1926) c) Lone Pine
(1971-81) And name the
winners of (a) and (b), and the two players who won (c) more than once (each
had one outright win and one tie for 1st):- |
b) New Jersey c) California a) Frank
Marshall b) Jose Raul
Capablanca c) Vladimir
Liberzon (Israel) and Svetozar Gligoric (Yugoslavia) |
|
|
46 |
Name the only two English players to have won the Wijk aan Zee tournament. And how many times did each win? And which player has won the tournament the most times – and how many? (1 pt each -
6 pts total) |
John Nunn (3 wins, incl 1 tie) Nigel Short (2 wins, incl 1 tie) Magnus
Carlsen has 8 wins (incl 1 tie) |
|
|
47 |
a) Who, in
May 2022, scored his final 2 GM Norms (in classical chess) in less than 24
hours? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Frederik
Svane (Germany) – firstly in a Hamburg tournament, and the next afternoon in
the Bundesliga. Elizabeth Paehtz (who became the 40th ever female holder of the full GM title) |
|
|
48 |
Name 5 pairs
of siblings, both of whom hold the full GM title. (Clue: There
are 3 pairs of sisters, and 6 pairs of brothers to choose from.) (1 pt per
pair - 5 pts total) |
Any 5 from
the following pairs:- Polgar Kosintseva Muzychuk Horvath Mastrovasilis Svane Van Foreest Vovk Zhigalko |
|
|
49 |
The USSR beat Britain 18.5-1.5 in a double round match at Caxton Hall, London in 1954 (winning 10-0 in Rd 1!). Which three British players managed to get a draw? (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
Hugh
Alexander (v Smyslov) William
Fairhurst (v Boleslavsky) Anne Sunnucks
(v Zvorikina) |
|
|
50 |
Name the 6
teams in the Open Section at the 2022 Chennai Olympiad that did not have a
single FIDE rated player in their 5 person squad. (1 pt each) And which European country had two female players on the top three boards in the Open Section of the 2022 Olympiad? (1 pt) (7 pts total) |
Bhutan Chad Comoros
Islands Equatorial
Guinea Niger St Kitts and Nevis Luxembourg
(Elvira Behrend and Fiona Steil-Antoni) |
|
|
51 |
Which former World Blitz Champion lost 8 blitz games in a row in a 2022 international tournament? And where did it happen? And which GM did this former Blitz World Champion beat later in the year in classical chess in just 10 moves at their national championship? (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
Lenier Dominguez, at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz Elshan
Moradiabadi at the 2022 US Championships |
|
|
52 |
Which British
company unsuccessfully tried to sponsor a 2 game match between Bobby Fischer
and an English player in 1973? And which English player was to be Fischer’s opponent? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Clarks Shoes
(yes, really!) |
|
|
53 |
Which English
GM shares a name with a character (now deceased) in The Archers? And the
surname of which (titled) competitor at the 2022 US Championships contained
two famous motor manufacturers? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Mark Hebden WFM Sophie
Morris-Suzuki (2022 US Women’s Championship) |
|
|
54 |
Which World
Champion lost a game at the 2003 European Team Championships when his mobile
phone went off – and what was particularly ironic about this? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
FIDE World
Champion, Ruslan Ponomariov. It was a
friend ringing to wish him a Happy Birthday! |
|
|
55 |
a) Which super-GM
is a brand ambassador for Lenovo computers? b) Which
young GM signed a sponsorship deal in 2022 with a Singapore company, worth a
reported $1.5 million over 5 years? c) Which
female IM is a brand ambassador for Ford cars? d) And which
two sporting mega stars were pictured playing chess against each other in a
2022 advert for Louis Vuitton? (1 pt each – 5
pts total) |
a) Jan-Krzysztof
Duda d) Lionel
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo |
|
|
56 |
Which GM
resigned after 1 move against Magnus Carlsen in a 2022 online game? And what was
Carlsen’s first move (as Black), to which he took such extreme exception? (1 pt each –
2 pts total) |
Rauf Mamedov |
|
|
57 |
a) Which
French GM was subsequently banned for cheating at the 2010 Chess Olympiad? b) Who was
the non-playing French Team Captain (a GM) who was also banned? c) And who
was the French IM who was also banned for transmitting computer suggested
moves to the Captain? (1 pt each –
3 pts total) |
a) Sebastien
Feller b) Arnaud Hauchard |
|
|
58 |
a) The first
4 women to be awarded the full GM title came from just 2 countries. Name the
countries. b) Of the 40 women to be full GMs, only 4 are still under the age of 30. Name them. (1 pt each –
6 pts in total) |
a) USSR – OK,
you can have Georgia as well! - (Gaprindashvili and Chiburdanidze) and
Hungary (Susan and Judit Polgar) b) Hou Yifan (28), Lei Tingjie (25), Aleksandra Goryachkina (24), Zhansaya Abdumalik (22) |
|
|
59 |
Name the 5
players in the England team that won the World U-26 Team Championships, ahead
of the USSR, in 1978 in Mexico City. (1 pt each –
5 pts total) |
Jonathan
Mestel Jon Speelman Shaun Taulbut David Goodman Jonathan
Kinlay |
|
|
60 |
Name the 5
players in the England team that won the World U-26 Team Championships in
1986 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And which English player won the World U-12 title at the same venue/time? (He also won the World U-16 title in 1991.) (1 pt each - 6 pts total) |
James Howell Stuart
Conquest Peter Wells John
Hawksworth Neil McDonald Future GM Dharshan Kumaran |
|
So there you have it - 200 points available, and my extensive market research (2 people) that anyone with a couple of hours spare, and a search engine to hand, should be able to score around 180 without too much effort. Quite probably, though, only 198 answers can be successfully Googled, although the Law of Averages does suggest that the other two could have been guessed by some people as they both have a limited number of possibilities. So 100% is possibly less difficult to achieve than I imagined. Though it would still hardly be a straightforward task - so many congratulations if you made it.
I think I can fairly safely say that there won't be a 2023 Quiz of this magnitude, as all the enthusiasm I had when I started putting this together (about 10 months ago) has long since drained out of me. But hopefully an idea for some other form of chess related mental test will come to mind by next Christmas. Though, you shouldn't count on it.
I had thought that I was rather late posting the answers this year, but looking back I find that it was January 3rd when the 2021 answers were published, so I am on time. Which is a bit of a blow, as my intended claim to have been "running behind" would not be correct, thus ruining the link to my intended choice of accompanying video. But regular readers will know, only too well, that I don't let mere trifles like accuracy and correctness get in the way of my song selections. So, here's the one and only Jackson Browne to draw down the curtain on 2022's Quiz, and get us up and running (on empty) in 2023.
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