Questions
Great Female Players
Question 1
Today is Valentine’s Day and is there a better way to celebrate the occasion but by giving spotlight to chess players that are often not given the credit they deserve – (great) female chess players.
In that context, it is virtually impossible to have a conversation without talking about the Polgar family, which yielded three great chess players and the greatest female chess player that ever lived. For starters, we will be asking you for the names of the three Polgar sisters that shook the chess world and also for the name of the father of the Polgar family, who was the man behind this “project”.
Question 2
Even though the Polgar sisters broke many boundaries and became first in many regards, they weren’t the first women players to be awarded the title of Grandmaster.
This honor was awarded to one of their predecessors – a famous Georgian player who was also the fifth women chess champion. She was granted the title after scoring “only” two grandmaster norms in 23 games but being awarded the title by FIDE due to her outstanding performance at the Lone Pine tournament in 1977.
For half a point, we ask you:
a) The name of the afore-mentioned Georgian player?
b) The name of the female player who became the first Grandmaster in a more “conventional” way, scoring three norms and exceeding 2500.
Question 3
Since we already mentioned Female World Chess Championship:
a) Which female chess player, born in Russia to a Czechoslovakian father and English mother, was the first-ever female player to compete with male players in top tournaments and the first-ever Women World Chess Champion, capturing the title in 1927 and defending it further 6 times with a whopping score of +78=4-1?
b) Which female chess player from Germany was her World Championship challenger in the first-ever Women World Chess Championship matches held in 1934 and 1937?
Question 4
It is well known that Robert James Fischer was very dismissive toward women chess – he allegedly claimed he could give a knight odds to any women chess player of his time.
There is also evidence he has been particularly dismissive toward his contemporary who held the title of the Women US Chess Champion from 1959-1962 and who became famous after becoming the first-ever chess player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1961 – almost a decade before Fischer himself appeared on the front page of the very same magazine.
For half a point, we ask you for her name.
Question 5
To conclude this section, let’s get back to the present. For half a point, we ask you:
a) Who is the current nr. 1 on the female rating list if we know she has been the leading female player for almost a decade (ever since Judit Polgar’s retirement) and if we know that she is currently inactive in the chess world because she devoted herself to her studies at the University of Oxford?
b) Which young Russian chess player, which narrowly lost the most recent Women’s World Championship Match in January 2020, is currently the 2nd highest rated women in the world?
c) Which Chinese chess player – currently the 4th highest rated woman in the world – beat the Russian chess player from b) in their 2020 World Championship match, thus retaining the title of the Women Chess Champion which she has been a proud owner since 2018?
Know Thy Classics
In this section, we will provide you with 5 famous chess positions arising from (recent and less recent) classic chess games. For 0.5 points, we seek:
- The name of the players involved in the game
- The move played in the game
Position #1 – Budapest 2003, White to move
Position #2 – St. Petersburg 1896, Black to move
Position #3 – London 1883, White to move
Position #4 – New York, 1856, Black to move
Position #5 – Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee, White to move
Famous Chess Books
Question #1
Apart from being THE greatest player of all time (sorry Fischer fans), Garry Kasparov has also been a prolific writer throughout his career. Already in the 80s, he published several books. But only later in his career did he get wide recognition for his ambitious series of books devoted to chess history. Even though the follow ups Garry Kasparov On Modern Chess and Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov were fairly successful, the first series of books devoted to great players and World Champions from the past was the most prominent one. For half a point, we ask you:
A) The name of this book series?
B) How many books does this series consist of?
Question #2
Garry Kasparov is not the only World Champion who was a prolific writer. Mikhail Tal was not only a very gifted tactician, but also a very prolific and entertaining writer, who managed to infuse his wit and humour into a number of chess books.
Tal has written around 10 chess books. For half a point, we ask you to write the names of two of them.
Question #3
We are still in the domain of books written by World Champions. Two of the virtually most famous chess books of all time bear the name of the American genius Robert James Fischer. For half a point:
a) The name of his famous book in which he analyzed a number of his own games in great detail?
b) The name of the book he c-author by Stuart Margulies and Donn Mosenfelder, aimed at beginners. This book was one of the best-selling chess books of all time, with over one million copies sold.
Question #4
Chess books are not only written by Chess World Champions but also ABOUT Chess World Champions. For half a point, we ask you to name the author of the following renowned chess books, both published relatively recently:
A) Chess Duels: My Games with the World Champions
B) The World Champions I Knew (Hint: This book was recapped by the author of these lines and Ben Johnson in an episode of the Perpetual Chess podcast)
Question #5
Last but not least – even though the book Zürich 1953, devoted to the Candidates tournament in Zürich in 1953 (quite surprisingly) is one of the most famous chess books of all time. Even though it was not authored by a World Champion, its author was a reasonably strong player – a World Championship Candidate who barely missed becoming the World Champion himself, drawing his match in Moscow against great Mikhail Botvinnik 12-12 (allowing Botvinnik to keep the title).
For half a point:
a) Who is the author/chess player?
b) When was the afore-mentioned match against Botvinnik played (year)?
Who said it?
In this section, we will provide you with 6 famous/funny chess quotes. Your task is simple – for 0.5 points per quote, guess the player/person who said it.
Quote #1:
“Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.”
Quote #2:
“Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”
Quote #3:
“Some sacrifices are sound, the rest are mine.”
Quote #4:
“Not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists.”
Quote #5:
“This may come as a little surprise, but may I introduce my bamboo stick.”
Quote #6:
“Chess doesn’t drive people mad, it keeps mad people sane.”
In Chronological Order?
In this section, we will provide you with 2 questions consisting of chess historical lists. Your task is to order them in Chronological order (from the oldest to the newest). 1 point per chronology.
In Chronological Order #1
Order the World Champions: Tal, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky
In Chronological Order #2
Order the FIDE World Champions: Anand, Ponomariov, Karpov, Kasimdzhanov, Khalifman
In Chronological Order #3
Order the female World Chess Champions: Nona Gaprindashvili, Lyudmila Rudenko, Xie Jun, Maia Chiburdanidze
Guess The Player
In the final section of the quiz, we will provide you with 5 pictures of famous chess players and 5 edited excerpts from Wikipedia bios of famous chess players.
For half a point, you have to guess the player on the basis of the photo/bio.
Guess The Player #1
__________ (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess player who is also reigning women’s world rapid champion. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days […]. In October 2007, _________ became the second female player, after Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606
Guess The Player #2
________________(born December 31, 1980) is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She is a two-time United States Women’s Champion and has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. _________ is the author of the books Chess Bitchand Play Like a Girl and co-author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. She is the Women’s Program Director at US Chess, MindSports Ambassador for PokerStars and a board member of the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis.
Guess The Player #3
__________________(Russian: _____________; born 17 June 1976) is a Russianchess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently commentates on chess. In his free time, he loves playing Hearthstone, making self-deprecating remarks and analyzing the Grünfeld defence.
Guess The Player #4
_____________ was a Soviet and Russian chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice (in 1955 and 1979) and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions (1953, 1956, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1971).
He won four Ukrainian SSR Championship titles (in 1950, 1957, 1958, and 1959) and shared first in the 1991 World Seniors’ Championship, winning the title outright in 1992.
Guess The Player #5
__________is a Soviet-born Americanchess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion.
__________ reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 at the age of 22, and reached a ranking of fourth in the world rankings in 1995. He played almost no FIDE-rated games between 1997 and late 2004.
__________ won the Chess World Cup 2007. This earned him a Candidates Match against Veselin Topalov, which he lost. _________ also competed in the Candidates Tournament in 2011, losing to Boris Gelfand.
Guess The Player #6
Guess The Player #7 and #8
Guess The Player #9
Guess The Player #10
Answers
Great Female Players
Question 1: Sofia, Zsuzsa (Susan), Judit, Laszlo
Question 2: Nona Gaprindashvili, Susan Polgar
Question 3: Vera Menchik, Sonja Graf
Question 4: Lisa Lane
Question 5: Hou Yifan, Alexandra Goryachkina, Ju Wenjun
Know Thy Classics
Position 1: a) 18. Rh7+; b) Judit Polgar, Ferenc Berkes
Position 2: a) 18… Ra3!!; b) Harry Nelson Pillsbury – Emmanuel Lasker
Position 3: a) 28. Qb4! b) Johannes Zukertort – James Henry Blackburne
Position 4: a) 17… Be6!!; b) Donald Byrne – Robert James Fischer
Position 5: a) 24. Rxd4! b) Garry Kasparov – Veselin Topalov
Famous Chess Books
Question 1: a) My Great Predecessors, b) 5
Question 2: Tal – Botvinnik, 1960, World Championship: Petrosian vs Spassky, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, Study Chess with Tal, Tal’s Winning Chess Combinations, Montreal 1979: The tournament of stars, Attack with Mikhail Tal, The Chess Calculator’s confession, Chess Scandals: The 1978 World Chess Championship
Question 3: a) My 60 Memorable Games; b) Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
Question 4: a) Yaasser Seirawan; b) Genna Sosonko
Question 5: a)David Bronstein; b) 1951
Who Said It?
Quote 1: Siegbert Tarrasch
Quote 2: Rudolf Spielmann
Quote 3: Mikhail Tal
Quote 4: Marcel Duchamp
Quote 5: Yasser Seirawan
Quote 6: William “Bill” Hartston
In Chronological Order
Chronology #1:
Botvinnik (1948-1957)
Smyslov (1957-1958)
Tal (1960-1961)
Petrossian (1962-1969)
Spassky (1969-1972)
Chronology #2:
Karpov (1993-1999)
Khalifman (1999-2000)
Anand (2000-2002)
Ponomariov (2002-2004)
Kasimdzhanov (2004-2005)
Chronology #3:
Lyudmila Rudenko (1950-1953)
Nona Gaprindashvili (1962-1975)
Maia Chiburdanidze (1978-1988)
Xie Jun (1991 – 1996)
Guess The Player
1. Humphy Koneru
2. Jennifer Shahade
3. Peter Svidler
4. Efim Geller
5. Gata Kamsky
6. Alex Yermolinsky
7. Samuel Sevian
8. Greg Shahade
9. Akiba Rubinstein
10. Leonid Stein
Standings
| Place | Nickname/name | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Leon | 16/27 |
| 2. | Italian Gambit | 11/27 |
| 3. | Diedrich | 8.5/27 |
| 4. | 1. Nf3 | 6/27 |