(1) The story that Paul
Morphy used to lie in a circle of woman’s shoes is evidence
of:
(a) paranoia
(b) schizophrenia
(c)
depression
(d) bipolar syndrome
(e) excessive
credulity on the part of psychiatrists
Answer
(e)
(2) What player resigned a final candidates
match
when there was still a mathematical chance to
win?
(a) Portisch
(b) Hubner
(c)
Smyslov
(d) Sokolov
(e) none of the
above
Answer (b)
(3) What player resigned a
world championship match
when there was still a mathematical
chance to win?
(a) Timman
(b) Zukertort
(c)
Tchigorin
(d) Lasker
(e) Janowski
Answer
(d)
(4) The world champion in late 1946 was
(a)
Botvinnik
(b) Keres
(c) Alekhine
(d)
Euwe
(e) none of the above
Answer
(e)
(5) One of the following had a role in a movie
drama
(i.e., not a documentary).
(a) Jose
Capablanca
(b) Marmaduke Wyvill
(c) Samuel
Reshevsky
(d) Bobby Fischer
(e) Anatoly
Karpov
Answer (e)
(6) The most world
championship games have been
played between
(a) Euwe
and Alekhine
(b) Alekhine and Bogolyubov
(c) Karpov
and Kasparov
(d) Steintiz and Tchigorin
(e) Lasker and
Janowski
Answer (c)
(7) Which of these
players scored the most victories
in the match that won him the
title?
(a) Tal
(b) Spassky
(c)
Capablanca
(d) Kasparov
(e) Euwe
Answer
(e) Euwe won nine games in the 1935 match.
(8) Which
of these players scored the most victories in a match that
lost
him the title?
(a) Lasker
(b) Fischer
(c)
Alekhine
(d) Smyslov
(e)
Botvinnik
Answer (c) Alekhine scored eight victories
in the same match.
(9) Who played board one for the
world in the "USSR vs
Rest of the World" match in
1970?
(a) Gligorich
(b) Reshevsky
(c)
Fischer
(d) Hort
(e) Larsen
Answer
(e)
(10) Many chess writers have written books with
titles like
"Understanding the Queen’s Gambit". Which player
wrote
a book whose title was, in approximate translation,
"Understanding the
Universe”?
(a) Dr. Siegbert
Tarrasch
(b) Henry Buckle
(c) Pierre Charles Fournier
de St Amant
(d) Dr. Arpad Elo
(e) Dr. Emanuel
Lasker
Answer (e) In the original German, it was "Das
Begreifen der Welt".
(11) Raymond Keene once boasted
that he wrote a chess
book in:
(a) A year
(b) A
month
(c) A week
(d) A weekend
(e) A phone
booth
Answer (d), though (e) should be given comic
points.
(12) Which of the following countries has
never hosted
an official world championship match?
(a)
Iceland
(b) The Philippines
(c) Canada
(d)
Italy
(e) France
Answer (d). Few recall that
Lasker-Steinitz was partially played in Montreal.
(13) After his 1972 match, Fischer was offered money
to
endorse a product. He declined, saying that
(a)
"The stuff’s no good"
(b) "Not enough money"
(c) "I’m
waiting for Jim Slater to kick in $125,000"
(d) "I’ll only do
the commercial if there are no cameras"
(e) "I can’t -- I
never use the stuff."
Answer (e). Source: Chess
Life.
(14) Howard Staunton once referred to the
Sicilian
Defense as
(a) "Inferior on principle to
1...e5"
(b) "Lost"
(c) "This fine opening"
(d)
"A refuge for cads and bounders"
(e) "Just
silly"
Answer (c)
(15) Siegbert Tarrasch
once referred to the Sicilian
Defense as
(a) "Inferior
on principle to 1...e5"
(b) "Lost"
(c) "This fine
opening"
(d) "A refuge for cads and bounders"
(e)
"Just silly"
Answer (a).
(16) At the turn of
the nineteenth century, British player Amos Burn is one
of
several strong players said to have made the following
comment.
"In my many years of play, I have never won a
game
against..."
(a) Emanuel Lasker
(b)
Petroff’s Defense
(c) Siegbert Tarrasch
(d) A healthy
man
(e) The exchange French
Answer
(d)
(17) Sir George Thomas was defeated by Edward
Lasker in
a brilliant gamelet which, as he must have known,
would
be anthologized for essentially the rest of time.
After
losing the game to Lasker, he said
(a) "That was
very nice"
(b) "Why must I lose to this idiot!"
(c)
"Had I played 13 .. gf, you would have been lost!"
(d) "I’m
not feeling well"
(e) none of the above.
Answer
(a)
(18) French artist (and chess master) Marcel
Duchamp at
one point was paying far more attention to chess
than
to his wife. In revenge, she
(a) Gave away his
chess library
(b) Challenged him to a game at one move per
day, and got
her moves from Alekhine
(c) Glued his chess
pieces to the chessboard
(d) Took up bridge
obsessively
(e) Served him his dinner on a
chessboard.
Answer (c). She would have been more
imaginative with
(b) or e. Gain one Divorced Wife point for
either.
(19) Fischer won every game he played in the
1963-64 US
championship. At the closing ceremony the
TD
(a) Congratulated Fischer on winning the
event
(b) Congratulated Evans on winning the event
(c)
Congratulated Reshevsky on winning the event
(d) Said Fischer
was clearly the greatest player of all time
(e) Was
speechless, and just handed out the trophies.
Answer: (b),
quoted in "My 60 Memorable Games".
(20) Though few
strong masters have had prolonged
military careers, many have
been in the military for
shorter periods. Which of the following
were never
in the military?
(a) Alexander
Alekhine
(b) Jackson Whipps Showalter
(c) Saviely
Tartakower
(d) Bent Larsen
(e) Alexandre Louis Honore
Lebreton Deschapelles
Answer (b) Showalter was too young
for the Civil War, too
old for World War I, and seems to have
been playing chess
during the Spanish-American
War.
(21) In fact, two of the above-mentioned chess
players actually
served in the armies of two different
countries.
They were
(a) Alekhine and
Showalter
(b) Showalter and DesChapelles
(c) Larsen
and Tartakower
(d) Deschapelles and Showalter
(e)
Alekhine and Tartakower
Answer (e) Alekhine didn’t see a
lot of service, but
was in the Russian army briefly in WWI, and
even more
briefly for France in WWII. Tartakower fought
for
Austria and France in those wars.
(22) When did
Garry Kasparov play his first game of chess?
(a) age
five
(b) age nine
(c) age ten
(d) age
thirteen
(e) age fourteen
Answer (d) That was when
his name was changed from Garry Weinstein to Garry Kasparov, based
on his mother’s name Kasparova.
(23) About whom was it
said that to enter an even endgame against him was an almost certain
way to lose?
(a) Jose Raul Capablanca
(b) Anatoly
Karpov
(c) Ulf Andersson
(d) Akiba
Rubinstein
(e) Ruben Fine
Answer (d) The
Polish-born star’s technique was legendary even amongst his
peers.
(24) Who won the final Championship of the
USSR?
(a) Garry Kasparov
(b) Artashes
Minasian
(c) Valery Salov
(d) Viswanathan
Anand
(e) Alexander Khalifman
Answer (d) !! Well,
not really, but Anand won the 91-92 Reggio Emilia supertournament
right before the fall of the USSR and was the only non-Soviet
participant. The line-up also included Kasparov, Karpov, Salov,
Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Khalifman, M.Gurevich, Beliavsky, and
Polugaevsky! The real winner of the final championship of the USSR
(number 58) was the Armenian player Artashes Minasian, who tied with
Maggeramov.
(25) Before winning the twenty thousand
dollar first prize in the KasparovChess.com Grand Prix this month,
in which tournament did Piket win his largest purse and how much was
it?
(a) twenty-five thousand guilders in Tilburg,
1996
(b) two million lira in Rome, 1989
(c) ten
thousands Swiss francs in Biel, 1999
(d) fifteen thousand
dollars in Las Vegas, 1999
(e) five thousand deutschmarks in
Munich, 1992
Answer (d) Piket tied for first with Boris
Gelfand, ahead of a very strong field including Karpov, Shirov,
Adams, and Leko.
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