MARK RUBERY CHESS
In the past there was an annual Chess Quiz open to chess players all over the world devised at the excellent chess site-www.chesscafe.com. It took the form of 40 fiendishly difficult questions and entrants have a couple of weeks to scour their libraries for the solutions. With the advent of Google and the like, the questions have to be framed in such a way that the answer will not be easily arrived at. Here is a selection of the questions from one of these contests, answers to which follow below.
1 Who had a plus score against Petrosian, one of the hardest players to defeat, over more than ten games, never conceding a loss?
2 What grandmaster was a contestant on Groucho Marx’s TV show “You bet your life” in the 1950’s?
3 Who formed a chess club called “Knight Riders of the air” ? (Ridiculously difficult!)
4 Has there ever been a grandmaster game with any of these 5-piece groups all on the board at the same time: a) 5 Bishops b) 5 Rooks c) 5 Knights
5 What two Hollywood stars supposedly played chess “incessantly” on their honeymoon, “for want of better things to do?”
6 Has a stalemate position ever occurred on the board during a world championship match?
7 If White began with the Meadow Hay Opening and Black responded with the Corn Stalk Defence what would the opening moves be?
8 Which player competed in Hastings 1895 and Hastings 1945, ironically finishing in the same position each time?
The Reykjavik Open holds a chess themed pub quiz during the event- here are a few selections from the 2015 edition won by the team of Magnus Carlsen and Jon Hammer (with the delicious name of MC/ Hammer)…
1. Name three of the four players who finished above Fischer and Olafsson in the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal?
2. What was the highest ranked IMDb movie to feature chess?
3. Which Opening is represented by the code A45? 4. Arkadij Naiditsch in Baden Baden beat Carlsen for the second time in a row, following his win at the Tromso Olympiad. Who was the previous player to beat Carlsen twice in a row?