The chess of Albert Einstein and his puzzle

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

Sometime ago, the editors of Time Magazine came out with a list of the most influential persons in history and it was quite controversial at that time because the No.1 choice of the editors and historians was Mohammed instead of Jesus Christ.

Also on the list, in fact listed as among the top 10 were Sir Isaac Newton, who if I recall correctly, was No.3, and Albert Einstein listed at No.6 or 7. Both Newton and Einstein are chess devotees.

I will not dwell on the scientific achievements of Einstein (1879-1955) as these are well known.

What is not known is that he was a chess player and a close friend of World Chess champion Emmanuel Lasker.

They shared an apartment in Berlin in the 1930s and Einstein had an enormous respect for his older friend, certainly for good reasons. Lasker had a Ph.D. in mathematics and was a well-rounded personality at home in philosophy, history and the sciences.

Lasker thought that Einsten’s theory of relativity was wrong and that the speed of light was limited due to particles in space and that there is no perfect vacuum.

Einstein first learned to play chess in Munich and told a reporter once that he played chess as a boy. He was probably most active in playing chess in the 1920s and was thrilled when he met Lasker in 1927.

Einstein was an average chess player, which may come as a surprise as his IQ was in the 180s.

This can be explained that there are different kinds of high IQ. There is a musical IQ, literary, math, creativity and spatial IQ.

Bobby Fischer had a high spatial IQ of 187, and most great chess players belong to this category.

Einstein, Newton and other men of science have either high math or creativity IQ. Bethooven, Mozart and other greats belong to the musical, while Shakespeare is an example of the literary IQ.

When Hitler came to power in 1933 there was a general hatred of Einstein and the Jews and he fled Germany to settle in the USA. He accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

He was quite active in chess at this time as he played with neighbors, friends and even taught some children to play. He also played games with Robert Oppenheimer, later scientific director of the Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic bomb, and Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb. What an explosive trio.

CEPCA NOVEMBER. The winner for this month’s tournament last Sunday was the youngest member of the club, Jobannie Tabada of Sun.Star Cebu, while second was our lady guest Therese Gonzales, and third was retired engineer Felix Salve. We also welcome a new member to the club, dentist Ramon Pangilinan.

Congratulations also to Jessa Marie Balbona for winning the Elementary chess championship in the last Cebu City Olympics.

EINSTEIN’S PUZZLE. Below is a quiz written by Einstein. He said 98 percent of the people in the world cant’ solve the quiz. Are you among the other two percent?

Facts: 1) There are five houses in five different colors. 2) In each house lives a person of different nationality. 3) No two owners play the same game, smoke the same cigar, or drink the same beverage.

Further details: 1) The Brit lives in a red house. 2) The Swede plays Scrabble. 3) The Dane drinks tea. 4) The green house is immediately left of the White house. 5) The owner of the green house drinks coffee. 6) The person who smokes Pall Mall plays dominoes. 7) The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill. 8) The man living in the center house drinks milk. 9) The Norwegian lives in the first house to the left. 10) The man who smokes Blend lives next to the man that plays Checkers. 11) The man who plays Bridge lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. 12) The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer. 13) The German smokes Prince. 14) The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. 15) The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

NOW WHO PLAYS CHESS? Write and prove your answer and send it to Handuraw Café along M. J. Cuenco Ave., Mabolo (beside Kahayag Café) or e-mail me, and your answer will be printed in my next columns.