Einstein’s puzzle, anyone?

By Frank Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE first half of the Morelia/linares 2007 is now history and the tournament will resume on March 2 in Linares ,Spain. This has been an incredible tournament with a lot of surprises that shows that at the very top only a thin line separates the players. Except for an absent Vladimir Kramnik, the current World Champion, who is probably on a honeymoon as he just got married , the top players are here.

After a forgettable showing at Corus 2007 last month, the lowest rated player and the youngest at only 15 ,Magnus Carlsen is tied at first with Anand. Along the way, he defeated Ivanchuk, Topalov and Morozevich, losing only to Anand for a midway score of 4.5 pts.

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Anand on the other hand slammed down Carlsen, the hard to beat Peter Leko and the luckless and tail ender Morozevich.

Peter Svidler showed why he is known as “ the wall “ by not losing a game and not winning either .with 7 straight draws.
Levon Aronian, the winner here last year ties Svidler with a fine win over Anand in round 5 and drawing his remaining games except a loss to Ivanchuk.

Topalov, the pre-tournament favorite has surprisingly lost 2 games- to Carlsen and the resurgent Ivanchuk in a tie with the ever solid Leko who lost only one game and drawing the rest.

I have always believed that Ivanchuk when he is on the groove can beat anybody and he is showing it here with a solid performance for solo 3rd.

Round 7 standings: 1. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2779 4.5; 2. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2690 4.5; 3. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2750 4.0; 4. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2744 3.5; 5. Svidler, Peter g RUS 2728 3.5; 6. Leko, Peter g HUN 2749 3.0; 7. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2783 3.0; 8. Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2741 2.0

About 3 years ago I featured in my column a puzzle written by Albert Einstein that pulled in an incredible response of over 40 correct answers aside from a lot of feedback. Some of the answers came from foreign lands and outside Cebu. Here is it again as I`m sure a lot of my readers missed it last time.

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? The question is “Who plays chess?”

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.

All who answered correctly will be acknowledged in my next column.

Cepca news. From time to time This column gets inquiries from chess lovers on how to become a member of the club.The latest is Martin Lumapas, a nursing graduate, who was a gold medalist in CVRIAA tournaments in 2000-2002 and a silver medalist in the Palarong Pambansa in Naga City. Entrance fee is P500 and annual dues of P200 are required. P100 of the annual dues goes to the National Chess Federation of the Philippines. Welcome to new members Edgar Moncal and Nick Cuizon.

P.S. My internet connection was out for a while but an angel named Eliza Alcover of Globelines taught me how to fix it by phone from Manila. Thanks!