Fun trivia

HOW well-versed are you in chess history and trivia? Here are tidbits of information that guys like Cepca members Jun Olis, Art Ynclino and Edmund Suralta eat for breakfast. The answers are at the end of this article so don’t peep and try to answer as many as you can. If you can answer half of the questions, you are a walking chess encyclopedia.

1. Aside from GM Judit Polgar, What are the names of her two equally famous sisters?

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2. Who is the strongest 14-year-old player in chess history?

3. Name the once controversial chess-playing Filipina- Aussie mestiza who is famous for her beauty and dancing ability?

4. Who was Anatoly Karpov’s opponent in the World Championship in Baguio in 1976?

5. World champion Alexander Alekhine loved cats. He was often seen at tournaments with either a cat, or cat

motifs on his clothes. When he took a cat to a tournament what did it do?
6. Who is known as the magician from Riga?

7. Who did Spassky defeat to become world champion in 1969?

8. What do Bobby Fischer, Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond have in common?

9. Emmanuel Lasker (World Champion 1894-1921) once tried to breed pigeons to compete in poultry shows. Why was he unsuccessful?

10. Garry Kasparov changed his last name. What was it previously?

11. Boris Spassky was born in which Russian City?
12. Fischer’s route to the championship became legendary for the crushing defeats he handed out to three strong Grandmasters. Who were they?

13. What was Fischer’s first publication after the end of the 1972 match with Spassky?

14. In 1997, people in the chess world studied the games of the recent man vs. machine match. Everyone knew that IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in that match, but who is the grandmaster who was consulted on the construction of Deep Blue?

15. In 1857, the player known as the “pride and sorrow of chess” won the first American Chess Congress. Who was this brilliant player who would later become (with Fischer) a charter member of the US Chess Hall of Fame?

16. Two men were inducted into the US chess Hall of Fame in 1988. One was Hermann Helms. Name the other inductee, who was known for inventing the ratings system that is used all over the world to keep track of the leaders in chess.

17. In 2004, this wonderful blind musician known for playing the piano and singing countless hits including “Georgia On My Mind” died. He was an avid chess player. Who is he?

18. Chess evolved from a game that began in AD 300-AD 600. What was it called?

19. In 1930, The revolutionary book “My System” was first published. Who was the author?

20. Top Grandmaster Judit Polgar was married in 2001. What was her husband’s profession?

21. Bobby Fischer was born on March 9, 1943 in which US city?

22. What was the outcome of the second Fischer-Spassky game in the game of the century in 1972?

23. Who was the first official world chess champion?

24. Where will the 2010 Chess Olympiad be held?

Answers
1.) Sofia and Susan, 2.) Wesley So, 3.) Arianne Caoli, 4.)Victor Korchnoi, 5.) The cat walked over the board, 6.) Mikhael Tal, 7.) Tigran Petrosian, 8.) They all went to the same school—Erasmus High School,Brooklyn, 9.) The pigeons were all male. 10.) Weinstein, 11.)Leningrad, 12.) Mark Taimanov,Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian, 13.) A 14-page pamphlet entitled “I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse” after he was mistaken for a bank robber in 1981, 14.) Joel Benjamin 15.) Paul Morphy, 16.) Arpad Elo, 17.) Ray Charles, 18.) Chaturanga, 19.) Aron Nimzovitz, 20.) Veterinarian, 21.)Chicago 22.) Fischer forfeited, 23.) Wilhelm Steinitz, 24.) Khanty-Mansiysk,Russia.