Happy New Year from Broadstairs Chess Club. I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seats waiting for the answers to the Christmas Quiz so here they are as promised.
- Which veteran grandmaster is being described here and who is the ‘winner’ mentioned? “(His) morbid pride, inordinate vanity, and self-assurance …were well-known…after his defeat, in bitter and irresponsible interviews to the foreign press, (he) spoke disrespectfully about the winner and did everything possible to disparage his play and the result of the event as a whole.” (Korchnoi and Karpov)
- When was the first British Chess Championship played and who was the winner? (1866 Charles de Vere)
- How many moves were made in the longest drawn tournament game ever played? (191)
- Johnny Marks, a member of the board of governors of the Marshall Chess Club in New York, was a composer most famous for which popular Christmas song? (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer)
- When was the first official over-the-board chess match between Oxford and Cambridge played? (1871)
- Chess puzzle: White to play and mate in half a move… (White completes castling queenside)
7. What is a ‘tabiya’ in chess? (a set opening or pattern of play)
8. Which thrice-married former world champion described the relationship with his first wife as ‘like bishops of opposite colours’ ? (Spassky)
9. According to a study by Pittsburgh University of leading protagonists (from Philidor to Alekhine), what is the average life expectancy of (top) chess players? (60)
10. Which famous nineteenth chess player said “Love chess and it will love you”? (Anderssen)