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Test!
by Mary Elizabeth, as retold by Rick Kennedy
 

"Time to see what you know about chess!" my brother said as he sailed into the room. "Don't bother reaching for a pawn - a pencil will do."

Jon really likes to test me: test my patience, test my self-control, test my good will.  A written exam was something new.  I sat down at the kitchen table and looked at Part I.

PART I  MATCHING

Who said...?

1) "Chess is life."
2) "Chess is a struggle."
3) "Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic."
4) "Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness."
5) "Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders."
6) "Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe."
7) "Chess is undoubtedly the same sort of art as painting or sculpture."

a) Mikhail Botvinnik
b) Jose Raul Capablanca
c) Bobby Fischer
d) Indian proverb
e) Emanuel Lasker
f) Seigbert Tarrasch
g) Savielly Tartakower

"Easy," I said, going right to work. If you know about the chess greats, you know how they looked at chess, and what they would say.  (Can you match the quotes with the players?)

The next part was a bit harder.

PART II  VOCABULARY

What parts of the body are involved in the following chess illnesses:
     a) amaurosis schacchistica
     b) lapsus manus

"Illnesses?" I wondered.  The words were in Latin.  It took me a couple of minutes to remember what they meant.  (Do you know?)

Part III was a real doozy, though.

PART III  -  TRUE OR FALSE

1)  "Without error there can be no brilliancy." (Lasker)
2)  "Nobody ever won a game by resigning." (Tartakower)
3)  "The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made." (Tartakower)
4)  "Half of the variations that are calculated in a tournament turn out to be
superfluous.  Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half." (Timman)
5)  "Amberly excelled at chess - a mark, Watson, of a scheming mind." (Holmes)
6)  "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
(Einstein)

"Sherlock Holmes?  Albert Einstein?  Wait a minute.  This is getting silly!" I protested, between giggles.  "Shhhhhh. No talking during exam time," Jon said, in mock seriousness.  "I don't want to have to take off points for unruliness."

I continued.

PART IV
ILLUSTRATE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING WITH A DIAGRAM

1) "Place the contents of the chess box in a hat, shake them vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of two feet - and you get the style of Steinitz." (Bird)

2) "The combination is born in the brain of a chessplayer.  Many thoughts see the light there - true and false, strong and weak, sound and unsound.  They are born, jostle one another, and one of them, transformed into a move on the board bears away the victory over its rivals." (Lasker)

"You've got to be kidding!" I moaned.

"Crayons and magic markers are acceptable," was all he would say between chuckles.  I took a quick look at the last question.

PART V  -  ESSAY (500 words)

"What would chess be without silly mistakes?" (Richter)

"What would chess be without silly brothers?" I asked in return.  I wadded up the test and tossed it at him.  He ducked.  Then, we both sat down at the chessboard, where the real "test" was waiting.
 

ANSWERS

Part I:  1) c,  2) e,  3) a,  4) f,  5) g,  6) d  7) b

Part II:  a) "chess blindness" affects the eyes,  b) "a slip of the hand" [in making a move] affects the hand

Part III:  #1 through #6 are all "T"

Part IV:  What kind of diagrams would you draw?

Part V:  It wouldn't be the same game we all know and love!
 

Index of Kennedy Kids Stories

Index of Fiction at Chessville

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