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The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Submit your trivia to the
Mad Aussie! Trivia Archives
Who Am I ? Who Am I ? (A) Although born in Kiev, I settled with my mother in Paris, where I drove a taxi to earn a living. I won the Paris championship on multiple occassions, as well as winning the French championship once. I also competed for France in a couple of Chess Olympiads. I moved the USA, where I joined my father. Once again I drove a taxi t o earn a living. I set up a chess "studio" in New York city, where I coached players. I represented the US in three Olympiads. I made sporadic visits back to France, but always returned back to the USA. My death was very tragic. My body was found 3 days after I fell down a flight of stairs, and suffered head injuries. I had a love of the beautiful in chess and my best games had an artistry to the eye that was very pleasing. A variation of the Sicilian Defence is named after me. Who Am I? Who Am I ? (B) I was one of the leading players in my country for 25 years. I was taught to play by mother, who was a fine player in her own right. I won my national championship title twice, played in over 80 tournaments during my career, and also competed in 7 Olympiads. I only stopped playing competitively in my late 60's due to vision problems. The highlight of my career was finishing =1st in a tournament with Euwe and Flohr, and ahead of Botvinnik and Capablanca. I was respected throughout the chess world for my sportsmanship and impartiality, and my opinion was often sought when disputes occurred. Apart from chess, I was an all-round sportsman, playing hockey, tennis and badminton. Who am I? Who Am I? (C) During the 1920's I was considered one of the top dozen or so players in the world. I had a consistent tournament record, always finishing in the top half of the place getters. I also played in 4 Chess Olympiads as well. My style of play was considered careful and scientific, as I built up my position in accordance with sound principles, and avoided sharp complications and tactics. I was one of the leading opening theorists of my era, and played many of the openings that characterize the "hypermodern" movement. One particular opening is named after me. Who am I? Who Am I? (D) I was one of the top half a dozen players in the world in the 1880s. I was born in Scotland, but left school at the age of 16 to live in France and Germany, where I studied the game while working as a businessman. I bought a commission in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and served in both Ireland and India. By the late 1860's I had resigned my commission and moved to London, before shortly moving to the USA. This is when my chess career began in earnest. After serving with the Union forces in the US Civil War, I lived in New York. I had an outstanding career in the US - 13 tournament victories, plus 6 wins and a draw in 7 matches. I traveled to Europe to play, featuring in major tournaments such as Paris 1878, Vienna 1882, London 1883 and Hamburg 1885. My greatest victory was winning the Frankfurt 1887 tournament by 1.5 points. I developed tuberculosis, and died in the early 1890's. Some people believe that I committed suicide with a drug overdose rather than die a slow and lingering death. Who am I? Lightning Fast: When lightning or blitz chess started to be played, each player was not given 5 minutes for the entire game. Instead, each player had a fixed time-limit for each move, such as 10 seconds. Players would receive an audible warning when their time was up, and they had to make their move straight away, or else forfeit the game. Molasses Slow: At the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal, Istvan Bilek lost on time against Bobby Fischer when his flag fell when making his 27th move. Incredibly, while Bilek had used 2 and a half hours for his 27 moves, Fischer had used only around 10 minutes for his moves in the game. Small wonder that Bilek took so much time - Fischer played the notoriously complicated poisoned pawn variation of the Sicilian defence. Fischer was renowned as connoisseur of this system and was probably still following his home preparation when the game ended. Here is the game: Bilek,I - Fischer,R [B97] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Nfd7 12.Bc4 Be7 13.Bxe6 0-0 14.0-0 Bxg5 15.Qxg5 h6 16.Qh4 Qxc3 17.Rxf7 Rxf7 18.Qd8+ Nf8 19.Bxf7+ Kxf7 20.Rf1+ Kg6 21.Rxf8 Bd7 22.Nf3 Qe3+ 23.Kh1 Qc1+ 24.Ng1 Qxc2 25.Rg8 Qf2 26.Rf8 Qxa2 27.Rf3 Kh7 0-1 The Players Protest: In the course of the 1st Soviet chess championship tournament, held at Moscow in 1920, approximately half of the 16 players threatened to go on "strike" due to the poor amount of food that they received each day for their daily meal. The players also wanted a daily cigarette ration as well. The strike didn't happen, and the tournament was completed, with Alexander Alekhine being the winner. Protesting the Players: In 1928, the British Chess Federation withdrew the England team from the Hague Chess Olympiad, in protest at the United States team containing "professional" players such as Kashdan and Steiner. There was a view that only "amateur" players should be allowed to compete in Chess Olympiads. By the 1930's, the distinction between "amateurs" and "professionals" was dropped, and all players were eligible to compete. Blind Champion: Englishman Reginald Bonham (1906-84) is arguably the greatest "blind" player in chess history. Blind from an early age, Bonham founded the Braille Chess Association magazine in 1934, and was involved in its publishing for over 20 years. He also founded the International Braille Chess Association in 1951. Bonham also won the first 6 World Blind Correspondence Chess Championships. He also competed successfully in English Over-the-Board (OTB) chess, winning several county titles. Dual Champion: Between 1933 and 1957, Wolfgang Heidenfeld (1911-81) won the South African OTB championship 8 times. After moving to Ireland in 1962, he won the Irish OTB championship 6 times. Beginnings: The first edition of "Modern Chess Openings" was published in 1911, and had 190 pages. The 13th edition of MCO was published in 1990, and had 727 pages. It was also the first edition of MCO to use algebraic notation, and would have been 150 pages larger if descriptive notation had been used. Endings: In 1906, the famous Russian study composer Alexei Troitzky (1866-1942) published his analysis of the tricky N+N v P endgame in the "Deutsche Schachzeitung". Troitzky refined his analysis, and published it in book form in 1934. He discovered the winning procedure, which is to block the pawn with one knight, use the other knight and the king to corner the opponent's king, and then using the blocking knight to deliver checkmate. Troitzky's analysis showed that some of these endgames could not be won in less than 50 moves. This led to FIDE making an exemption for the N + N v P ending from the 50 move rule, and allowing players 75 moves to achieve checkmate, before the weaker player could claim a draw. In 1928, the Russian Republic awarded Troitzky the title of "Honoured Art Master". Troitzky died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad during World War Two, and his papers and analysis were not recovered. Queens Galore: The record for the most number of Queens to appear on the board during the course of one game is eight. The record is shared by the following games: Hille-Scheur, Saarland Championship, 1993 (58 moves, 0-1); Panchenko-Vnukov. Voronezh Open, 1993 (74 moves, 0.5-0.5). Moves Galore: Latvian Igors Rausis is the only GM to have played 2 tournament games that each went for over 190 moves. His game against Meiers in the 1989 Latvian championship lasted 200 moves, while his game against Murey at Paris in 1995 lasted 196 moves. 1st American World Champion: Bobby Fischer was NOT the first American player to become world chess champion. In 1888, Wilhelm Steinitz became an American citizen two years after he defended his world title against Johannes Zukertort in 1886, and played the remainder of his international career as a US player. In 1996, the United States Chess Federation passed a special resolution officially acknowledging Steinitz as being the first US World Champion. Citizens of the World: Here is a partial list of chessplayers who changed their nationality in the course of their chess playing career. I have excluded players who have moved to another country but kept the citizenship of their first country.
Pawn Promotion: The laws regarding pawn promotions varied considerably right up to the mid 19th century. In some countries, a pawn could only promote into a piece that had previously been captured. If no pieces had been captured, the pawn remained "dormant" on the 8th rank until a capture took place, when it too took the identity of the captured piece. Play Promotion: At the 1900 Paris international tournament, a drawn game was scored for each player as a quarter of a point. A further game would be played to determine which player would receive a further half point. Investigative Journalism: Jacque -Francis Mouet (c. 1787-1837) was one of the most successful human operators of the chess automaton "Turk" in the early part of the 19th century. Of the 300 odd games that he played giving odds of pawn and move while operating the "Turk", he lost only 6. Due to a weakness for alcohol in the 1830's, he gave a magazine the details of how a human player operated the "Turk". He was the only human operator who betrayed the secret of the "Turk". Learn more about The Turk. Argumentative Journalism: When Wilhelm Steinitz and
Johannes Zukertort played their world championship match in 1886, both were
involved in editing chess magazines at the same time. Steinitz was the
editor of the "International Chess Magazine", while Zukertort was co-editor
of "Chess Monthly". Both players used the pages of their magazines to
bicker and argue with each other prior to the match.
(A) Nicholas Rossolimo Return to The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia
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