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The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Archive #9 Submit your trivia to the Mad Aussie!
Princely Hi-jinks: Prince Andreas Dadian (1850-1910) was a Georgian prince who was an "amateur" player as well as being a patron of the game at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He claimed to have beaten many masters, but in fact he paid these masters to "collaborate" in producing games which the Prince won. When the great Russian player Mikhail Chigorin declined to participate in one of these "collaborations", Dadian stopped Chigorin from competing in the 1903 Monaco tournament, as he was the tournament organizer. Soviet Hi-jinks: The 12th USSR championship at Moscow in 1940 finished in a tie for first between Bondarevsky and Lilienthal. Mikhail Botvinnik finished =5th. He complained that the tournament had been played under very noisy conditions, where the hubbub from the audience could be clearly heard by the players. He was also hindered by the fact that some of his opponents smoked during games. Originally a play-off match between Bondarevsky and Lilienthal was to be conducted to determine a winner, but instead an "Absolute Championship" over 20 rounds was held in Leningrad and Moscow in March/April 1941, featuring the top 6 players. As this included Botvinnik, it was believed that senior sports officials had arranged the tournament to give Botvinnik a chance to redeem himself. To stop spectator noise, the sports official Snegiryov arranged for members of the police to be standing in the aisles during the tournament. One spectator was ejected for "hooliganism". Botvinnik won the "Absolute Championship" and the tournament was never held again. Who Am I? Who Am I? #1: I have been award the titles of International Grandmaster, International Arbiter and International Judge of Chess Compositions. I competed in my country's national championship 15 times, winning the title outright, and losing a play-off on another occasion. I qualified for the Candidates tournament once, and won several international tournaments. Apart from my play, my greatest contribution has been through my writings. I was involved in chess magazines in my country, but my main work was a multi-volume set on the endgame. Originally published in 3 volumes, the set was updated to 5 volumes in the early 1980's. Finally, I have also been the president of the national chess federation as well. Who am !? Who Am I? #2: I am one of the earliest players of the "modern" era of chess. At age 19 I compiled a manuscript on openings, which I sold to a wealthy patron. I did this throughout my career as a means of making money. At the age of 21, I earned 5,000 French francs for defeating France's 3 top players - Arnault le Carabin, Chaumont de la Salle and Duc de Nemours. I then went to England. While there, I began the practice of giving complete games to illustrate my opening variations. While nearly all of these games are fictitious, they are lively and entertaining. I ended up at the court of the Spanish King, Phillip IV, where I defeated all comers. I went to the West Indies with a Spanish nobleman, and died there in my mid 30's. My manuscripts were not made available to the public till after my death. I had an opening named after me, although the opening is now better known under another name. Ending the Game: The first true "mechanical" chess clocks were manufactured in the late 1880's, and worked on a "pendulum" system. The "upright" clock showed which player was moving. Once the move was completed, this clock would be moved into a "tilting" position, simultaneously stopping the movement and starting the other clock, which was now in the "upright" position. At the 1894 Leipzig tournament, an improved version was used. The clocks were fixed on a stand, and a lever was pressed to stop one clock and start the other clock. This system is still the basis for modern chess clocks. The idea of a "flag" to see if a player had run out of time was first discussed at the end of the 1890's, but it took a few years until flags were fitted to all clocks. Ending of the Game: The first chess book that was devoted wholly to the study of "practical" endgames was co-written by the French writer Philippe Durand (1799-1880) and the Italian writer Jean-Louis Preri (1798-1881). The 2-volume "Strategie raisonne des fins de partie" was published in the early 1870's. Alcoholic Chess: I had a look in David Pritchards' excellent book "Encyclopedia of Chess Variants" for information about alcoholic chess. In Budapest in 1890, there was a game played, with the following types of alcohol being used:
The players had to take a drink from the piece that they moved. The game ended in a draw by "mutual confusion". The "normal" rules are that a player must promptly drink the contents of any man he captures. Emanuel Lasker is said to have won a game by deliberately sacrificing his queen (quarter-litre of cognac) in the early stages. The opponent's play went downhill pretty quickly! Overcoming History: Alexander Alekhine had lost all 5 previous tournament games against Jose Capablanca prior to their 1927 World Championship match. Despite this, Alekhine managed to win the match and the World Champion title. A similar situation occurred with Bobby Fischer prior to his 1972 World Championship match against Boris Spassky, as Fischer and Spaaky had played five times prior to their 1972 match, Spassky had won all of their decisive games, but they also drew two games, in the 1966 Piatigorsky tournament's 2nd turnus and in the 1966 Chess Olympiad in Havana. Tournament Victories: In the early 1930's Alexander Alekhine recorded 2 of the biggest victories seen in major international tournament history. At San Remo in 1930, he finished 3.5 points ahead of Aron Nimzovich, while at Bled in 1931 he finished an incredible 5.5 points ahead of Efim Bogulyubov. Championship Victories: After winning the World Championship title in 1948, Mikhail Botvinnik took a 3 year break from chess, so that he could study for his science doctorate. He returned to competitive play in 1951, when he defended his title against David Bronstein. Chess Fighters: The 1916 match between David Janowski and Charles Jaffe was notable for the hard fought nature of the games, with each game having an average length of 65 moves. Janowski won the match (+5 =4, -4). Chess Lover: In the mid to late 19th century, Austrian industrialist Leopold von Trebitsch (1842-1906) learnt to play chess. He became a "patron", organizing tournaments in his home country. After his death a series of memorial tournaments in his honour were played in Vienna between 1907 and 1938. Winners of the tournaments include: Jacques Mieses (1907); Carl Schlechter (1915); Ernst Grunfeld (1928); Erich Eliskases (1935). Some interesting pawn adventures: When playing with the Black pieces against Efim Bogulyubov at Hastings in 1922, Alexander Alekhine "passively" sacrificed his queen on move 31, queened two pawns on moves 33 and 49, and was on his way to queening a third pawn when Bogulyubov resigned on move 53: Bogoljubow,E - Alekhine,A [A90] 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bxd2+ 6.Nxd2 Nc6 7.Ngf3 0-0 8.0-0 d6 9.Qb3 Kh8 10.Qc3 e5 11.e3 a5 12.b3 Qe8 13.a3 Qh5 14.h4 Ng4 15.Ng5 Bd7 16.f3 Nf6 17.f4 e4 18.Rfd1 h6 19.Nh3 d5 20.Nf1 Ne7 21.a4 Nc6 22.Rd2 Nb4 23.Bh1 Qe8 24.Rg2 dxc4 25.bxc4 Bxa4 26.Nf2 Bd7 27.Nd2 b5 28.Nd1 Nd3 29.Rxa5 b4 30.Rxa8 bxc3 31.Rxe8 c2 32.Rxf8+ Kh7 33.Nf2 c1Q+ 34.Nf1 Ne1 35.Rh2 Qxc4 36.Rb8 Bb5 37.Rxb5 Qxb5 38.g4 Nf3+ 39.Bxf3 exf3 40.gxf5 Qe2 41.d5 Kg8 42.h5 Kh7 43.e4 Nxe4 44.Nxe4 Qxe4 45.d6 cxd6 46.f6 gxf6 47.Rd2 Qe2 48.Rxe2 fxe2 49.Kf2 exf1Q+ 50.Kxf1 Kg7 51.Kf2 Kf7 52.Ke3 Ke6 53.Ke4 d5+ 0-1 In the game Du Mont-Gosling, London 1943, White had a pawn chain on the squares h2-g3-f4-e5-d6-c7. Not surprisingly, White won. In the game Alekhine-Nenerakov, Moscow 1907, Alekhine, after his 39th move, had quadrupled e-pawns - on e3, e5, e6 and e7. Unlike the Du Mont game, this structure did not lead to victory: Alekhine,A - Nenarokov,V [D02] 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c6 4.Bd3 f5 5.Ne5 Qf6 6.Nd2 Nd7 7.f4 Nxe5 8.fxe5 Qf7 9.0-0 Qc7 10.c4 Nh6 11.b3 Bd7 12.a4 Be7 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Ba3 Bxa3 15.Rxa3 0-0 16.Ra2 Rac8 17.Qe2 Qb6 18.Rc2 Rxc2 19.Bxc2 Rc8 20.Bd3 Qb4 21.h3 Nf7 22.Rb1 Rc3 23.Kh2 a6 24.Qf1 Qa3 25.Rd1 Qb2 26.Qe2 Nd8 27.Rb1 Qa3 28.Rf1 Qb4 29.Bb1 b5 30.g4 bxa4 31.gxf5 Bb5 32.Nc4 Rxb3 33.fxe6 dxc4 34.Qf3 Rxb1 35.Rxb1 Qxb1 36.e7 Ne6 37.d5 Qg6 38.dxe6 Qe8 39.Qd5 h6 40.Qc5 c3 41.Qxc3 Qxe7 42.Qc8+ Qe8 43.Qc7 Qxe6 0-1 Wrong Square: When playing with the White pieces against Edgar Colle at Budapest in 1926, Andre Steiner accidentally knocked over his king when making his 14th move. He replaced the king on g1, when it should have been replaced on h1. Later in the game Steiner played a combination which forced a win, but would have been unsound with the king on h1. The error was not discovered till the game was over. Colle protested, but the protest was turned down, and Steiner's win stood. Wrong Start: The following players defeated Emanuel Lasker the first time they played against him in international competition:
Ending With Endings: Before he died in 1952, famous French study composer Henri Rinck requested that a copy of his 800 page work "1414 Fins De Parties" be next to him when he was buried. The request was complied with, and the book was tucked up under his arm. Ending Up: By the end of the 16th century, castling had been established as one of the moves in chess. There were were many variations as to where the king and rook would finish after the castling move, e.g. Kf1/Re1, Kg1/Re1, Kg1/Rf1, Kh1/Re1, Kh1/Rf1, Kh1/Rg1, plus similar variations for Q-side castling. While the arrangement of Kg1/Rf1 became standard, "free castling" remained popular in Italy up until the 20th century. Opening Beginnings: Here are some more details about Owen's Defence: The opening is named after Reverend John Owen (1827-1901), who was a 19th century English player. He also wrote chess columns under the pseudonym "Alter". He finished =3rd at the 1858 Birmingham knock-out tournament, behind Lowenthal and Falkbeer, and ahead of Saint-Amant, Staunton and Bird. In the same year he played a match against Paul Morphy, with the American giving odds of pawn and move. Morphy won the match (+5, =2). Owen also played a match against Boden, in which it seems Owen played Black in every game, and used the 1...b6, 2....Bb7 opening. He lost all 4 recorded games. His best tournament result was probably finishing 3rd at London in 1862, behind Anderssen and Paulsen, but ahead of Dubois, MacDonnell, Steinitz and Blackburne. The earliest reference to the opening comes from some of Greco's games from the 1620's. One of them is a well-known opening trap: 1.e4 b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Bd3 f5 4.exf5 Bg2 5.Qh5+ g6 6.fxg6 Nf6 7.gxh7+ Nh5 8.Bg6 mate. More Opening Beginnings: In 1904, World Champion
Emanuel Lasker played 2 games of correspondence chess against John
McCutcheon, who had developed a variation in the French Defence that would
be known after him (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4). Both games were
won by White, but the variation became a respectable part of the French
Defence over the next few decades. #1 Yuri Averbakh (USSR, 1922 -) Return to the "Who Am I?" Trivia
Trivia Archives Return to the Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Index
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