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Chessville
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The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Submit your trivia to the Mad Aussie!
Drawing Master: At the Slupsk tournament in 1979, Hungarian GM Istvan Bilek drew all 10 games that he played in a grand total of 125 moves, taking only 109 minutes in time for all 10 games. Champion For A Day: After the death of Alexander Alekhine in 1946, FIDE held a meeting to decide on how to choose the next World Champion. The FIDE delegates decided that since Max Euwe was the only ex-World Champion still alive, he would be the "World Champion" until FIDE organized a tournament to find the next champion. The Soviet delegates arrived at the meeting a day late. They had the decision annulled, and thus the world title was left vacant, till Botvinnik won the 1948 tournament. Thus Euwe was "technically" World Champion twice: 1935-37, and one day in 1946. Inside Ajeeb: The great American master Harry Pillsbury was employed for a short time as the human operator of the chess automaton "Ajeeb". Richard the Fifth: German Richard Teichmann (1868-1925) was blind in one eye, and wore an eye-patch when playing in tournaments. Between 1902 and 1907 he finished 5th in 7 of the 15 tournaments that he played in, which led to him being nicknamed "Richard the Fifth". Candidates Roulette: The winner of the drawn 1983 Candidates quarter-final match between Vassily Smyslov and Robert Hubner was decided by the spin of a roulette wheel. Smyslov "won" and advanced to the Candidates semi-final. Opening Discussion: 32 of the 34 games in the 1927 World Championship match in Buenos Aires between Jose Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine featured the Queen's Gambit opening. First To Worst: After Vitaly Tseshkovsky won the USSR championship in 1978, he finished last in the 1979 tournament. He did the same thing nearly a decade later, winning the championship in 1986, and finishing last in 1987. Time Consuming: German master Friedrich Samisch lost all 13 of his games in the 1969 Linkopping tournament by failing to meet the time control in each game. "World Champion Tournament Player": The Ostend 1907 featured players such as Tarrasch, Schlechter, Marshall, Burn and Chigorin. After winning the tournament, Tarrasch was crowned the "World Champion Tournament Player" by the tournament organizers. No-one took the title seriously, and it quickly disappeared into chess history. Doubles, Anyone?: In April 1929, Jose Capablanca and Geza Maroczy played a 4-game match in London, but not with the standard board and pieces. Instead, a 16 X 12 board was used, with 2 sets of pieces placed side by side. Pawns were able to move up to 4 squares on the first move, with en passant still being allowed. Kings could only castle in their own "half" of the board. The object of the game was to mate either one of the opponent's kings. Capablanca won the match 3-1 (+2, =2). This appears to have been the only "doubles" match played between major international players. Best of Both Worlds: GM Boris Gulko is the only player who has won both the USA and USSR chess championships. Get A Kick Out Of This: The mutual loathing between Viktor Korchnoi and Tigran Petrtosian was so bad that when the two players faced each other in a 1977 World Championship Candidates match, a wooden division was placed under the chess table so that the players could not kick one another. Hard To Beat: Jose Capablanca had an 8 year period when he did not lose a single tournament game. After losing to Oscar Chajes in the 1916 New York tournament, his next loss was not until the 1924 New York tournament, when he lost to Richard Reti. Champion Beater: Akiba Rubinstein defeated Emanuel Lasker, Jose Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine in the first game that he played against those players in tournament play. Tiger-Tough To Beat: Tigran Petrosian played in 9 Chess Olympiads between 1958 and 1974, and his only loss in that time was against German GM Robert Hubner at Skopje in 1972. Hubner abandoned his 1971 Candidates match against Petrosian due to excessive noise in the playing hall. When It's My Time To Go...: Former Australian OTB champion and inaugural World Correspondence Chess Champion Cecil Purdy died while playing chess. He was playing Ian Parsonage during the City of Sydney Championship in late 1979 when he passed away. Was Keres the Best Never To Be World Champ? In the course of his long and distinguished career, Paul Keres defeated nine players who were at one stage in their careers world chess champion. The nine players were: Alexander Alekhine; Jose Capablanca; Vassily Smyslov; Max Euwe; Tigran Petrosian; Mikhail Tal; Mikhail Botvinnik; Boris Spassky; Bobby Fischer. When the Drawing Master Didn't Draw: Karl Schlechter had the nickname of the "Drawing Master", and in his 1910 match with Emanuel Lasker he only had to draw the 10th game to win the title of World Champion. Here's how close to the title that Schlechter came: one win, one loss, and eight draws! Here is the position after White's 39th move: White (Lasker): Ke1, Qd3, Rc8, Rf3,
Na4, a3, d4 Schlechter played 39......Qh1+ There followed 40. Rf1 Qh4+ 41.Kd2 Rf1 (41......Rd4 42. Rcf8+ Kg7 43. R1f7+ Kg6 44. Rh8+ Kg5 45. Rg8+ Kh6 46. Rh7#) 42. Qf1 Qd4+ 43. Qd3 Qf2+, and Black resigned after 71 moves. He could have drawn with 39........Qh4+ with the following variations: (a)40. Kd2 Qh2+ 41. Ke3 Rf3+ 42. Kf3 Qh3+ 43. Ke2 Qc8 44. Qb5= ; (b)40. Kf1 Qh3+ 41. Kf2 Rf3+ 42. Qf3 Qc8 43. Qh5+ Kg8 44. Qb5=; or even won with (c)40. Rg3 Qh1+ 41. Kd2 Rf2 42. Ke3 Qe1+ 43. Qe2 Qe2#. From all accounts, Schlechter was a quiet, humble and modest man. Maybe he thought that it was morally wrong to win the World Championship title by simplifying to a draw, and instead he believed that he should win the final game, in order to be a worthy successor to Lasker. Whatever the reason, this was Schlechter's one and only match for the World Championship. World War 1 arrived, and Schlechter didn't survive, dying in late 1918 due to consumption. A Matter of Priorities: One evening during the 1922 London tournament, which featured both Capablanca and Alekhine, both players were taken to a local theatre production. Capablanca spent the entire evening with his eyes focused on the stage, and the pretty actresses. Alekhine spent the entire evening analyzing games and positions on a pocket chess set, never once looking at the stage. An Economy of Moves: 1st World Correspondence Chess Champion C.J.S. Purdy's entire correspondence career consisted of a mere 46 games. Many CC addicts have more games than this in progress at once! Yet these 46 games netted Purdy two Australian titles and a World Championship. His overall record was +34 -2 =10. Return to the Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Index
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