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Chessville
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The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Archive #2 Submit your trivia to the Mad Aussie!
Three Queens Too Many: Here is the score of the alleged "Five Queens" game that Alexander Alekhine played: Alekhine-Grigoriev Moscow 1915 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. e5 h6 6. exf6 hxg5 7. fxg7 Rg8 8. h4 gxh4 9. Qg4 Be7 10. g3 c5 11. gxh4 cxd4 12. h5 dxc3 13. h6 cxb2 14. Rb1 Qa5+ 15. Ke2 Qxa2 16. h7 Qxb1 17. hxg8=Q+ Kd7 18. Qxf7 Qxc2+ 19. Kf3 Nc6 20. Qgxe6+ Kc7 21. Qf4+ Kb6 22. Qee3+ Bc5 23. g8=Q b1=Q 24. Rh6. Alekhine says that the game finished with 24... Qxf1 25. Qb4+ Qb5 26. Qd8+ Ka6 27. Qea3+ with unavoidable mate. However, in the mid 1970's a young Jan Timman found that Black could draw with 24... Bg4+ 25. Qgxg4 Bxe3 26. Qb4+ Qxb4 27. Qxb4+ Kc7 28. Qd6+ Kb6 =. The fabrication was discovered when the notes to the game were found in a 1916 Russian chess magazine. Alekhine was BLACK, not White, and Grigoriev had varied at move 11 with 11. O-O-O Nc6 12. dxc5 Qa5 13. Kb1 which ended in a hard-fought draw. Alekhine's note to 11. 0-0-0 was "I was determined to reply to 11 gh4 with 11..Bf6 because 11....cd4 would have led to complications which were very difficult to figure out and which would have hardly have been of advantage to Black." Biased Opinion Perhaps? The 16th-Century Spanish player Bishop Ruy Lopez stated that no player of any skill would ever use the English Opening (1.c4) to start a game. Double Rook Sacrifice: The first recorded game to feature a double Rook sacrifice was played between Bowdler and Conway at London in 1788: 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. d3 c6 4. Qe2 d6 5. f4 exf4 6. Bxf4 Qb6 7. Qf3 Qxb2 8. Bxf7+ Kd7 9. Ne2 Qxa1 10. Kd2 Bb4+ 11. Nbc3 Bxc3+ 12. Nxc3 Qxh1 13. Qg4+ Kc7 14. Qxg7 Nd7 15. Qg3 b6 16. Nb5+ cxb5 17. Bxd6+ Kb7 18. Bd5+ Ka6 19. d4 b4 20. Bxb4 Kb5 21. c4+ Kxb4 22. Qb3+ Ka5 23. Qb5# 1-0 Original Grandmasters: The first 5 players to be given the title "Grandmaster" were Alexander Alekhine, Jose Capablanca, Siegbert Tarrasch, Emanuel Lasker and Frank Marshall. After the conclusion of the 1914 St Petersburg tournament, Czar Nicholas II of Russia officially bestowed the title of "Grandmaster of Chess" on these 5 players. Correspondence Correspondent: Between mid 1940 and the end of 1972, Swiss master Henry Grob played a total of 3,614 correspondence chess games, often playing 60-70 games at once. His total score was +2,703 -430 =481 (81.4%). All of the games were played against readers of the Zurich newspaper Neuen Zurcher Zeitung. Grob's moves would be printed in the newspaper, and his opponents would then post their moves back to him. Elo Champion: Arpad Elo, the originator of the rating system that bears his name, was champion or co-champion of the American state of Wisconsin 9 times between 1935 and 1961. Delayed Comebacks: English Master Henry Atkins had a 20 year gap between his final two international tournaments - Hanover (1902) and London (1922). There were also twenty years between Bobby Fischer's two matches with Boris Spassky, in 1972 and 1992. From Amateur To Professional: The 1911 San Sebastian tournament was the first international tournament at which all competitors were reimbursed for their fares and living expenses. More On Morphy: In the course of his brief career, Paul Morphy played in only one tournament. This was the inaugural American Chess Congress, a 16 player knockout held in New York in 1857. Morphy defeated Louis Paulsen in the final (+5, -1, =2). Exercises In Futility: Czech master Salo Flohr played 12 tournament games against Alexander Alekhine, 10 tournament games against Reuben Fine and 9 tournament games against Sammy Reshevsky, and failed to record a victory in any of them. Simultaneous First: Swiss player Hans Fahrni (1874-1939) was the first master to play 100 opponents in a simultaneous display. He scored +55, - 6, =39 in a seven and a half hour display at Munich in 1911. Still Going Strong: At the age of 90, Edward Lasker took part in the telex match held between London and New York on September 11 1976, making him one of, if not the oldest person to compete in a major international chess event. For Medicinal Purposes Only: Mikhail Chigorin had a bottle of brandy next to the board, which he drank from, when he played Wilhelm Steinitz for the World Championship title in 1889 and 1892. Cash Strapped: Jose Capablanca agreed in 1926 to defend his World Champion title against Aron Nimzovich, but Nimzovich was unable to raise the money required for the match to take place. The following year Capablanca lost his title to Alexander Alekhine. Nimzovich never again had the opportunity to play for the World Chess Championship. In the Money: In 1872, the London Chess Club, represented by Blackburne, Horwitz, Lowenthal, Potter, Steinitz and Wisker, began a correspondence match of two games against a team from Vienna led by Kolisch for a prize of 200 pounds. There was dissent in the London team, with the majority of the team unable to accept the suggestions of Potter and Steinitz. The other players abandoned the match, leaving Potter and Steinitz to play against the full Vienna team, which they did. They subsequently won the match and the prize money! Return to the Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Index
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