Archive for May 25th, 2025

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Chess Special 5

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on May 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Unlike the popular gameshow, features such as ‘ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50‘ are inapplicable here -sincere apologies. Unfortunately, there’s no money to be made from this also. However, do your best but do it alone please -no googling!

Question 1 £100

How many pawns are there on the board at the beginning of a game?

A: 4

B: 8

C: 16

D: 32

Question 2 £200

When two kings are placed in the centre of the board by an arbiter, what does this signify?

A: a game has been drawn.

B: a game has been won by white.

C: a game has been won by black.

D: a game has not been played.

Question 3 £300

Queening refers to what in chess?

A: castling

B: a sacrifice

C: an exchange

D: promotion

Question 4 £400

The headquarters of FIDE are in which country?

A: France

B: Switzerland

C: Belgium

D: Austria

Question 5 £500

The Lewis Chessmen are housed in a musuem in which city?

A: Glasgow

B: Cardiff

C: London

D: Dublin

Question 6 £1,000

Who is the only person described as both unofficial and official world champion?

A: Wilhelm Steinitz

B: Johannes Zukertort

C: Adolf Anderssen

D: Emmanuel Lasker

Question 7 £2,000

The book Modern Ideas in Chess was written by whom?

A: Aron Nimzowitch

B: Jose Capablanca

C: Richard Reti

D: Max Euwe

Question 8 £4,000

The St. George’s Defence has also been called?

A: The Liverpool Defence

B: The Manchester Defence

C: The Cambridge Defence

D: The Birmingham Defence

Question 9 £8,000

Who became the Women’s World Champion in 2018?

A: Ju Wenjun

B: Hou Yifan

C: Tan Zhyongi

D: Lie Tingjie

Question 10 £16,000

The American player Larry Christiansen was awarded the title of GM in which decade?

A: 1960s

B: 1970s

C: 1980s

D: 1990s

Question 11 £32,000

What was the prize money for the 1992 rematch between Fischer and Spassky?

A: $1,000,000

B: $3,000,000

C: $5,000,000

D: $10,000,000

Question 12 £64,000

Which European master played a match against Paul Morphy in New Orleans in 1850?

A: Daniel Harrwitz

B: Johann Löwenthal

C: Adolf Anderssen

D: Louis Paulsen

Question 13 £125,000

‘Jaque Mate’ is the term for checkmate in which language?

A: French

B: Portugese

C: Italian

D: Spanish

Question 14 £250,000

The 2020 Tata Steel Tournament held in Wijk An Zee was won by whom?

A: Magnus Carlsen

B: Fabio Caruana

C: Wesley So

D: Anish Giri

Question 15 £500,000

Who was Magnus Carlsen’s last opponent as world champion?

A: GM Hikaru Nakamura

B: GM Alireza Firouzja

C: GM Richard Rapport

D: GM David Howell

Question 16 £1,000,000

Who is the only Canadian to have beaten former world champions Capablanca and Fischer, and drawn with former world champion Alekhine?

A: Daniel Yanofsky

B: Nathan Divinsky

C: Duncan Suttles

D: Maurice Fox

So there you are, well done if you did well. No money once again I’m afraid owing to being a poor English teacher. I do put thought into this, so if you got more than half right, you did well. Hope you enjoyed, you might even want to give it a shot yourself! 

Mark. J. McCready

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Answers to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Chess Special 5

Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on May 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

1 C

2 A

3 D

4 B

5 C

6 A

7 C

8 D

9 A

10 B

11 C

12 B

13 D

14 B

15 D

16 D

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Conquistador

Posted in On-line journal, Personal Interest & Experience on May 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A love of travel has pushed me far and wide. Two months ago I arrived in my 38th county, down yonder Latin America to Colombia in fact, courtesy of that leitmotiv of mine (all that is left now is Africa and Australasia). This afternoon, I headed further north than usual in the capital city, to give training to a headmaster at an International school. After it had concluded, I cut through the small but exclusive shopping mall I saw opposite his luxury apartment -you can find it and its name on the map here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ixdGsHkqyfmaRcsH9.

It had two floors only, the second being a food court, so I decided to take a look. Much to my surprise I noticed ten or so elderly gentlemen -like me- playing skittles. Within minutes I was beckoned to play at a table by the windows. This was to be my first game in Colombia, my first game in Latin America. Perchance I looked English for I was offered the white pieces, and being English, naturally I opened with 1. c4. I played all my moves almost instantly except one or two -as if it were bullet chess with no clock! But with my heroes being Carlsen and Karpov, yes I went for a Catalan, opting for some space grabbing on the queenside with an a-pawn thrust that knocked his knight on b6 back to the eighth rank before opening the centre up with a d-pawn push that put my opponent on the backfoot even further in order to blockade it. He made no mistakes, however, but his defensive minor piece placement in the middlegame allowed me much activity in the endgame, which when my king came marching in, eventually cost him the full point. I did not write anything down for it was only skittles but I do recall the final position.

In playing Kc7 my opponent accepted defeat

Even though the weather is inclement, the start to the day often inauspicious, the culture in Bogota is vibrant nonetheless. They like to live their life to the full here, they are pragmatic about it also, well for the most part. They don’t only play chess in parks, they also congregate in food courts to deliver checkmate, until of course they come up against McCready the conquistador! My play was consistent in approach and effective too, and that made me proud, putting a smile on my face as I left. It was already dark then, the time some twenty minutes or so after dusk had fallen. I walked towards the Transmilenio bus stop named Alcalá, my mood jovial, my state of mind aloof somewhat. Getting on the right bus, that being number 8, but going several kilometers in the wrong direction towards the northern edge of the city was more laughable than it was regretable, such was my mood: I came, I saw, I conquered I told myself, and not I came, I saw (the bus), I conquered a seat on it but off it went in the opposite direction and I almost got myself bloody lost again! It wasn’t an unfitting end to an afternoon of discovery followed by achievement but simply a brief return of ‘old dafthead’ as Worzel Gummidge would have put it -or so I like to jest!

Nothing more than a cameo in this episode?!?

To end, my greatest passion in life isn’t chess, it’s music; therefore, the thing I connect with the most here isn’t that chess is enjoyed in public but rather heavy metal is popular indeed instead. The song of the day, then, has to be this appropriately named, and rather catchy, 1980’s German metal massacre.

Mark. J. McCready

Colombia

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