McCreadyandChess

Which renowned tournament began one summer’s day. The following day war broke out and came within 30kms of the playing venue, so it is claimed. One of the participants left the tournament early to go and fight in it.

M J M

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This comes from knowledgeable and respectable chess friend Mark Ruston who went to school in Charlton, London. There he was taught by former British chess champion IM Bob Wade OBE. Where did IM Wade live in London and which former British champion did he rent a room from in his palatial mansion?

Helpful but chronicled clue: whilst teaching south of Charlton in New Eltham one summer, I used to cycle to The British Library to look at the chess books available to the public in its reference section (especially Sargeant’s A Century of British Chess). En route, and after a tough climb, where IM Wade lived I fell for because it was the first part of the city I rode through that was very green and quiet, and not like London at all. Still to this day, I often think if I could choose a part of London to live in, that would be it.

Shorter helpful clue

It would be more accurate to hyphenate the term ‘champion’ in the question.

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Which online bank and global payment platform has a founder who shares his name with a popular Soviet world chess champion?

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Apologies if this sounds rhetorical but with conservatism so rampant in chess “What are we supposed to do?” Buck the trend and become more playful with language perhaps?

Which former British Chess Champion wanted to reach out and touch children through his chess the most?

Naughty clue: ‘ee by gum, it ain’t just folklore this. And if ya think otherwise you’re as daft as a brush’

Less naughty clue: he became British champion the year I was born (early 70s).

Inpiration

M J M

Bahrain

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Whenever I discover chess content incorporating history by historians, keen to post it I am for perhaps obvious reasons. One popped up in an audio lecture yesterday.

In case you don’t know or can’t guess, the well-respected historian Steinberg argues that it was Lenin.

Here he is. In my opinion no other westerner understands the history of Russia better than him. Watch him, listen to him or purchase one of his many publications and you might see why.

MJM

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Some time has slipped by since I became a member of the ECF Forum then began posting therein. Apparently, I am most active in the chess history trivia thread in the Chess History Forum…see 🙂 !

You can read them here posted in chronological order: you can search for the answers in the forum or ask me personally if thou so wish…should you be unable to answer them yourself of course! Failing all that, there is of course footnotes! Perhaps its best to emphasize, should you be new to the site, yes I am English, and yes the forum is English, so indeed there is a bias towards English chess history but please dont let that deter you as it does not pervade all questions.

n.b (1) not all can be copied over, a few exceptions have been ommitted due to material uncopiable (pics & puzzles mostly).

n.b (2) *** denotes McCready‘s favourite normally implying a question few, if any, know the answer to.

n.b (3) The dates of these trivia Q’s are June 24^th 2013 to April 23^rd 2025

Do be a good egg –no googling please!

1. Which former world champion has a weapon named after him to describe a set-up he used with great effect in several notable games? ¹
2. The title of whose biography is an anagram of his name?²
3. Who sang opera on the radio during the 53 candidates match in Zurich? ³
4. What is the largest number of players a gambit, or opening for that matter, has been named after? ⁴
5. Which individual who played (at least once) for the strong Middlesex side of the 1920s beat both Capablanca and Fischer (simul and tournament games)? I should add he also drew with Alekhine too (simul). ⁵
6. Which English player tragically lost two wives (both players themselves) within a decade of one another last century? ⁶
7. Major. E. Montague Jones was the long-standing headmaster of which school? ⁷
8. Tal’s first victory as world champion was against which future unpopular character? ⁸
9. Which country did Capablanca once claim to be ‘most suitable’ for producing chess players, courtesy of its ‘raw climate’? ⁹
10. Who fought in the second world war under the name Lieutenant Cartier? ¹⁰
11. Who once received an invite to the Cambridge – Oxford matches for past members, the first of which began on March 27th 1889, had his acceptance to play withdrawn by his doctor? He had the result telegraphed to him and sadly died less than 5 days after the match. ‘Some of his last conscious talk having been about the match’. ¹¹
12. The match score was 217.5 – 182.5. Can you name the English teams? ¹²
13. I have another question, Who said this and which tournament was he referring to? ‘Oh, my tip to win this year’s tournament? Petrosian, not because he’s ex-world champion, but because he’s deaf.’ ¹³
14. Who won the 1989 Hitchin Open? ¹⁴
15. Who once wrote this and where was it published? ‘Cherished chess! The charms of thy checkered chambers chain me changelessly. Chaplains have chanted thy charming choiceness; chieftains have changed the chariot and the chase for the chaster chivalry of the chess-board, and the cheerier charge of the chess-knights. Chaste-eyed Caissa! For thee are the chaplets of chainless charity and the chalice of childlike cheerfulness. No chilling churl, no cheating chafferer, no chattering changeling, no chanting charlatan, can be thy champion; the chivalrous, the charitable, and the cheerful, are the chosen ones thou cherishest. Chance cannot change thee: from the cradle of childhood to the charnel-house, from our first childish chirpings to the chills of the church-yard, thou art our cheery, changeless chieftainess. Chastener of the churlish, chider of the changeable, cherisher of the chagrined, the chapter of thy chiliad of charms should be chanted by cherubic chimes, and chiseled on chalcedon in cherubic chirography.’ ¹⁵
16. Which world class player, whose career spanned more than half a century, played a number of unconventional openings in his final tournament, including 1. g4 x2, 1. b4 x2 and 1. …a5? ¹⁶
17. How do we connect these two words Liddell and Glass? ¹⁷
18. Which brothers met for the first time in an olympiad? ¹⁸
19. What was the stated reason why E. Germany refused to participate in the 74 Olympiad? ¹⁹
20. Which world championship match had the largest animals in it (think of opening names)? ²⁰
21. Which GM first coined the -pejorative- phrase ‘Irish pawn centre’? ²¹
22. How many former world chess champions have been put in prison? ²²
23. How many former varsity match competitors went on to be given a C.B.E by the queen? ²³
24. What was the first chess book in English called and who printed it? ²⁴
25. Who was the first Pope to compose and publish chess problems? ²⁵
26. *** Who is the only player to have played both former world champions Lasker and Karpov at classical chess only? *** ²⁶
27. Which UK country has the oldest chess association? ²⁷
28. Which county in England was the first to form a chess association and in which year? ²⁸
29. Which champion of Bedford Chess club went on to become champion of South Africa? ²⁹
30. The bishop of which island nation, telegraphed his absence to the British Championship in its second week in 1908? ³⁰
31. In which town/city did Blackburne perform a simul on November 4th 1880? ³¹
32. The president of which chess association once lived in a country estate at Rempstone Hall? ³²
33. Which former titled player’s attitude towards chess was commonly described as ‘Forward, into battle!’ by not only his student, and quite soon to be world champion, but just about everyone else too! ³³
34. In which university was the final of the national county championships held in 91? ³⁴
35. What, at Repstone Hall Nottingham 1936, was Lasker caught engrossed with but then strongly objected to being photographed with, abruptly casting that in his possession to one side to avoid being associated with it? ³⁵
36. In the winter of 48/49 an all-Russian tournament for which type of worker attracted 103,000 entrants? ³⁶
37. Who, in 1937, was told by a jolly Communist Propaganda Department official in Kiev that his failure to participate regularly at chess events might be held against him and interpreted in a way that could be dangerous? ³⁷
38. Who, in 1735, wrote the book Noble game of chess? ³⁸
39. Which was the first newspaper in England to have a column devoted to chess? ³⁹
40. Which contest began its tenure with the winners reported as being awarded a trophy by Sir George Newnes, valued at £200 in its day? ⁴⁰
41. What was discovered in 1831 and where? ⁴¹
42. Which British post punk rock/80s rock/pop band wrote a song about chess? ⁴²
43. Who was the only Englishman to become a Grandmaster in 1994? ⁴³
44. *** Sincere apologies for slipping in a rather cryptic question but which noted chess historian had the following briefly inter-related in his life: the great depression, holy river & hound of the plain, a black horse, and a preference to shop at Sainsburys? *** ⁴⁴
45. Which counties have the river chess flowing through it? ⁴⁵
46. In which of Shakespeare’s play does he take the term stalemate and use it creatively as thus: ‘it is your will to make a stale of me among these mates’? ⁴⁶
47. Which former world champion was born in a place which is now part of Poland? ⁴⁷
48. Which, you could say avant-garde, British band released a single in the very early 80s where the video depicts numerous shots of someone sitting at a chess board before a game commences which remains central to the whole video? ⁴⁸
49. Which somewhat satirical, and at times a bit silly, British 80s band who sometimes made it into the charts, once released a song about their experience of playing chess online? ⁴⁹
50. According to IM Lawence Trent in the discontinued podcast The Full English Breakfast (The F.E.B), which former world champion was once banned from eating croissants by his wife? ⁵⁰
51. The establishment of the famed Westminster club in London came about by whose efforts in 1831? ⁵¹
52. Tumbling clocks were introduced in which London tournament and what did they replace? ⁵²
53. Which British player once had his chess playing ability characterised as ‘his hobby is lion killing’ by a well known author and columnist? ⁵³
54. Which ‘old master’ has become noted for the following: if his opponent came late to the board he would take note of the minutes late then subtract them from his own clock! ⁵⁴
55. Which well known 20th century academic is noted to have drawn comparisons between chess and the syntax of language? ⁵⁵
56. Why is the number 18 million, million, million known in chess? ⁵⁶
57. Which of Shakespeare’s plays contains a scene with a game of chess being played in a boat in it? ⁵⁷
58. What was the name of the first recorded chess cafe in England? ⁵⁸
59. After which international tournament did it then become common practice to score draws as half a point in all play all tournaments? ⁵⁹
60. which was the first country in Asia that England first had telegraph matches with? ⁶⁰
61. In our era the term ‘accumulation of small advantages’ is commonly attributed to Karpov, particularly by his contemporaries but who was the term originally attributed to? ⁶¹
62. *** Which former president of the B.C.F enjoyed watching his son participate for Bermuda at an olympiad once? He scored 5/7 on board 1? *** ⁶²
63. On a day of rest during a celebrity team football match, Nigel Short scored from a penalty, awarded by referee Osvaldo Ardilles, but nonetheless was on the wrong side of a 3-9 loss. Who was the famous Soviet chess player that let those 9 goals in and had his goalkeeping exploits written about in The Guardian not to mention Chess Magazine and The British Chess Magazine? ⁶³
64. Which English future prime minister played in the Scottish Championship more than once, also played Capablanca and had an article written about his playing style by none other than Jacques Miesis, which was then published in the British Chess Magazine? ⁶⁴
65. Which gambit has more than one name, the latter attributed being the same name as a famous film? ⁶⁵
66. Which european did Tal once say had he been from the Soviet Union he would have been the world champion? ⁶⁶
67. Around the world, in languages where chess pieces are classified, what is the most common name for what we call ‘the rook’? ⁶⁷
68. Which is the only language that uses the term lähetti to describe one of the peices and which one? ⁶⁸
69. In which Arthur Conan Doyle story does Sherlock Holmes refer to a character who ‘excelled’ at chess? ⁶⁹
70. Which constellation in the starry sky was tacked onto the home city name of a group of chess players? What was the title they were given? ⁷⁰
71. Which dramacist once said ‘Life is too short for chess’? ⁷¹
72. Who was the last Brit to play at the US Championships? ⁷²
73. Who has been both President of the Irish Chess Union and the Kent County Chess association and has also had a variant of chess named after him? ⁷³
74. Who wrote a novel about a variation of the Sicilian Defence in the 1960’s? ⁷⁴
75. In which film does Steve McQueen play Faye Dunaway at chess? (possibly a bit too easy this one) ⁷⁵
76. Which defence has a finger-slip variation in it and how did it acquire that name? ⁷⁶
77. *** Who is the only Englishmen to represent his country and who both suffered from Polio and received a C.B.E in the 1980s for his work dedicated towards that which he suffered from? *** ⁷⁷
78. Which was the only World championship match to be held in Africa? ⁷⁸
79. Which of celebrated director Ridley Scott’s films has the most chess in it? ⁷⁹
80. ***Was the Karpov Miles game featuring the St.George’s defence the first time a reigning ,or if not, future world champion had a game which he lost against recorded? If not Karpov, which world champion preceding him also has a loss against that opening also recorded? *** ⁸⁰
81. Who is the only former British Champion to write a book on 1.f4, or The Bird’s Opening if you like? ⁸¹
82. Which player is remembered more for a severe medical complication at the board during a tournament, which shortly cost him his life, rather than a publication on a defence for black published in Russian? ⁸²
83. If we invert notation so that file comes before rank, for example 4f instead if f4, which then becomes the only example of such that also appears in a famous line in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet? ⁸³
84. Which Guy Ritchie film has a chess scene in it, and was anyone also English, consulted over it? ⁸⁴
85. Who is mentioned by Kasparov in one of his publications, as the inspiration behind the main character, in one of the most famous novels on chess? ⁸⁵

1. Alekhine ↩︎
2. GM Tony Miles ‘It’s only me‘ ↩︎
3. GM Vassily Smyslov ↩︎
4. Albin-Chatard-Alekhine Attack in the French is a candidate. (unconfirmed) ↩︎
5. Canadian Maurice Fox ↩︎
6. R H S Stevenson ↩︎
7. St. Alban’s School. He was head from 1902 and was one of the founders of the Officer Training Corps in public schools.
   Champion of the British Correspondence Chess Association in 1909. ↩︎
8. Florencio Campomanes ↩︎
9. England ↩︎
10. Savielly Tartakower (or however it is spelt), serving under the Free French ↩︎
11. Walter Parratt ↩︎
12. North of the Thames vs South of the Thames, 24th September 1921 at Central Hall Westminster. ↩︎
13. GM Tony Miles ↩︎
14. GM Michael Adams ↩︎
15. D. W. Fiske ↩︎
16. GM Bent Larsen ↩︎
17. Lewis Carroll ↩︎
18. Dan Yanofsky from Canada apparently first met his brother, one J Janofsky, at the Buenos Aries Olympiad in 1939 ↩︎
19. In fact the then DDR did not play any Olympiads between 1972 and 1988, though I suspect the likelihood of them then finishing behind W. Germany may have been more of a factor. ↩︎
20. Spassky-Petrosian 1966 (The hippopotamus played twice). ↩︎
21. GM Tony Miles, tripled isolated pawns on a central file and Tony Miles first referred to it in the Amsterdam Zonal tournament in 1978. ↩︎
22. 3. Fischer, Kasparov and Alekhine (who apparently was to be shot at dawn.) ↩︎
23. 8. T W Robbins, Hugh Alexander, Herbert Bewley, Brebis Bleaney, Denis Mardle, Joseph Smith, Sir Duncan Watson, Demis Hassabis ↩︎
24. The Game And Playe Of The Chesse, Caxton ↩︎
25. John Paul II ↩︎
26. Reshevsky, the Polish protege. ↩︎
27. 1884 Scotland ↩︎
28. Yorkshire Chess Association, 1841 ↩︎
29. Major Harry Duhan ↩︎
30. Trinidad ↩︎
31. Luton ↩︎
32. J.N. Derbyshire ↩︎
33. GM Tolusch ↩︎
34. Aston University ↩︎
35. A copy of the Berliner Tageblatt ↩︎
36. Farm workers on collective farmsm D.J.Richards publication on Soviet Chess discusses it ↩︎
37. Bohatyrchuk ↩︎
38. Capt. Joseph Bertin ↩︎
39. Liverpool Mercury (July 1813) ↩︎
40. The Anglo -v- America Cable Matches which began in 1896 ↩︎
41. The Isle of Lewis chess pieces. ↩︎
42. Killing Joke and their song Chessboards. ↩︎
43. Peter Wells ↩︎
44. G. H. Diggle ↩︎
45. Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. ↩︎
46. The Taming Of The Shrew, Act I Scene 1 ↩︎
47. Lasker ↩︎
48. Maid of Orleans by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. ↩︎
49. Half Man Half Biscuit – Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess ↩︎
50. Kramnik. ↩︎
51. George Walker. ↩︎
52. 1883 London and they replaced hourglasses ↩︎
53. Hugh Alexander from The Delights of Chess by Heinrich Fraenkel. ↩︎
54. Schlechter, ↩︎
55. Wittgenstein. ↩︎
56. The earliest versions of this story come from India and involve a man (the inventor of chess in some tellings), being offered a reward by a king, and asking that a single grain of wheat (rice, in some versions) be placed on the first square of a chessboard, two on the second, and each subsequent square having twice as many grains as the one before. In the story, the king generally laughs off such a reward as being trivial, but soon learns that the reward would be impossible to pay. Since a chessboard contains 64 squares, the final square would contain 2^63 (approximately 9.2 quintillion) grains. ↩︎
57. The Tempest. ↩︎
58. Old Slaughter’s Coffee House. ↩︎
59. Dundee 1867. ↩︎
60. India. ↩︎
61. Steinitz. ↩︎
62. W. A. Cordon (BCF President in 1978/79), his son Ian Cordon, played for Bermuda at the Olympiad in 1986 (Dubai) ↩︎
63. Viktor Korchnoi. ↩︎
64. Andrew Bonar Law. ↩︎
65. The Maltese Falcon ↩︎
66. GM Sergio Mariotti. ↩︎
67. tower ↩︎
68. Finnish. And it’s the bishop. ↩︎
69. The Adventure of the Retired Colourman. ↩︎
70. The Pleiades, who included Bilguer, Horwitz, and von der Lasa. ↩︎
71. Henry James Byron. ↩︎
72. GM Tony Miles. ↩︎
73. Lord Dunsany. ↩︎
74. Anthony Glyn – The Dragon Variation. ↩︎
75. The Thomas Crown Affair. ↩︎
76. This move had its introduction into master play as the result of a fingerslip by Alekhine against Flohr, at Nottingham in 1936. pparently it’s a line in the Frence Defence, Winawer variation. ↩︎
77. Denis Mardle ↩︎
78. Adams v Kasimdzhanov 2004 ↩︎
79. Blade Runner. ↩︎
80. No. Steinitz vs John Baker in 1868. ↩︎
81. Broadbent. ↩︎
82. Bagirov ↩︎
83. 2b or not 2b -that is the question. ↩︎
84. The film was “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”. The game used was Larsen vs Petrosian, 1966, where Larsen sacced his queen:the chess consultant was Adam Raoof ↩︎
85. Curt von Bardeleben, who was the inspiration for the character Luzhin in Nabakov’s The Luzhin Defense. ↩︎

Mark. J. McCready

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