October 9th 2016 has come and gone…
Pre-accident McCready‘s last trivia Q was…

Post-accident McCready‘s first trivia Q was…

Mark. J. McCready, 5.50 pm, Saturday April 26th 2025,
Bogota, Colombia
Posted in On-line journal, Trivia on April 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, History of Bedfordshire Chess, Trivia on March 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
‘Knowledge is power.‘ Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae 1597
All 50 questions, which should you seek the footnoted answers below will, I hope, broaden your understanding of Bedfordshire Chess Present & History greatly. All scores are welcome in the comments also. The primary purpose here is not so those attempting the quiz can answer all Qs. correctly but rather the questions will inspire those reading to seek the answer (footnoted) below.
An addendum: anything I have missed which should have been included do suggest (I will modify), the questions being too hard or not seemingly of no importance (please say so), any other suggestions and criciticisms are graciously accepted. This is a fun way to improve your understanding of the History of Bedfordshire Chess. The questions have been carefully chosen.
Mark. J. McCready
08.41, Monday, March 31st, Bogota, Colombia.
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged chess, games, pawn, sports, writing on December 16, 2024| 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
Which piece sits aside both the king and queen at the start of the game?
A: Pawn
B: Bishop
C: Knight
D: Rook
Question 2 £200
Which of these is not an example of under-promotion?
A: promoting a pawn to a queen.
B: promoting a pawn to a knight.
C: promoting a pawn to a bishop.
D: promoting a pawn to a rook.
Question 3 £300
The term zwischenzug means what in chess?
A: an announcement of stalemate.
B: an inability to make any good moves
C: an adjustment of a piece
D: an in-between move
Question 4 £400
Which former world champion has a term involving a weapon named after him?
A: Steinitz
B: Lasker
C: Alekhine
D: Kasparov
Question 5 £500
Which maneuver can be classified as artificial or by hand?
A: castling
B: double check
C: pawn promotion
D: en passant
Question 6 £1,000
After 1. d4 is played, if black then plays 1. …b5, this is known as what?
A: The Czech Defence
B: The Hungarian Defence
C: The Austrian Defence
D: The Polish Defence
Question 7 £2,000
The fifth official world champion was from which country?
A: Germany
B: The Netherlands
C: Cuba
D: The Soviet Union
Question 8 £4,000
Former world champion Magnus Carlsen’s real first name is not Magnus but what?
A: Henrick
B: Oscar
C: Sven
D: Per
Question 9 £8,000
How many non-european presidents has F.I.D.E had?
A: 1
B: 2
C: 3
D: 4
Question 10 £16,000
Sans Voir is a term which refers to what?
A: Blindfold chess
B: Kriegspiel
C: 960 chess
D: Bughouse chess
Question 11 £32,000
The F.I.D.E 2004 World Championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko was held in which country?
A: Germany
B: Italy
C: Austria
D: Switzerland
Question 12 £64,000
Who was the world blitz champion of 2021?
A: Hikaru Nakamura
B: Magnus Carlsen
C: Maxime Vachier Lagrave
D: Sergey Karjakin
Question 13 £125,000
Who, in 1991, was the last player to become Soviet Union Chess Champion?
A: Evgeny Bareev
B: Artashes Minasian
C: Alexander Beliavsky
D: Garry Kasparov
Question 14 £250,000
According to rule 7.3 of the 2023 F.I.D.E rule book. If a game has started with colours reversed, what is the most amount of moves that can be played by both players before the game is discontinued and a new game restarted?
A: 9
B: 10
C: 11
D: 12
Question 15 £500,000
The celerbated problemist Genrikh Kasparyan, known to be one of the greatest end-game study problemists of all time, had which title in classical chess?
A: CM
B: FM
C: IM
D: GM
Question 16 £1,000,000
Who won the first World Open held in New York, 1973?
A: Bent Larsen
B: Pal Benko
C: John Fedorowicz
D: Walter Browne
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
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on December 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged chess, games, king, poetry, sports on December 1, 2024| 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
The only piece which cannot move backwards is which?
A: The Bishop
B: The King
C: The knight
D: The Pawn
Question 2 £200
The Persian term “shāh māt” refers to what in the modern term?
A: The king is in check.
B: The king has been checkmated.
C: The king has just castled short.
D: The king has been stalemated.
Question 3 £300
The third official world champion was whom?
A: Capablanca
B: Euwe
C: Alekhine
D: Lasker
Question 4 £400
In Bullet Chess, how long does a player have to make all their moves?
A: 30 seconds
B: 60 seconds
C: 120 seconds
D: 180 seconds
Question 5 £500
The controversial world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov which began in 1984 only to be stopped in 1985 after how many games were played?
A: 44
B: 46
C: 48
D: 50
Question 6 £1,000
The 47th Olympiad will be held in October 2028, in which city?
A: Abu Dhabi
B: Tashkent
C: London
D:New York
Question 7 £2,000
The Lucerna position is an endgame which is defined by which piece?
A: Knight
B: Bishop
C: Rook
D: Queen
Question 8 £4,000
The player once considered the greatest never to become world champion, Paul Keres, was born in and would be chosen to represent which county on today’s world map?
A: Russia
B: Latvia
C: Lithunia
D: Estonia
Question 9 £8,000
9. Which female world champion once lost her title to Xie Jun?
A: Maya Chiburdanidze
B: Irina Levantina
C: Hou Yifan
D: Judit Polgar
Question 10 £16,000
Bodens mate is carried out with which piece(s)?
A: Knights
B: Bishops
C: A rook
D: A queen
Question 11 £32,000
The Book A century of British Chess was written by whom?
A: J. H. Blackburne
B: H. E. Atkins
C: G. E. Thomas
D: P. W. Sargeant
Question 12 £64,000
“Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless”. Is a quote from which contemporary player?
A: Wesley So
B: Hikaru Nakamura
C: Levon Aronin
D: Magus Carlsen
Question 13 £125,000
Despite being the strongest team the Soviets claimed to have ever faced. England at the 1988 Olmpiad lost to which lesser nation?
A: India
B: China
C: America
D: East. Germany
Question 14 £250,000
Fabiano Caruana’s peek rating was in classical chess came in October 2014. What was it?
A: 2024
B: 2034
C: 2044
D: 2054
Question 15 £500,000
In which city was a tournament abandoned due to the onset of WW1?
A: London
B. Mannheim
C. Manchester
D. Berlin
Question 16 £1,000,000
Who is the only player to play both Lasker and Karpov at classical chess (simuls cannot be counted)?
A: Botvinnik
B: Smyslov
C: Reshevsky
D: Najdorf
There was are. This bring to a conclusion the third of three such attempts. Please don’t feel dishearted that you didn’t win money and get on tv -it was fun right? Do tell me how you got on.
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on November 17, 2024| 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
The knight moves in a way that corresponds to which letter of the alphabet?
A: C-shape
B: J-shape
C: L-shape
D: W-shape
Question 2 £200
en passant involves the capture of what?
A: A Pawn
B: A Bishop
C: A Rook
D: A Knight
Question 3 £300
Scholar’s mate is known to be delivered in how many moves?
A: 2
B: 4
C: 6
D: 8
Question 4 £400
Which organization was formed in 1993 in order to rival FIDE?
A: BBC
B: NBA
C: ECF
D: PCA
Question 5 £500
The mechanical what was invented in the 18th century and claimed to be the first chess engine/machine?
A: The mechanical Italian
B: The mechinical Swede
C: The mechanical Greek
D: The mechanical Turk
Question 6 £1,000
The Game and Playe of the Chesse was printed in which century by William Caxton?
A: 13th century
B: 15th century
C: 17th century
D: 19th century
Question 7 £2,000
Who wrote an autobiography entitled ‘Achieving the Aim’?
A: V. Smyslov
B: Y. Averbakh
C: M. Bovinnik
D: M. Taimanov
Question 8 £4000
Which variant of chess was invented in 1953 and took its name from the main character of a popular 19th century novel?
A: Alice chess
B: Phileas chess
C: Rebecca chess
D: Oliver chess
Question 9 £8000
Ding Liren was not the 1st Asian world champion. Which was he?
A: The 2nd
B: The 3rd
C: The 4th
D: The 5th
Question 10 £16,000
In which year did FIDE adopt the ELO rating system?
A: 1966
B: 1968
C: 1970
D: 1972
Question 11 £32,000
In Kasparov’s ‘Immortal Game’ in 1999 against GM Topalov in which he sacced a rook, what defence did Topalov adopt?
A: Pirc Defence
B: Caro-Kann
C: French Defence
D: Sicilian Defence
Question 12 £64,000
Which Dutch player once said the disapproved ‘”Chess is and will always be a game of chance.”
A: Jan Timman
B: Loek Van Der Wiel
C: Max Euwe
D: Jan Hein Donner
Question 13 £125,000
Which country has held the Chess Olympiad more than any other?
A: Germany
B: Russia
C: England
D: Phillipines
Question 14 £250,000
Who was the Soviet champion in 1971?
A: Petrosian
B: Savon
C: Stein
D: Karpov
Question 15 £500,000
Which world class American player’s death was described in The New York Times as an illness contracted by the over-exertion of his memory cells’?
A: F. D. Marshall
B: Harry Nelson Pilsbury
C: James Mason
D: Isaac Kashdan
Question 16 £1,000,000
Which of the following cities did the 1907 World Championship match between Lasker and Marshall not take place in?
A: New York
B: Philadelphia
C: Memphis
D: Boston
Mark. J. McCready
Mandalay
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on November 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special, tagged chess on October 30, 2024| 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
The term Stalemate refers to which piece?
A: The Bishop
B: The Queen
C: The King
D: The Rook
Question 2 £200
Which of these is usually the smallest in size when placed on a chessboard?
A: The Knight
B: The Queen
C: The Rook
D: The Pawn
Question 3 £300
Which chess piece has a numerical value above +4?
A: The Rook
B: The Knight
C: The Pawn
D: The Bishop
Question 4 £400
How many chess pieces can only move one square at a time, however, they are allowed to move two squares once only?
A: 1
B: 2
C: 3
D: 4
Question 5 £500
In which decade was FIDE formed?
A: 1910’s
B: 1920’s
C: 1930’s
D: 1940’s
Question 6 £1,000
Who was the world champion at the turn of the 20th century?
A: Rubinstein
B: Lasker
C: Steinitz
D: Capablanca
Question 7 £2,000
Magnus Carlsen had his 125 game unbeaten streak ended by who in the fifth round of the 2020 Norway Chess Classic?
A: GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda
B: GM Fabiano Caruana
C: GM Levon Aronian
D: GM Alireza Firouzja
Question 8 £4,000
In which country was the first official Chess Olympiad held in 1927?
A: France
B: Hungary
C: The Netherlands
D: England
Question 9 £8,000
Which famous player once said ‘Chess is a fairytale of 1001 blunders?’
A: Savielly Tartakower
B: Max Euwe
C: Siegbert Tarrasch
D: Vasily Smyslov
Question 10 £16,000
The Anglo-American cable matches were first held in which year?
A: 1894
B: 1896
C: 1898
D: 1900
Question 11 £32,000
The Soviet Chess Championships was won the most times by who of the following?
A: Anatoly Karpov
B: Tigran Petrosian
C: Leonard Stein
D: Paul Keres
Question 12 £64,000
In which German city did the 2008 World Championship Match between Anand v Kramnik take place?
A: Bonn
B: Berlin
C: Hamburg
D: Cologne
Question 13 £125,000
How many times has Hou Yifan been the Women’s World Champion?
A: 1
B: 2
C: 3
D: 4
Question 14 £250,000
Which prominent 19th century player spent many years playing chess in India, and made a large financial contribution to the famous 1851 London Chess Tournament, making him a major benefactor?
A: Alexander McDonnell
B: John Jacob Löwenthal
C: Hugh Alexander Kennedy
D: John Cochrane
Question 15 £500,000
FIDE recognized and inaugurated the World Blitz Championships in 2006, who was the first champion?
A: Alexander Grischuk
B: Vasyl Ivanchuk
C: Peter Svidler
D: Viswanathan Anand
Question 16 £1,000,000
Which of the following openings does not have a defence, an attack, a gambit or a variation named after former world champion Wilhelm Steinitz?
A: The Petrov Defence
B: The Bishop’s Opening
C: The Philidor’s Defence
D: The Vienna Game

Answers may be found in the post below, and yes they have all been carefully researched.
Mark. J. McCready
Posted in Trivia, Who wants to be a millionaire chess special on October 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »