Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Chess Special 3

December 1, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

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.

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Answers to Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Chess special 3

December 1, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

1.D

2.B

3.A

4.B

5.C

6.A

7.C

8.D

9.A

10.B

11.D

12. A

13 C

14. B

15 B

16, C

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An ending it seems…

November 29, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

After all the years of service he gave them, that is what they said. But Tom lives on through me, many others, and wont be forgetten -I have seen to that for he now has new readers who may take inspiration from him.

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess | Leave a Comment »

Going nowhere

November 28, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

Former county team mate Kevin Williamson handed this to me, a draw from the clutches of those scowling winds of Winter, way back in 1992. I can see why I gave up chess 5 years later. Puny little attack that was going nowhere in an opening I was uncritical of. Thankfully I have no recollection of this particular game, but can account for why I played that way at that particular stage of my life… .

I blame Peter Montgomery for that. I am white.
I did learn not to play like that.
Premature and going nowhere.
Old man’s chess.
Black is fine.
Going nowhere.
Going nowhere.
Going nowhere.

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Why Bedfordshire chess has been read both within and beyond our borders…

November 23, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

Viewing history as a literary artefact is not a debillitating nor less a terminal complaint. Rather, recognizing the importance of narrative explanation in our lives as well as the study of the past could liberate historians as we acknowledge and try to narrate the disruptive discontinuity and chaos of the past and in the present. The desire is, in itself, a product of our own age’s preoccupation with understanding the nature of our seemingly chaotic lives. History is itself historical -its methods and concepts as well as the debates about its nature are the products of historical time periods. Alan Muslow – Deconstructing History (1997)

Those who put Bedfordshire on the map over the years:

  • First, Dickens and White Chess in Bedfordshire (1933)
  • Second, G.H. Diggle (1950’s onwards but sporadic)
  • Third Walter Bramwell Hirst (1950’s onwards, problems appreared in The British Chess magazine and have been kept by The British problem society)
  • Forth, Edward Winter (Chess notes, 90’s onwards)
  • Fifth, Adrian Elwin (Archivist 2000 onwards)
  • In terms of what has put Bedfordshire on the map. Inexorably, county results in the national county championships can be found in the (what was) BCF yearooks (and is now) the ECF yearbooks, all of which can be found in the British Library, should you consider them of interest…should it remain the case I have not done so and posted them on this site (more than less likely).

With regards to the digital revolution we are, happily, undergoing, a number of blogs have subsequently emerged: (most obviously this ‘un). Also:

https://www.bedfordchess.co.uk/

http://www.leightonbuzzardchess.co.uk /

https://www.lutonchessclub.com/

https://www.miltonkeyneschessclub.co.uk/

But who be him that has written about our chess history the most? Moi of course.

Mark. J. McCready, Mandalay, Myanmar

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess, Life beyond the chess board, Personal Interest & Experience | Leave a Comment »

The Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle 1988

November 23, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

May be of further interest, shows where he taught.

https://mccreadyandchess.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/f-dickens-the-schoolmaster/

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More on Bramwell Hirst from ‘old’ Tom

November 22, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

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More on Diggle from ‘old’ Tom

November 22, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

Fellow Bedfordshire league and county players, the book Chess in Bedfordshire (1933) was the first to gain a nationwide audience for chess in our county. The second author to achieve the same feat was G. H. Diggle, who wrote about his experiences of chess in Bedfordshire some decades later; therefore, he is a significant figure in our history. You will find his articles many times over by searching for him in the search bar, and wikipedia gives a fuller account of his achievements.

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Chess Special 2

November 17, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

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

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Answers to Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? Chess special 2

November 17, 2024 by mccreadyandchess

  1. C
  2. A
  3. B
  4. D
  5. B
  6. A
  7. C
  8. A
  9. B
  10. C
  11. A
  12. D
  13. A
  14. B
  15. B
  16. D

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