CHESS

Quizzical II

Raymond Keene

The answers to the Christmas quiz are as follows: 1. Capablanca insisted at a meeting of top players in London 1922 that the prize fund for any future world title challenge had to be 10,000 dollars in gold.

2. The Immortal and Evergreen both end with Bel mate.

3. Philidor fled the French Revolution, is buried in St James's Piccadilly and de- clared that the pawn was the soul of chess.

4. Marshall's 23 . . . Qg3 against Levitzky, Breslau 1912, was showered with gold coins.

5. The cat was Alekhine's against Euwe (variously reported as in 1935 or 1937).

6. Botvinnik sent a telegram to Stalin on winning Nottingham 1936. There is, however, more than a suspicion that chess commissar Krylenko actually master- minded the whole affair on Botvinnik's behalf.

7. In 1937 (sorry for 1947 misprint) Alekhine gave up alcohol, switched to milk and beat Euwe.

8. The club nobody wanted to join was The Menchik Club consisting of male players who had lost to the women's champion, Vera Metichik. However, I also gave full credit to the ingenious reply of Mr R. Dickenson who referred to The Pawn Pushers (later Autolycan) Chess Club formed for inmates of Parkhurst Prison in the 1930s.

9. Against William Winter, Capa made most of his moves standing up, hardly bothering to sit at the board and think. 10. Teichman (first name Richard) was the one-eyed Grandmaster who often came fifth but won the great tournament at Carlsbad 1911.

11. Lasker smoked a particular foul brand of cigar.

12. Spassky asked for Fischer's chair to be searched at Reykjavik 1972. Two dead flies were found in the overhead lighting, but nothing in the chair. 13. Benk6 donned dark glasses because he feared Tal's stare.

14. Karpov had Korchnoi's chair X-rayed at Baguio 1978.

15. Capablanca picked up the moves by watching his father play a friend. 16. Alekhine coached Arturito Pomar, the Spanish child prodigy. 17. The Child of Change (Kasparov, of course) spoke out against the termination of the 1985 world championship.

18. 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nd4 is Bird's Defence.

19. Black's pawn structure in the Sicilian Dragon is meant to resemble the mythical beast.

20. The advice to set up the board with the light in your opponent's eyes is commonly attributed to the 16th-century Spanish priest, Ruy Lopez. 21. Tarrasch said: when you see a good move, sit on your hands till you see a better one.

22. The lust to expand was attributed by Nimzowitsch to the pawn.

23. Matulovic took back a losing move against Bilek in the 1967 Interzonal at Sousse loudly saying, 'I j'adoube' as he did so, hence 'Grandmaster J'adoubovich'.

24. Black Death - Blackburne.

25. Tartakower at New York 1924 played 1 b4 and called it the Orang-Utan Opening. 26. Paolo Boi was captured by Algerian pirates and sold as a slave. Boi was a Sicilian master b. 1528 d. 1598.

27. Legend has it that Paul Morphy died in his bath surrounded by women's shoes. 28. Amos Burn was mated by Frank Marshall before he could light his pipe. 29. Alekhine against Griinfeld at Vienna 1922 resigned by hurling his King across the room.

30. At Baguio 1978 Korchnoi feared Kar- pov's parapsychologist, Zukhar, and em- ployed Ananda Marga gurus in self- defence.

The winners are: John Roycroft (Lon- don), R. Dickenson (Sevenoaks, Kent) and J. Rosankiewicz (Greenford, Mid- dlesex). Each will receive, by courtesy of B. T. Batsford Ltd, a copy of a facsimile reproduction of Howard Staunton's 1847 classic The Chess Players' Handbook together with a copy of Chess: The History of a Game by Richard Eales.

The above decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.