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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 365 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Chess
| How many combinations of first moves are there? (white moves then black moves) | Chess Basics
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400. 20 moves for white, 20 moves for black. (20 x 20 equals 400)
o-o-o. In chess notation, o-o is a Kingside castle.
pawn. Capturing en passant is a move in which a pawn standing on the 5th rank captures an opposing pawn that just made a double step from the starting position as if that pawn had just moved only one square. (e.g. black moves d7-d5, white could now capture e5xd6 e.p.) You must make that move immediately after the opponent's pawn move that enabled it.
They went to the same school. They all went to Erasmus High School, Brooklyn. Barbra is said to have had a 'crush' on Bobby and they used to swap 'MAD' comics.
Badge collecting. He is believed to have over 400,000 stamps in his collection.
| Alexander Alekhine loved cats. He was often seen at tournaments with either a cat, or cat motifs on his jumpers etc. When he took a cat to a tournament what did it do? | Peculiarities of Chess Grandmasters
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It walked on the board. He believed it brought him good luck by having the cat walk over the squares before the game started.
| Harry Nelson Pillsbury was a remarkable player at the turn of the 20th century. He would play up to 22 simultaneous games of chess and checkers, blindfolded, whilst playing which other game? | Peculiarities of Chess Grandmasters
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Whist. He also asked his audience for a list of 30 complicated words and he would repeat them at the end of the display and then in reverse order. The next day he would also be able to repeat them. He died of syphilis a few years later.
They were all male. No wonder! Apart from believing that Tarrasch had hypnotic powers and wanted to play him in a separate room, he also married a woman who was a grandmother and became a father, husband and grandfather at once. His Ph.D dissertation on ideal numbers became a cornerstone of 20th century algebra.
Died of thrombosis after a minor operation to have one leg lengthened. Harry Pillsbury died of syphilis, Paul Morphy had the stroke and Frederick Yates died in his sleep.
Weinstein. Garry's father died when he was seven and he took his mother's name Klara Kasparova at the age of 12.
Aron Nimzovich. He also had a business card which read, 'A. Nimzovich: Candidate for the World Championship of Chess and Crown Prince of the Chess World.' He also stood on his head, and once, broke a leg in a tournament. N.B. Rustam Kamsky is Gata Kamsky's very volatile father who doesn't play chess who was often evicted from tournaments. Gata Kamsky retired from chess and pursued a career in the medical profession.
Veterinarian. His name is Gustav Fonts. The wedding was a very private affair with no photographs for the media. GM Jan Timman was the only person of the chess fraternity to receive an invitation.
bishop. The b or g-pawn advances one square to allow the corresponding bishop to move into its starting square. This allows the bishop to control the a1-h8 (or h1-a8) diagonal, also known as the 'long' diagonal. It can be a quite useful strategy at times.
| This is a chess situation: suppose White has a rook on d4, and Black's king is on g8, with three pawns on f7, g7, and h7. The pawns and the king are Black's only pieces left. It's Black's turn, so she moves her g-pawn to g5. What kind of checkmate is Black trying to prevent with this pawn move? | Chess Strategies and Techniques
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back rank mate. If White had moved his rook to d8 on his next turn, the king would be trapped by his own pawns, nowhere to run. Moving to g5 gives it an escape route from the rook's check.
| Another chess term- what is the term used for an 'in-between move', or a forcing move that is different from what would be normally expected? | Chess Strategies and Techniques
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zwischenzug. Example: You exchange queens, but before taking the queen back, you capture a pawn with check. After the pawn is dealt with, then you grab the queen. The move must be forcing, because otherwise you'll lose the original opportunity- if that capture didn't force check, the queen would just slide on out of trouble.
| There are several openings in chess, all characterized by a move, a position, etc. In which opening does White move his knight to f3 on the first move? | Chess Strategies and Techniques
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Reti's Opening. This move prevents Black from moving his e-pawn to e5, as it will be captured if she does so.
control the a1 - h8 diagonal. In the Sokolski opening white's main aim is to control the a1-h8 diagonal. He will do this by placing the queens bishop on b2 and a knight on f3. The queen often goes to b3 to support c4 and d5.
Queen's Bishop. Black will often try to exchange the queenside bishop as the black pawns in the centre will have been locked onto squares on which the queen's bishop would normally operate (which is to say the light squares, of course). This is especially common in the 'Advance variation) 1.e4 d5 2 d4 d5 3 e5)
| What is the main strategic plan for Black when playing the King's Indian Defence (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6)? | Chess Strategy in the Opening
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Block the centre and attack on the Kingside. Black will often attack on the kingside with ... f5 (after moving the king's knight to h5 or e8). After ... f4, Black will occasionally move a rook to g8 and play g5 then g4. White will counterattack on the queenside, often breaking through first. But, of course, Black is playing for much higher stakes on the kingdside.
control the a1-h8 diagonal. White will try to control the a1-h8 diagonal, often playing f4 to support this plan. Ideally, white is looking for a strong kingside attack culminating in lethal pressure on the g7 square on a castled black king.
Entice the white pawns forward and then undermine them. As a so-called hypermodern opening black's idea is to control the centre with pieces. White can move pawns forward to attack the knights that are controlling the centre, but this can cut them off from other pawns leaving them vulnerable. Black has to be careful that the misplaced knights are not positioned in such awkward places as to not to be able to provide defensive cover if white attacks on the kingside.
To deflect pawns from the centre allowing rapid piece development to attack the weakspots left exposed. Gambits (normally) involve sacrificing one or more pawns in order to create space for attacking pieces, and to enable rapid development. Most opening gambits are made by white. Black tries to consolidate and let the attack run out of steam. Alternatively, Black can counterattack or, return some of the material to take the sting out of the white attack.
to exchange of his darksquare bishop for blacks fianchettoed bishop. Fianchetto bishops provide could cover for a castled king and so it is worthwhile from the attackers point of view to remove it. Be3 and Qd2 is a common sequence designed to play Bh6 and thereby (hopefully)exchanging off the defending bishop.
support the d5 pawn without blocking in the queens bishop. The Caro-Kann is designed to allow black to play d5 (getting some influence in the centre) with c6 without blocking in the queens bishop (which is the case after 1. e6 in the French defence). The problem here is that Black often has to exchange off the d5 pawn removing black's influence on the centre (which is not the case in the French defence).
dark square weaknesses. Black's problem in the Dutch is that the black squares are weak. Although Black can use the advanced f-pawn for attacking purposes, he will often find White placing a knight on e5 and a bishop on b2 or c3 (or on a3 to exchange with the black dark square bishop).
| Who was the youngest World Chess Champion? | Chess Quiz
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Garry Kasparov. Garry Kasparov was 22 when he won it.
| Who was the second youngest World Chess Champion? | Chess Quiz
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Mikhail Tal. Mikhail Tal won the championship at age 24. Kasparov won at age 22.
| How many ways are there to win a game of chess, other than by default? | Chess Quiz
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4. The four ways are to checkmate the enemy king, a time forfeit, by adjudication, and a resignation by the opponent.
9. The nine ways are (correct me if there are more) stalemate, 3-fold repetition, 50 moves without a pawn move or capture, insufficient losing chances, mutual agreement, double time forfeit, by adjudication, neither player having sufficient mating material, and time forfeit without sufficient mating material.
| Who defeated Garry Kasparov for the first BrainGames World Championship? | Chess Quiz
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Vladimir Kramnik. In this match, all of the games but two were drawn. Those two were both won by Kramnik.
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