Chess Trivia

1. 1. e4 e6. Game just started and I'm already hungry. A Baguette and some cheese would sure be nice.

From Quiz Chess meets Geography

Answer: French Defence

This opening got its name from a match between Paris and London in 1834, where a number of the French players used this opening. The French Defence is generally considered a solid opening. Chances are that you'll be playing a long positional game when you play this opening.

From Quiz Spassky v Fischer - Reykjavik 1972

Answer: 5

They first met in 1960 at Mar del Plata, Argentina. They then met twice at Santa Monica, USA in 1966 and twice more at Olympiads; at Havana, Cuba in 1966 and at Siegen, Germany in 1970.

From Quiz Chess Openings 101

Answer: Neo-Catalan Opening

The Neo Catalan Opening was favored for white by Ulf Andersson and Peter Szekely. Common continuations include Bg2, b3, and d4.

From Quiz The History of the Chess Olympiads

Answer: Soviet Union/Russia

While the United States dominated early on by winning four of the first seven Olympiads, the Soviet Union began an incredible run after winning its first one in 1952, and then continuing on to win twelve straight!

From Quiz Magnus Carlsen - The Mozart of Chess

Answer: Norwegian

Magnus Carlsen was born in Tønsberg on November 30, 1990.

From Quiz Chess Rules & Basics Checkmates

Answer: 27

The maximum number of squares the queen can control in the center is 27. That's a massive improvement over the original 4: Old rules only allowed the queen (often known as wazir in those times) to move diagonally 1 square.

From Quiz World Chess Champions

Answer: Mikhail Botvinnik

Botvinnik became world champion by winning a special tournament after Alexander Alekhine died as the title holder. He lost the title to Vasily Smyslov in 1957, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. He lost the title in 1960 to Mikhail Tal, but again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.

From Quiz Chess II

Answer: Three

Let's suppose that the knight starts on b4, and wants to get to b7. First, it would move from b4 to c6, then it would move from c6 to a5, and then it moves from a5 to b7.

From Quiz Chessbogglers

Answer: 50

Each rook has 7 legal moves (including one attack). Each knight has 3. Each bishop has 7. The king has 2 (as it cannot move to D2). The queen has 14 (including one attack). Totaling it up: 2×(7+3+7)+2+14=50. With the pawns in place, the number is 20.

From Quiz It's Check, Mate!

Answer: Sicilian defense

It's one of the most popular openings. It usually continues with 2. Pf3 e6 or 2. Pf3 d6.

From Quiz Chess Variants

Answer: Bughouse

Bughouse, also known as Siamese Chess or Double Bughouse, is a game played with four players on two teams. Players on each team have opposite colors, and may give any captured pieces to their partner. The game can get boisterous and noisy, when partners are clamoring for certain pieces, or telling their partner not to give up particular pieces. White usually attacks, while the player with Black tries to supply their partner with the necessary pieces.

From Quiz Chess Highlights and More - 2007

Answer: Viswanathan Anand

An Indian grandmaster from Madras, Anand won the undisputed title with 4 wins and 10 draws in an eight player double round-robin match. Since Garry Kasparov left FIDE, the World Chess Federation, the world championship has been divided into a classical championship and the FIDE championship. The championship was unified once again in 2006.

From Quiz Bobby Fischer

Answer: Chicago, Illinois

He was born as Robert James Fischer at the Michael Reese hospital on March 9,1943 in Chicago. His father was a biophysicist and his mother a registered nurse.

From Quiz Chess Basics

Answer: 6

The 6 pieces are pawns, rooks (sometimes called the castle), knights, bishops, queens, and the king. You start out with 8 pawns, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 1 queen, and 1 king.

From Quiz Chess - Irregular Openings

Answer: 1.g4

Playing 1.g4 or 1. ..g5 is the Grob opening or Grob's Attack. It was named after the Swiss IM Henri Grob. In 1979, IM Michael Basman employed this opening fairly successfully and wrote "The Killer Grob."

From Quiz Chess Part XIV

Answer: 10

1. c4 h5 2. h4 a5 3. Qa4 Ra6 4. Qxa5 Rah6 5. Qxc7 f6 6. Qxd7+ Kf7 7. Qxb7 Qd3 8. Qxb8 Qh7 9. Qxc8 Kg6 10. Qe6 stalemate Friends who trust each other have actually played out these moves in real tournaments when they agree to draw before the game.

From Quiz Fischer v Spassky World Chess Championship 1972

Answer: Leningrad (St Petersburg)

Spassky later moved to France, becoming a French citizen in 1978 and representing France in the Chess Olympiads.

From Quiz Chess Part XII

Answer: 44

It takes 5 moves to promote a pawn, so it takes Black 20 moves to promote four pawns to same-color bishops. It would take 20 more moves to promote the last four pawns, but there are only four dark squares on White's back rank, so Black must spend 4 extra moves moving his promoted bishops out of the way to get 4 new dark-squared bishops. 20 + 20 + 4 = 44 moves to get nine dark squared bishops. My example is too long to put here, but the problem isn't really that hard if you think about it logically.

From Quiz Chess Part XI

Answer: 5

White must be mated on e1 since trying to get mated anywhere else will take more moves. Getting mated on e1 by a Black pawn on f2 is the only way it can be done in 5 moves. It takes a pawn at least 4 moves to get to f2, and Black needs another piece to support the pawn, so 5 moves. (White just simply has to not interfere with Black's mate) Here is an example: (1.a4 e5 2.Ra3 e4 3.Rh3 Bc5 4.Rxh7 e3 5.Rxh8 exf2#)

From Quiz Chess Part X

Answer: 3

1.f3 e6, 2.g4 Be7 3.f4 Bh4#

From Quiz Chess For Beginners

Answer: "L"

The knight is commonly mistaken as being called a horse. Its official name is knight.

From Quiz Chess Part IX

Answer: Scotch

The Scotch opens up the center after exd4 Nxd4. Although it moves the same piece twice, it gives White a strong pawn in the center while Black's pawn in the center has already been exchanged.

From Quiz Chess Part VIII

Answer: 2 hours

If you bring a board, set, and clock to the board and your opponent is not there, you start your opponent's clock and then wait 1 hour before claiming a win. If your opponent shows up, they will have to play with some of their time gone. If you fail to bring a board, set, or clock, you must wait 2 full hours before claiming a win. If your opponent does show up, they will not be penalized time for coming late to the board. The player who shows up to the board must have all three items in order for the late player to be penalized.

From Quiz Chess Part VII

Answer: the player just under the halfway mark

The FIDE pairing method prefers to pair the player with the highest rating with the top player of the lower half in each score bracket. Since, at the start of a tournament, all players have a score of 0, this means the top rated player will first play the one just under the halfway mark.

From Quiz Chess Part VI

Answer: the player just below the halfway mark

In a Swiss System tournament, the players are sorted by rating. They are then divided into two groups by rating. One group contains the top 50 percentile of players' ratings, and the other group contains the bottom 50 percentile of players' ratings. The strongest player in the strong group plays the strongest player in the weak group. The second strongest player in the strong group plays the second strongest player in the weak group, and so on. The strongest players usually play each other in the last couple of rounds.

From Quiz Chess Part V

Answer: When a piece is left hanging and is not protected by another piece

If you are attacking a piece with another piece, and there is no other piece protecting it, the piece is hanging and can be taken.

From Quiz Chess Part IV

Answer: Fred Defense

The Fred Defense is not a good choice of move. The pawns on f2 and f7 are vulnerable because only the kings are guarding them. Moving the f-pawn creates a diagonal to the king, which makes it harder to protect.

From Quiz Extra! It's the Chess Gazette Quiz!

Answer: Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer won the world championship on September 1st 1972 from Boris Spassky. He won the championship from Spassky a full 5 points ahead. (In tournament chess, a win is worth 1 point, a draw is worth 1/2 a point.) Fischer didn't play another public game until 1992, again against Spassky.

From Quiz Chess Part III

Answer: C20

The move e5 is supposed to challenge the opponent for control of the center squares. All games beginning in e4-e5 are part of the C category in ECO.

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Last Updated May 23 2026 5:47 AM

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