Chess Trivia: Your Moves Could Earn You a Checkmate!
1.
The Persian phrase "Shah Mat", from which "Checkmate" is derived, translates as what?
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Answer:
The King Is Dead
2.
What pieces are allowed to castle?
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Answer:
King And Rook
3.
Players in the first year are referred to as "Rookie" after what Chess piece?
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Answer:
Rook
4.
When was the United States Chess Federation founded?
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Answer:
1939
5.
Who created the Elo Rating System used by FIDE?
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Answer:
Arpad Elo
6.
What rating system was used prior to the adoption of the Elo Rating System in 1970?
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Answer:
Harkness Rating System
7.
What was the subject of the second book ever printed in English?
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Answer:
Chess
8.
About how many people worldwide play chess, according to the FIDE?
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Answer:
600 Million
9.
Owing to power of Spain's Queen Isabella, what Chess piece is the most powerful on the board?
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Answer:
Queen
10.
When the police raided a Cleveland Chess competition in 1973, for what were charges filed?
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Answer:
Gambling
11.
What is the best-selling Chess book of all time?
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Answer:
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess
12.
In chess terminology, what is the study of a position to determine best play for both sides?
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Answer:
Analysis
13.
Who invented the Bronstein Delay?
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Answer:
David Bronstein
14.
A "check" is an attack on what piece?
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Answer:
King
15.
How many squares are there on a chess board?
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Answer:
64
16.
At the beginning of the game, how many pawns does each player have?
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Answer:
8
17.
What two colors are used to refer to the opponents in a chess game?
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Answer:
Black & White
18.
In addition to checkmate, what is another way to win a chess game?
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Answer:
Voluntary Resignation
19.
What is the middle portion of a chess game called?
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Answer:
Middlegame
20.
What piece is the Bishop allowed to leap over during a move?
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Answer:
None
21.
How many squares can the Bishop move diagonally?
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Answer:
Any Number
22.
What piece is involved with the King in the Castling move?
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Answer:
Rook
23.
What determines which player moves first in a Chess game?
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Answer:
White Always Moves First
24.
Who broke the record for the highest ever Elo rating in January 2013?
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Answer:
Magnus Carlsen
25.
Which chess-playing computer developed by IBM defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997?
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Answer:
Deep Blue
26.
What type of move consists of moving the king two squares along the first rank toward a rook?
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Answer:
Castling
27.
What title is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE?
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Answer:
Grandmaster
28.
Which chess piece moves straight forward but captures diagonally?
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Answer:
Pawn
29.
What was the name of the first chess-playing machine?
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Answer:
The Turk
30.
In chess, what piece has little power but the most importance?
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Answer:
King
31.
In theory, what is the maximum number of moves the longest chess game can have?
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Answer:
5949
32.
Which is greatest in number:
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Answer:
Possible Unique Chess Moves
33.
What is the number of possibilities of a Knight's Tour?
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Answer:
More Than 122 Million
34.
From the starting position, how many different ways are there to Mate in two moves?
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Answer:
8
35.
What city hosted the 1972 Fischer-Spassky chess match?
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Answer:
Rekjavik
36.
Prior to the invention of the mechanical chess clock, what was used to time games?
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Answer:
A Sandglass
37.
What was the name of the computer program that beat an International Grand Master in 1988?
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Answer:
Deep Thought
38.
Psychologists often cite Chess as an excellent way to improve what?
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Answer:
Memory Function
39.
What system is used to assign numerical ratings to competitive Chess players?
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Answer:
Elo Rating System
40.
What label is given to a Chess player in his or her first year of competitive play?
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Answer:
Rookie
41.
What organization is the governing body for international Chess competition?
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Answer:
FIDE
42.
In what year was the first computer program for playing chess developed?
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Answer:
1951
43.
Who was the victor in the Chess game between space and earth played June 9, 1970?
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Answer:
It Was A Draw
44.
How many checks were there in the recording-setting match between Wegner & Johnson in 1991?
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Answer:
141
45.
In 2010, what city had the highest per capita chess grandmaster population in the world?
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Answer:
Beersheva, Israel
46.
Ben Franklin wrote in 1750 that in chess we learn foresight, circumspection and what else?
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Answer:
Caution
47.
What kind of chess did Walter Muir (1905-1999) play for a record-setting 75 years?
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Answer:
Correspondence Chess
48.
What was the first machine player to overcome a reigning World Chess Champion?
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Answer:
Deep Blue
49.
What is the only country to defeat the former USSR twice in the Chess Olympiad?
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Answer:
U.S.A.
50.
Who was the first official World Chess Champion?
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Answer:
Wilhelm Steinitz
51.
What city hosted the first modern chess tournament?
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Answer:
London
52.
What is the art of creating chess problems called?
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Answer:
Chess Composition
53.
The Queen combines the power of which two pieces?
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Answer:
Rook & Bishop
54.
What organization maintains the official rules of Chess?
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Answer:
World Chess Federation
55.
How many of the 114 simultaneous games did Jude Acers win at the Louisiana State Fair in 1966?
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Answer:
114
56.
Who won the Men's U.S. Chess Championship eight times, more than any player in history?
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Answer:
Bobby Fischer
57.
Who refused to defend his title, thus relinquishing the World Championship to Anatoly Karpov?
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Answer:
Bobby Fischer
58.
Who was America's first chess champion?
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Answer:
Paul Morphy
59.
Who was the first undisputed world chess champion?
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Answer:
Wilhelm Steinitz
60.
Who was considered to become a candidate for the 2008 Russian presidential race, but later withdrew?
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Answer:
Garry Kasparov
61.
What modern chess piece did the ancient Vizier eventually become?
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Answer:
Queen
62.
Who became the first female chess grandmaster through achievement in tournaments?
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Answer:
Susan Polgar
63.
Which chess prodigy beat GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in the C Group of the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament?
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Answer:
Anish Giri
64.
What chess opening is characterized by the move, "3...b5" in the Benoni Defense?
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Answer:
Benko gambit
65.
What do you call the group of initial moves in a chess game?
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Answer:
Opening
66.
Who achieved the Grandmaster title at 15 years and 4 months of age in 1991 and the youngest person ever to do so at that time?
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Answer:
Judit Polgar
67.
What do you call a game in which players are given less time to make their moves?
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Answer:
Lightning chess
68.
How did the longest official chess game (between Nikolic and Arsovic in 1989) end?
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Answer:
A Draw
69.
The word "Checkmate" comes from what Persian phrase?
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Answer:
Shah Mat
70.
Until about 1561, how many separate moves were involved in Castling?
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Answer:
2
71.
How many moves was the longest official chess game (Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989)?
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Answer:
269 Moves
72.
Who is credited for creating the longest Chess Problem?
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Answer:
Otto Blathy
73.
In what country was the New Pawn move introduced?
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Answer:
Spain
74.
Who did not play chess, saying "I don't want anything which requires the working of the mind"?
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Answer:
Albert Einstein
75.
In what year was the push-button chess clock perfected?
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Answer:
1900
76.
Who held the World Chess Champion title longer than any other player?
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Answer:
Emanuel Lasker
77.
How long did it take Eric Knoppert to play 500 consecutive games of 10-Minute Chess in 1985?
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Answer:
68 Hours
78.
Who invented the first mechanical chess clock?
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Answer:
Thomas Wilson
79.
What did officials feel was the cause of Spassky's erratic play during the 1972 match with Fischer?
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Answer:
Fischer's Chair
80.
For how long did Germany's Emanuel Lasker retain the World Chess Champion title?
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Answer:
26 Years, 337 Days
81.
How old was Gary Kasparov when he became the youngest World Chess Champion ever in 1985?
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Answer:
22 Years, 210 Days
82.
From the starting position, how many different ways are there to Mate in three moves?
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Answer:
355
83.
Who played in the 1992 Match that included a record 100 moves without capture?
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Answer:
Thornton And Walker
84.
How many consecutive Queen moves were there in the 1882 Mason-Mackenzie game in London?
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Answer:
72
85.
What city was the site of the Mason-Mackenzie game in 1882?
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Answer:
London
86.
What is the record of moves without capture, set in the 1992 Thorton-Walker Match?
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Answer:
100
87.
Chess played by post or email is called what?
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Answer:
Correspondence Chess
88.
What is the highest title awarded by the FIDE for achievement in competitive play?
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Answer:
FIDE Master
89.
What city was the site of the founding of the FIDE?
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Answer:
Paris
90.
In what country have the oldest surviving chess sets been found?
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Answer:
Scotland
91.
How old was Judit Polgar when she earned the FIDE's International Master title?
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Answer:
11
92.
How many possible ways are there of playing the first four moves per side in a game of Chess?
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Answer:
318,979,564,000
93.
What is the longest time recorded for a Chess player to make a move?
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Answer:
2 Hours, 20 Minutes
94.
For how long did Mikhail Tal hold the title of Chess World Champion, the briefest reign on record?
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Answer:
One Year, Five Days
95.
How old was Anatoly Karpov when he became a Candidate Master?
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Answer:
11
96.
On what move was the earliest stalemate on record?
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Answer:
Move 27
97.
How many times did Women's World Chess Champion Vera Menchik successfully defend her title?
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Answer:
6
98.
Who was named Women's World Chess Champion in 2010?
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Answer:
Hou Yifan
99.
In 2010, what nation had the highest per capita chess grandmaster population?
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Answer:
Iceland
100.
What city houses the world's largest public library for chess?
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Answer:
Cleveland, Ohio
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From Fun Facts to Essential Info: Basic GK Trivia Awaits!
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