Chess Trivia

Chess Trivia Manuel Aaron (born in 1935) is India’s first International Master, in 1961. He won the championship of India 9 times. Viswanathan Anand is India’s first Grandmaster, in 1987. There are now 26 Indian Grandmasters, 12 Women Grandmasters and 68 Indian International Masters and 17 Women International Masters. In 1995, Robert Smeltzer (born in 1930) of Dallas played the most USCF games in one year – 2,266 games. Michael Adams (born in 1971) is the youngest player to win the British Chess Championship at 17. His wife is a British actress. Bobby Fischer was the youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 14 in 1957-58. Hikaru Nakamura was the 2nd youngest player to win the US Chess Championship at 16 in 2004. Utat Adianto (born in 1965) was the first Indonesian Grandmaster, in 1986. He became a GM at age 21. The youngest Indonesian GM is Susanto Megaranto, who became a GM at age 17. Simen Agdestein (born in 1967) was Norway’s first Grandmaster, in 1985. He won the championship of Norway 7 times. He was Norwegian champion at 15, International Master at 16, and GM at 18. He was once a professional soccer player. He was an early coach of Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest rated player. In 1967, Bent Larsen (1935-2010) won the first chess Oscar informally. In 1968, it was formally won by Spassky. Kasparov has won the chess Oscar the most, 11 times. In 1920, Alexander Alekhine won the first Soviet Chess Championship. There have been 58 Soviet championships from 1920 to 1991. Botvinnik and Tal have each won it 6 times. The first Russian Chess Federation formed in 1914. It had 865 members. It was first called the All-Russia Chess Union, then renamed the All-Russia Chess Society. Chess was first mentioned in America in 1641 in a book called “Dutch New York” by Esther Singleton. It described that “cards, chess, backgammon, dice-throwing, were among the pleasures of the age” of the Dutch in New York. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin published the first chess writing in America with his “The Morals of Chess,” first drafted in 1732 for his Philadelphia Junto discussions and his own newspaper. In his essay, he attributed chess being introduced into America by the Spaniards. In 1839, the New York Chess Club was formed by James Thompson. The first American chess tournament may have been held in 1843 in New York. In 1857, Paul Morphy won the first American Chess Congress. It was the only tournament he ever won. Adolf Anderssen (1818-1879) won the first international chess tournament in London in 1851. He didn’t have the money for the travel costs, so Howard Staunton offered to pay for Anderssen’s travel expenses out of his own pocket. Anderssen accepted, won the tournament, and paid Staunton back for his travel expenses. Maurice Ashley (born 1966) of New York (born in Jamaica) was the first Black grandmaster, in 1999. He once appeared on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Jonathan Penrose (born in 1933) has won the British chess championship the most. He won it 10 times between 1958 and 1969. He was given the GM title, although he was strong enough, but he became a GM in Correspondence chess in 1983. Wolfgang von Kempelen’s (1734-1804) “The Turk” was the first chess automaton, in 1769. It was destroyed by fire in 1854. It defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Baden-Baden 1870 was the first strong international tournament. It was the first tournament to introduce chess clocks. It was the first tournament that draws counted as ½ points. Adolf Anderssen won the event. BELLE was the first computer built for the sole purpose of playing chess. In 1980, it won the world computer chess championship. In 1983, BELLE became the first computer to be awarded the title of US Chess Master. Caissa is the goddess or muse (dryad or tree nymph) of chess, from a poem by Hieronymus Vida in 1527. In 1763, Sir William Jones re-used Vida’s character Caissa in his own poem, written in Latin, and later published in English. St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is the patron saint of chess. In the 16th century, she was proclaimed patroness of chess players by the church authorities in Spain. She used chess as a metaphor in her classic work “the Way of Perfection.” The longest running annual match in chess is the annual Cambridge vs. Oxford match, starting in 1873. As of 2012, there have been 130 matches between the two. Cambridge has won 57, Oxford has won 53, with 20 draws. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) estimates that there are over 600 million chess players in the world, with a potential global audience of 1 billion chess players. In 1977 Larry Christiansen became a Grandmaster without ever being an International Master. The first chess club was organized in Italy in 1550. The first newspaper column was published in 1813 in the Liverpool Mercury. The first computer program to play a proper game of chess was in 1959, at MIT. KAISSA of the USSR won the first world computer championship, held in Stockholm in 1974. Nathaniel Cook and John Jacques designed the first Staunton pattern chess set in 1835. In 1981 Cray Blitz won the first state championship, when it won the championship of Mississippi. Arthur Dake (1910-2000) was the oldest competitive grandmaster, still playing in his late 80s. Cecil de Vere was the first official British chess champion, in 1866. Charles Stanley was the first US chess champion, in 1845. He defeated Eugene Rousseau. FIDE, the World Chess Federation, was founded in 1924 by Pierre Vincent of France. Alexandre Rueb was the first FIDE president. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The record for the most games played simultaneously blindfolded in 52 games, by Janos Flesch in 1960. The Fredkin Prize was a $100,000 prize for the first computer to beat a reigning world champion. The inventors (Hsu, Campbell, and Hoane) of Deep Blue won the Fredkin Prize in 1997. In 1978, Nona Gaprindashvili was the first woman to achieve the men’s grandmaster title. In 1977, Nona Gaprindashvili tied for 1st place at Lone Pine. In 1914 the Russian Czar gave the title of grandmaster to Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Marshall. Gisela Gresser (1906-2000) was the first U.S. woman to achieve a master’s rating. The first major tournament after WW II was Groningen, in 1946. It was won by Botvinnik. Boris Gulko won the USSR championship in 1977 and the US championship in 1994 and 1999. In 1963, Walter Harris became the first African-American master. Hasting is the oldest and longest running tournament in the world. It was first held in 1895. In 1981, Rea Hayes won the first US Senior Open, held in Sun City, Arizona. Hermann Helms (1870-1963) was the first Dean of American Chess. Iceland has the highest per capita chess population in the world. Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia won the first World Junior Chess Championship, held in England in 1951. Anatoly Karpov has won more chess tournaments (over 160 tournaments) than any other person. Raymond Keene was the first British player to achieve a FIDE Grandmaster norm in over-the-board chess. In 1947, George Koltanowski introduced the Swiss System at the 1947 US Open in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1982, Vasily Smyslov qualified for the Candidates match by taking 2nd at the Palma Interzonal at age 61. In 1976 Tony Miles became the first British Grandmaster in OTB play. The USCF formed in 1939 from the merger of the American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation. Geller, Tal, and Janosevic have all defeated Fischer more times than they have lost to him. Edward Lasker won Paris in 1912, London in 1914, New York in 1915, and Chicago in 1916. Le Palamede was the first magazine devoted entirely to chess. It ran from 1836 to 1839, then 1842 to 1847. Vladimir Liberzon was the first grandmaster to immigrate to Israel, in 1973. The Liverpool Mercury was the first English newspaper to publish a chess column, in 1813. Bill Lombardy was the first American to win an official world chess championship, the World Junior Ch in 1957. Johann Lowenthall invented the demonstration chess board in 1857. The Manchester Chess Club was the oldest chess club in Britain, formed in 1817. Sergio Mariotti was the first Italian Grandmaster, who gained his title in 1974. Frank Marshall was the first American to defeat a Soviet player in international competition, New York 1924. Edgar McCormick played in more US Opens than any other player, playing in 37 US Opens. The New York State Championship is America’s longest running tournament, which began in 1878. Alberic O’Kelly de Galway became the first GM of OTB and correspondence chess. Oxford was the first university to have a chess club. Bulgaria issued the first chess stamp, in 1947, on the occasion of the Balkan games. In 1845, Dr. Peter Mark Roget (Roget’s Thesaurus) devised the first pocket chess set. Judith Price was the oldest person to win a national championship when she won the British Ladies Ch at age 76. Cecil Purdy won the first world correspondence chess championship (1950-1953). The 1945 USA-USSR Radio Chess Match was the first international sports event after World War II. The first international rating list appeared in 1969. Fischer topped the list at 2720. Keith Richardson was the 1st British player to be awarded the Grandmaster title, for Correspondence Chess, in 1975. Alexander Rueb was the first president of FIDE. He was president from 1924 to 1949. The first Interzonal tournament was held in Saltsjobaden, Sweden in 1958 and won by David Bronstein. Lothar Schmid has the largest private chess library in the world with over 30,000 chess books and magazines. Yassar Seirawan was the first American to beat a reigning world champion when he beat Karpov in 1982. Nigel Short was the youngest to qualify for the British Championship, at age 11. Jackson Showalter was the first official US Chess Champion, in 1890. George Sturgis was the first President of the US Chess Federation, in 1939. The first telegraph match was played in 1844, between Washington DC and Baltimore. The first telephone chess game was played in 1878, between two players is Derbyshire, England. –Bill Wall Be Sociable, Share!