English Chess Forum

For something a bit different, some chess-themed quiz questions.

1) Name the eight players (and their FIDE country registration) on the live rating list (as of 16 January 2016) who are rated over 2700 and are younger than the current World Champion (Magnus Carlsen, aged 25).

2) Name the six players on the live rating list (as of 16 January 2016) who are rated over 2700 and are aged over 40. Bonus question: name those who have been rated 2700+ while also aged over 50.

[These questions really only apply to January 2016, unfortunately, so would have to be redone if used at a later date.]

Feel free to try and answer the above, or throw in some questions of your own!

Answering these questions as the answer will be different later on...

1) Le Quang Liem (24, Vietnam), Caruana (23, USA), Ding Liren (23, China), So (22, USA), Yu Yangyi (21, China), Giri (21, Netherlands), Rapport (19, Hungary), and Wei Yi (16, China).

It is impressive that China have three players among the 10 youngest 2700+ elite players.

2) Kramnik (40), Topalov (40), Adams (44), Anand (46), Ivanchuk (46), Gelfand (47).

I can't remember who has been rated 2700+ while over the age of 50. I have a vague memory that someone did some analysis on the FIDE rating database and came up with graphs of rating by age. Can anyone remember where that was?

Going by rating, what would be the result of an 'Age' vs 'Youth' match? (add Svidler and Leko to the 'Age' team)

I think Nigel Short has been the oldest in the top 100 for a while (maybe since Beliavsky???)

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2016 3:09 pm

I think Nigel Short has been the oldest in the top 100 for a while (maybe since Beliavsky???)

While looking at the live ratings site, I noticed that there may be a new contender for oldest player in the world top 100:

Igors Rausis, 57 years old, and currently rated 2651.

Is this his highest ever rating?

Incidentally, Nigel's Wikipedia article has the 'oldest player in the world top 100' claim but nothing about his candidacy for the FIDE presidency.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:03 pm

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 19, 2016 3:09 pm

I think Nigel Short has been the oldest in the top 100 for a while (maybe since Beliavsky???)

While looking at the live ratings site, I noticed that there may be a new contender for oldest player in the world top 100:

Igors Rausis, 57 years old, and currently rated 2651.

Is this his highest ever rating?

There has been a very recent Facebook thread about this player (started by Lawrence Trent) and his method of accumulating points by scoring heavily against low rated players. Emil Sutovsky is clearly very suspicious of his ability to score that heavily whilst others have expressed more balanced views.

To veer off the thread: How many World Champions have been born during World Championship matches? I found Kasparov (Botvinnik-Petrosian), Carlsen (Karpov-Kasparov). Karpov missed Botvinnik-Bronstein by a matter of days.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:12 pm

Emil Sutovsky is clearly very suspicious of his ability to score that heavily whilst others have expressed more balanced views.

You surprise me.

Is that thread publicly visible, by the way?

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 23, 2018 1:57 pm

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:12 pm

Emil Sutovsky is clearly very suspicious of his ability to score that heavily whilst others have expressed more balanced views.

You surprise me.

Is that thread publicly visible, by the way?

https://www.facebook.com/lawrence.trent ... 0959995642 I'm not sure if you have to be friends with him on Facebook to view it though.

Thanks. (I assume the answer is "yes"!)

Another chess-themed quiz question:

Name the chess world champions who gained the title after previously losing a match for the world title and who had not been world champion previously.

Spassky (lost to Petrosian in 1966, won the rematch in 1969)
Anand (lost to Kasparov in 1995, beat Kramnik in 2007)

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:07 pm

Another chess-themed quiz question:

Name the chess world champions who gained the title after previously losing a match for the world title and who had not been world champion previously.

Vasily Smyslov (lost (drew) 1954, won 1957)
Boris Spassky (lost 1966, won 1969)
Viswanathan Anand (lost 1995, won 2007 tournament, or lost 1998, won 2000)

Sorry Jack, I was in the middle writing when you posted.

Richard is correct. Smyslov, Spassky and Anand were my answers as well. Don't think there were any others.

Anand won the title in a tournament in 2007 and defended it in a match against Kramnik in 2008 (slight correction to what Jack said).

Are Karjakin, Topalov, Gelfand, Leko and Short the only active players in this position currently? Will any of them be seen as the Bronstein or Korchnoi of their day?

Kasparov is also a borderline case, with respect to the unfinished 1984 match.

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 24, 2018 2:38 pm

Kasparov is also a borderline case, with respect to the unfinished 1984 match.

Yes. To include cases like that, you could phrase it as: "who are the four chess players who became world chess champion after failing to win the first match they contested for the title?" (I don't think that are any who contested two matches and failed to win the second time - but that does lead to another question: which players have contested the most number of matches for the world title? Starting from the 1886 match. Whether to include the 1948 and 2007 tournaments held to decide the world title may be a matter of taste.)