Chess history trivia

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Barry Sandercock
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Barry Sandercock » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:02 pm

I'll try a question now.

Which is the only chess book that mentions Bing Crosby ? ( He was not a chess player.)

Richard James
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Richard James » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:15 pm

Barry Sandercock wrote:I'll try a question now.

Which is the only chess book that mentions Bing Crosby ? ( He was not a chess player.)
Bing is mentioned on p58 of The Even More Complete Chess Addict.

Barry Sandercock
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Barry Sandercock » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:41 pm

I thought you might get it, Richard, as it was written by you and Mike Fox.

Richard James
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Richard James » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:48 pm

Barry Sandercock wrote:I thought you might get it, Richard, as it was written by you and Mike Fox.
Yes, a very easy question for me (although Mike wrote that bit)!

There may well be other chess books that also mention Bing Crosby though.

Richard James
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Richard James » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:57 pm

According to this, Bing played chess with his children in his 'oak-paneled library'.

Chess Life and Review has a 1979 reference to Crosby playing chess with Edith Fellows.

So it seems like he did play.

John Moore
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Moore » Fri Nov 27, 2015 5:06 pm

Bing should have been mentioned in Alain White's Christmas series somewhere. See what I'm doing there - White Christmas! Oh forget it.

If Cyrus Lakdewala hasn't mentioned Bing as yet somewhere in his oeuvre, it can only be a matter of time. The other likely candidate is Paul Motwani who goes anywhere and everywhere in his acronym based works such as H.O.T Chess, C.O.O.L Chess, S.T.A.R Chess etc.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Fri Nov 27, 2015 6:34 pm

Who sang opera on the radio during the 53 candidates match in Zurich?

Barry Sandercock
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Barry Sandercock » Fri Nov 27, 2015 6:47 pm

Was it Vasily Smyslov ?

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:13 pm

Correct everytime Barry.

John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:57 pm

Next question:
Which nineteenth-century player with a gambit named after him finished second in an English knockout tournament?

Barry Sandercock
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Barry Sandercock » Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:40 pm

Ernst Falkbeer ?

John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:28 pm

Barry, it's the right answer! Well done! Second at Birmingham, 1858, and Falkbeer Counter-Gambit.

I realised after setting the question that S. S. Boden could be a second answer, since there is a Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit, although that is named after two players.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:28 am

An interesting question might be what' the largest number of players a gambit, or opening for that matter, has been named after. We don't normally go beyond two do we? Can't think of any are more than two.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:32 am

"An interesting question might be what' the largest number of players a gambit, or opening for that matter, has been named after. We don't normally go beyond two do we? Can't think of any are more than two."

Probably not more than two at one time... But the system with kingside fianchetto and d6 has been known variously as Antal, Pirc, Kotov, Robatsch, Modern etc. I seem to remember "Chess" writing about this nomenclatorial problem about 45 - 50 years ago.

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Michael Farthing
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Michael Farthing » Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:59 am

..and apparently also the Ufimtsev and Yugoslav.