2022 Christmas Chess Quiz

[Simon Rogers]

Fill your boots with this.
Kenilworth Chess Club 2022 Christmas Quiz
Expanded to 60 chess questions this year.
From Mark Page, posted Sunday 25th December 2022.
https://kenilworthchess.blogspot.com

[MJMcCready]

Some of those questions are rather difficult to put it mildly. Will you be publishing the answers at any point because there are two questions there I would very much like to know the answer to.

[Simon Rogers]

Some of those questions are rather difficult to put it mildly. Will you be publishing the answers at any point because there are two questions there I would very much like to know the answer to.

Hi Mark.
I'll keep checking the Kenilworth Chess Club website.
Mark Page posted the answers for last year's Christmas Quiz on Monday 3rd January 2022.
There seems to be a couple of other Christmas Chess quizzes on other Chess Club websites that have found.

[MJMcCready]

Well don't know who came up with that quiz but there are some rather intriguing questions in it. I think I only know 5-6 answers.

[Joey Stewart]

It feels like a quiz designed with the mindset that lots of participants will cheat so might as well at least make them work hard researching the answers then give anything simple that would pop up as first thing on Google.

[Simon Rogers]

The answers to the Kenilworth Chess Club Christmas Quiz appeared on their website dated Tuesday 3rd January 2023.
Here it is:
https://kenilworthchess.blogspot.com

[MJMcCready]

Thank you, that was quite some quiz. I only got 5 right.

[Andrew Zigmond]

The most contentious question concerns who won a chess game between Captain Kirk and Mr Spock - Mark Page was forced to allow either answer as correct.

I've done a bit of digging on this one (sad I know) and I can't find any citation for a win by Spock. It seems that the only time a result between the two was specified in an episode the game was won by Kirk but they were shown playing on other occasions, as well as games against other characters that were won by Spock (his ability to beat a computer that should be unbeatable is a plot point in one episode).

[Joey Stewart]

Isn't Kirk famous for being able to chat his way to winning in even unbeatable scenarios? With that in mind you could probably claim a win for him regardless of who he is up against

[John Clarke]

54 out of 200, but without resorting to books or on-line searches.

[Ian Thompson]

My prize from the ChessBase Christmas quiz arrived today.

What would your criteria be to designate someone as a "top player" (signing a DVD)?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Presumably someone you had not really heard of before, or is outside the world top 100?

What we really want to know is how you failed to do better then "David P." (also from England) and who came 2nd overall, and who David P. is?

(There is also Laszlo A. from the United Kingdom.)

Was the mousepad a nice prize? (I might actually enter the competition myself next year, it sounds great fun.)

EDIT (to add a PS that is longer than the original reply!):

PS. Failing the "world top 100" designation I suggested above, I would expect for the trailed signed prize to meet the description of "top player" for the signature on the DVD to be at least that of a GM. I wouldn't expect a world champion (of which there are many in chess) as that would have been trailed in the blurb if so. I would be disappointed if the person signing it was an IM or lower, or a low-rated GM no-one has heard of. I am guessing it is a local GM or one of the GMs involved in the Chessbase Germany set-up? Maybe we can try and guess who has signed the DVD? (and to be fair, for a raffle prize it might be expecting a bit much to get any name recognition or for the DVD to have any collectible value later...)

[Ian Thompson]

Presumably someone you had not really heard of before,

On the contrary, a very well known name.

or is outside the world top 100?

Well outside it.

What we really want to know is how you failed to do better then "David P." (also from England) and who came 2nd overall, and who David P. is?

The rules said "The more questions can be answered correctly, the higher are the chances to win main prizes in the end." so it's not completely clear how prizes were awarded. Those words suggest to me it may have been something like a random draw with one entry in the draw for each correct answer.

I got one question wrong (other than the question that everyone got wrong because none of the multiple choice answers were correct).

Was the mousepad a nice prize?

It's a fabric mouse mat with a slightly blurry ChessBase 17 logo on it. There's not much more to say about it.

IMG_4585-001.JPG (847.81 KiB) Viewed 1886 times

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Well, I am thinking either Garry Kasparov, or Raymond Keene...

[Ian Thompson]

for a raffle prize it might be expecting a bit much to get any name recognition or for the DVD to have any collectible value later...

If you look at the prizes ChessBase think that a "DVD signed by a top player and a ChessBase 17 mouse pad" is a better prize than a "€60 digital ChessBase Shop voucher".

As their DVDs cost about €30 that implies they think a signature adds at least €25 - €30 to its value. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if it did.