Warm up question:

1. Out of 13 Classical World Champions, who are the ones that became champions without defeating their predecessor in a match

Now the tough ones (in no particular order):

2. Who is the only Soviet chess player who had his Grandmaster title taken away?

3. Yakov Estrin once played a mini-part in a Documentary film, where he played a move b2-b4. What was the film about?

4. Name 4 chess players who beat both Capablanca and Fischer in an official game with classical time control.

5. Name 4 chess players who beat both Fischer and Kasparov in an official game with classical time control.

6. This chess player won the most games (i.e. more than anyone else) at Chess Olympiads.

7. Name a World Champion who won all the games that he played against another World Champion (both are from the list of 13 Classical World Champions).

8. For many years, Henrique Mecking played for this Brazilian club.

9. For many years, Yugoslavian "Informant" determines the best game played in the world. Which game got the biggest ever score from the judges?

10. This is the only player who played at the Chess Olympiads for 4 (formally) different teams.

13? You mean 15. Off the top of my head for all these answers (looking them up would be cheating), the answers would be Steinitz, Botvinnik, Karpov, and Anand.



There's more than one, isn't there? Korchnoi did, of course, but I think Boris Verlinsky did too. Wasn't his title eliminated in order to make Botvinnik the "first" Soviet GM?



Reshevsky, Eliskases, Euwe, and Keres.



Petrosian and Spassky, of course. And Korchnoi. But now it gets harder. I don't think Larsen ever beat Kasparov, and I know Reshevsky didn't. Who's the 4th? I don't think Tal or Smyslov beat Kasparov. Don't think Gligoric beat Kasparov. I dunno, I'm going to have to pass on the 4th.


I'm not sure of the number of games, but I think Lasker scored 100% against Euwe.

7. I think Fischer won his only game against Euwe.

Euwe beat Fischer in a 2-game match in 1957, that I think was played at classical time controls. Not really sure.

Interesting story about that. The first game, which Euwe won, was published in Chess Review. The second one is lost, except for the first 14 moves or so, which Euwe remembered years later just because they matched one of his games with Alekhine. Of this game, Euwe said something to the effect that Fischer had been better early on, but that he had pulled off "something of a swindle", and stood "rather better" when the draw was agreed.

Question: How could a game like this possibly be lost? Why was it never published? The brightest young star in the American firmament draws a game with an ex-world champion at age 13, and they don't publish it, or make any fuss about the achievement?

There's only one theory that makes any sense to me. Euwe must have been being kind when he said that he was "rather better" at the end. I think he must have been dead won, but gave Fischer a courtesy draw. The final position must have been one they didn't want the public seeing, lest the courtesy draw become a joke at Fischer's expense, so they never did.

The more I think about it, the more I think that Smyslov did beat Kasparov some time (even though I can't remember when, and it definitely wasn't in their Candidates Match). If that's right, he would be the 4th that beat both Kasparov and Fischer.

Looked it up on chessgames.com



So, apparently those match games from 1957 were classical.

Kasparov himself, when asked this question, had trouble finding the 4th. Not nearly as well-known as Petrosian, Spassky, or Korchnoi, but still a solid Grandmaster. Not Smyslov.

Okay, so with that clue, I'm going to guess a Soviet GM (a fellow Soviet would have had more cracks at Kasparov in his early days), who isn't that well known, and never came near the world title. When I phrase it that way, the first name (actually the only name) that comes to mind is Kholmov.

If that's wrong, my next guess is Janosevic (not a Soviet, but he was something of a giant-killer).

Just wanted to restrict it to 13, ending with Kasparov, to avoid any ambiguity. So, Steinitz, Botvinnik, Karpov was the intended answer, but Anand is also accepted.

Boris Verlinsky is correct. Didn't know this about Korchnoi. If that happened to him, I'd imagine he wasn't a Soviet player anymore at the time when it happened. Of course, there is a point of view that once born Soviet - always Soviet.


Correct!


Correct! and see below about the 4th


Correct! Lasker is (+3,-0,=0) against Euwe.

Here's how that Fischer-Euwe game is described in The Games of Robert J. Fischer




Looks like I was right about the phrases "something of a swindle" and "rather better", but wrong about the game Euwe had remembered (it was against Botvinnik, not Alekhine). Reading between the lines, you have to think that Fischer was dead lost in the end, otherwise it's incredible that the game was never published when the first one was, and with annotations. A 13 year old drawing with a former world champion is big news, if the game is even remotely fit for public consumption.