Can You Solve Our 2025 Holiday Puzzler?
Your favorite annual chess quiz tradition is back for the 2025 holidays.
Play the puzzler by clicking here.
Enjoy this year's quiz, and see if you can win one of our prizes for a top score!
Update, January 8
For answers and winners, click the links below, or scroll to the bottom of the page:
Rules:
- All ties will be resolved by the earliest received submission, so send in your answers as soon as you know them. But try to be as accurate as possible—it usually takes close to a perfect score to win!
- Answers will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Note that only a member's first submission will be considered.
- Spelling counts. The quiz is scored automatically by Google Forms, so make sure you spell your responses correctly. For player names, write the first and last name in American English only, and in that order. For proper nouns such as names, use a capital letter as the first letter of each word. Do not use any accent marks or titles (GM, IM, etc.). For chess engines, use the name only without version numbers.
- You are allowed to use any resources at your disposal to get the answers: engines, web searches, comment sections, phone-a-friend, the all-knowing AI that lives in your phone, etc.
- Provide your valid Chess.com username and an e-mail for your answer receipt in the form.
Prizes:
- 1st-3rd place: One year of Chess.com Diamond membership
- 4th-10th place: One year of Chess.com Platinum membership
- 11th-20th place: One year of Chess.com Gold membership
The Puzzler:
(Mobile users: If you are having trouble filling out the embedded form below, you can complete the form here.)
2. Which famous chess player was the prompt for this AI-generated artwork?
Correct Answer: Fabiano Caruana
3. Which famous chess player's name is an anagram of the phrase "awarding Noel"?
Correct Answer: Awonder Liang
4. According to a published report, which world chess champion's ears turned red when he was experiencing discomfort?
Correct Answer: Max Euwe
5. With correct play and Black to move, what is the evaluation of this position?
Correct Answer: Draw
6. Which chess master publicly said that the Dragon Sicilian was well-named, because like a dragon it is "impossible to kill"?
Correct Answer: Leonid Shamkovich
7. Who was the most recent undisputed classical world chess champion to be arrested and spend time in a cell according to publicly documented reports?
Correct Answer: Garry Kasparov
8. Who played White in this 2025 online chess game?
Correct Answer: Vladislav Artemiev
9. A famous Estonian grandmaster once wrote that a group of young grandmasters "will in the future inherit the mantle of the leading group of older grandmasters," naming specifically Yuri Balashov, Anatoly Karpov, Rafael Vaganian and which fourth player?
Correct Answer: Vladimir Tukmakov
10. In a standard chess game, what is the maximum possible simultaneous number of identical white pieces on the board that could at any point in the game check Black's king and block a check of White's king on the same move, without utilizing a discovered check?
Correct Answer: 10
11. Which chess player's arm is shown in the photo below?
Correct Answer: Anna Muzychuk
12. Which eventual U.S. chess champion was publicly evaluated by a world chess champion stating that he plays well, but is already 20 years old?
Correct Answer: Larry Christiansen
13. According to an interview with his wife, which world chess champion devised an unconventional and sarcastically "ingenious" method to prepare boiled pasta?
Correct Answer: Mikhail Tal
14. Who played White in this 2025 chess game?
Correct Answer: PlentyChess
15. Which famous chess player was the prompt for this AI-generated artwork?
Correct Answer: Jose Capablanca or Jose Raul Capablanca
16. Who is the overall highest-rated chess player born in a city depicted in any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Correct Answer: Magnus Carlsen
17. Which highly ranked women's chess player was the prompt for this AI-generated image?
Correct Answer: Nana Dzagnidze
18. Who played White in this 2025 chess game?
Correct Answer: Obsidian
19. Who scored the first goal in a professional hockey game featuring a promotional package for $25 that let fans attend the game, play chess in the arena, and "meet and greet" a U.S. chess champion?
Correct Answer: Jimmy Hayes
20. Which member of the Hockey Hall of Fame played for two different NHL teams whose home arenas were located in the exact cities where one U.S. chess champion has lived, and whose jersey is publicly confirmed to have been owned by that same chess champion?
Correct Answer: Roberto Luongo
21. Bonus question (unscored):
Which chess master wrote the following passage in his book on the evolution of online chess and his personal challenges and triumphs?
Any professional chess player who tells you they haven't wrestled with the thought of how easy it would be to cheat is lying. [...] So you have to ask yourself: Am I a person who cheats, or I am a person who does not cheat?
Correct Answer: Danny Rensch
1 @hedgehog2007
2 @ajverdi123
3 @Verifiability
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6 @mabagar
7 @pepigm
8 @Heleriin
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14 @Lightshadoww
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16 @thecheesegobbler2023
17 @AyaanShiva
18 @unicorn-Twilight
19 @Honor_Leslie
20 @bapmd
