Can You Solve Our 2016 Holiday Puzzler?
Your favorite annual chess tradition is back.
Chess.com is proud to celebrate the holiday season with an all-new puzzler for 2016—and we believe this is the hardest (and most rewarding) quiz yet.
The 10 Chess.com members who score the highest on the holiday puzzler will win the prizes below.
All ties will be won by the earliest received submission, so send in your answers as soon as you know them.
Answers will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, and only a member's first submission will be considered.
[Update: Answers and winners are below.]
ANSWERS:
2. Which famous chess player was known as "the last knight of the king's gambit"?
Rudolf Spielmann
3. Which two players have won world chess championship matches in Cuba?
Capablanca, Steinitz
4. Which official world chess champion first won his title by drawing a game starting on the date June 16?
Spassky
5. Which player in the FIDE December 2016 top 20 shares a birthday with one of the four main cast members of the TV show Seinfeld?
Wojtaszek
6. Which famous chess player's hairstyle is shown in the picture above?
Maxime-Vachier Lagrave
7. Who played White in the position above?
Stockfish 8
8. Which current NFL player recently played a vote chess game against Chess.com members?
John Urschel
9. Which city was he born in?
Winnipeg
10. What is his favorite mathematical equation involving the number pi? (Answer the name of the equation.)
Euler's identity
11. Which is the fastest winning move for White in the position above?
Qh2
12. Which famous chess player's hair is shown above?
Hou Yifan
13. In three-check chess, with each side having one check, which is the winning move for Black in the position above?
Nc5
14. Who played White in the position above?
Magnus Carlsen
15. Which American chess player owns the hair in the photo above?
Daniel Naroditsky
16. Who composed the chess position shown above?
Pal Benko
17. What is the fastest winning move for Black in the position shown above?
Ne2
18. (Read the question carefully!) If both players cooperate to the maximum extent, how many moves is the longest-possible chess game under current FIDE rules as enforced by an arbiter?
8848
WINNERS:
1. JamesColeman
2. Stryker672
3. kwrg
4. Haw-Haw
5. goranjak
6. jgoley
7. NCKChess
8. Everling10
9. chesskingdreamer
10. Joe_Harper
Let us know what you think of the puzzler on Facebook or in the comments below.
Prizes:
- 1st-2nd place: One year of Chess.com Diamond membership
- 3rd-5th place: One year of Chess.com Platinum membership
- 6th-10th 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.)
