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Do You Even Chess?

Can you guess these facts about the most popular board game of all time?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: October 27, 2021
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First submittedOctober 27, 2021
Times taken22,469
Average score60.0%
Rating4.57
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Hint
Answer
Term for when a player is in check and has no legal move
Checkmate
Term for when a player is not in check but has no legal move
Stalemate
Chess piece that can only move diagonally
Bishop
Name of the move where the king and rook switch places
Castle
Number of squares on a chess board
64
American who won the World Chess Championship in 1972
Bobby Fischer
Russian who was defeated by the above
Boris Spassky
Country where the above matches took place
Iceland
Current world #1 who has recorded the highest Elo rating of all-time
Magnus Carlsen
Russian champion who held the world title for a record 255 months
Garry Kasparov
Computer that beat that champion in 1997
Deep Blue
Famous chess-playing "machine" that actually had a person inside of it
Mechanical Turk
Shortest possible victory, which can be achieved in just two moves
Fool's Mate
Material from which the oldest known chess pieces were made
Ivory
Popular chess opening named for a Mediterranean island
Sicilian Defence
Highest title awarded to chess players, requiring an Elo rating of 2500
Grandmaster
Country that currently has the most players of that rank
Russia
Country which the ancestor of chess, chaturanga, originally came from
India
Country in which former champion José Raúl Capablanca was born
Cuba
Z word that refers to a situation where any move a player
makes will worsen their position
Zugzwang
+2
Level 78
Oct 27, 2021
Stefan Zweig novella about a convict of the Nazis whose only pastime is to learn by heart an entire chess book: Chess novella (Schachnovelle).
+12
Level 68
Oct 27, 2021
13 of these questions also appear on this featured quiz
+1
Level 57
Oct 27, 2021
Just realized that lol and they're both QM quizzes. Weird.
+10
Level ∞
Oct 28, 2021
Wow, crazy. My memory is going, but at least I'm consistent.

In any case, the older quiz has now been deleted.

+7
Level 84
Oct 27, 2021
I do actually chess, so this was a very easy quiz. Looking forward to what the average score ends up being.
+21
Level 79
Oct 28, 2021
Doesn't Jeff Lynne have the highest elo rating?
+4
Level 55
Oct 28, 2021
Wikipedia says that this guy is an English singer and songwriter.........
+13
Level 86
Oct 29, 2021
Of which band ? :)
+8
Level 55
Oct 29, 2021
Ohhhhhhh
+11
Level 75
Nov 2, 2021
In castling the king and one rook don't switch places, they just move in the same turn.
+1
Level 50
Apr 5, 2022
You could say they do not switch places, but it's not entirely the case since the king is on the other side of the rook after castling

Also in Chinese the move is called "王车易位" (literally "king-rook transposition")

+3
Level 51
Nov 2, 2021
Interesting how only 40% knew Carlsen but 67% knew Fischer. Both are legends but you usually remember the current ones more.
+7
Level 63
Nov 2, 2021
Suspect it's down to a lot of users of the website being American. I'm not American but I'm guessing their media made a big deal about Fischer so that even people with no interest in chess in America will have heard of him. Meanwhile Carlsen is Norwegian so he's only a name people will be familiar with if they play or watch chess.
+3
Level 67
Nov 2, 2021
As an American, I suspect this is right. Plus Fischer vs. Spassky was during the Cold War, when anything USA vs. USSR was a major news story.
+2
Level 78
Nov 2, 2022
Fischer was world news in many ways. He is part of history. He is known by non-chess enthusiasts, whereas Carlsen probably not as much. I'm not American and I'm not Norwegian.
+1
Level 88
Nov 2, 2021
I could only think of Magnus, his last name escaped me.
+1
Level 70
Nov 2, 2021
Fool's mate can't be achieved in two moves, it takes four (or seven if you count the opponent's moves as well).
+9
Level 72
Nov 2, 2021
1. f3 e5

2. g4 Qh4#

You may be thinking of Scholar's Mate.

+2
Level 70
Nov 2, 2021
Ah yes, you're right!
+2
Level 44
Nov 3, 2021
That is for black but for white is 3 moves
+1
Level 19
Dec 3, 2021
I think it means two moves each
+1
Level 92
Dec 10, 2021
What he means is that the fool's mate can also be achieved by the white side, but it takes 3 moves, as follows:

1. e3 f6

2. c3 g5

3. Qh5#

Of the 29 possible moves white can make on move 2, 6 would prevent the fool's mate option from being available (f3, g4, Nf3, Qh5+, Ke2, Be2), so c3 could be 22 other moves as well, but white's fastest possible checkmate is on move 3, after black's moves of f6 and g5.

+5
Level 63
Nov 2, 2021
I could understand what you meant for castling but that definition is wrong. The pieces don't switch places, if they switched places the king would end up in one of the corners of the board. Castling just moves the king 2 spaces and then the rook jumps over it in the same move.
+1
Level 44
Nov 3, 2021
I thought is O-O (how to notate a castle(kingside)) O-O-O (how to notate a castle(queenside))
+1
Level 65
Nov 2, 2021
Something doesn't seem right with the way this clue is worded, "Current world #1 who has recorded the highest Elo rating of all-time"
+2
Level 49
Nov 2, 2021
Elo rating indicates how strong you are compared to your opponents. It is not absolute, but relative measure, because you gain or lose rating points by wins or losses. If marathon would have same rating system, you wouldn't record times but wins or losses against other runners.

World ranking is based on Elo ratings of current players. Magnus Carlsen is number 1 in that ranking. He has also achieved the highest Elo rating of all time. It means that he has succeeded among his peers better than anyone else before him (but there is also inflation among Elo ratings over time). So, both statements are true about Carlsen.

+2
Level 62
Nov 2, 2021
In castling, the king and rook don't switch places. The king and rook each move two places over, whereas to switch places completely both would have to move three spaces.

https://support.chess.com/article/266-how-do-i-castle

+1
Level 81
Mar 14, 2022
Really, the king moves 2 and the rook moves to the other side, which in the case of queenside castling (0-0-0) is 3 squares.
+1
Level 58
Nov 2, 2021
Great quiz! I'd love if you made some more chess-themed quizzes, maybe about top players throughout history or openings or something like that. Great start though!
+1
Level 56
Nov 2, 2021
cool quiz! it's always nice to see some more chess trivia on here
+1
Level 66
Nov 3, 2021
Watching the Queen's Gambit helped me get two answers... Still only got 13/20
+4
Level 61
Nov 3, 2021
Accept other spellings of Zugzwang cos it's a difficult spelling
+1
Level 60
Nov 3, 2021
Castling's clue should be something along the lines of 'Name of the move where the king and rook both move, the king going on the other side of the rook' or even 'Move that has types queenside and kingside'. Castling does not swap the rook and king's position; while the rook can end up where the king was, the king is never put in the corner where the rook was after castling.

Zugzwang was actually one of the easier ones for me I thought, but I don't follow chess history/news, so that could be why some 'easier' ones were harder for me.

+1
Level 92
Dec 10, 2021
I stopped reading the question after 'Z word' and spent a good 30 seconds spelling zwischenzug. If at first you don't succeed... try reading the instructions.
+1
Level 56
Dec 20, 2021
Garry Kasparov was World Champion for 15 years meaning the number of months he was champion for would be around 180. Emanuel Lasker was World Champion for 27 years (although that included WW1)- around 324 months.
+5
Level 48
Aug 10, 2022
En passant is forced
+1
Level 72
Apr 29, 2023
You clearly do not chess.
+3
Level 65
Jun 29, 2023
You clearly do not anarchychess.
+1
Level 60
Jan 3, 2024
I’d take en passant over checkmate any day
+1
Level 67
Sep 4, 2022
7/20 and only got zugzwang because of Criminal Minds. Maybe I need to switch up my priorities.
+4
Level 76
Oct 22, 2022
I like how the title is "Do you even chess," yet "mate" isn't an acceptable answer for "checkmate."
+1
Level 42
Jul 17, 2023
i´m diapointed that 10% don´t know that a chessbord has 8x8 squares
+1
Level 30
Aug 15, 2023
i can never for the life of me spell zugzwang correctly
+1
Level 17
Feb 21, 2024
8/20. I didn't know how to spell zugswang, and I really don't care about the history or players of chess. This is true even for other games I play