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Each clue below refers to a chess game in our database, and these games contain
a banner that you can click on to claim a present. Be the first to find the game and
click the banner to claim your prize. We will be adding more clues to this page
at random intervals until December 25th, 2007. See our Official Rules to view the prizes
and for other important information.
NOTE: You are not currently signed into
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free and confidential. Visit our page to sign-up.
There have been 64 clues released so far. Stop back soon for more!
| The Chessgames Holiday Present Hunt is over.
Congratulations to the winners! The winner of the grand prize House of Staunton drawing was
announced at the Kibitzer's Café
on Christmas day, 2007, and was user Hesam7. Congratulations to all the winners! |
THESE CLUES HAVE BEEN RECENTLY SOLVED: [click here for full list] |
| clue #49: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! | |
A Wondrous Bird
| SOLUTION: | Pelikan vs P Bohosiewicz, 1936 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | The game is Bird's opening, and also an oblique reference to the old rhyme, "Oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican! His bill holds more than his belly can." (Dixon Merritt)
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| clue #50: prize claimed by GeauxCool! |
| SOLUTION: | F Erkel vs Spiker, 1855 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | The painting is that of Hungarian opera composer and chess master Ferenc Erkel.
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| clue #51: prize claimed by Touch of Knight! | |
Skip to my Loo?
| SOLUTION: | Kramnik vs Topalov, 2006 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | The game was "skipped" due to protests regarding the "loo" (toilet).
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| clue #52: prize claimed by ruelas007! | |
--·- ··- · · -· ··· ·- -·-· ·-· ·· ··-· ·· -·-· ·
| SOLUTION: | M Rotova vs P Mors, 1992 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Morse code for "Queen Sacrifice", and here Mr. Mors makes a beauty.
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| clue #54: prize claimed by tpstar! | |
Far From Home
| SOLUTION: | M S From vs Loyd, 1867 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Chess master Martin Severin From traveled from his home in Denmark to Paris to play this game.
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| clue #55: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! | |
Small Lit Room
| SOLUTION: | Oll vs Ulibin, 1989 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | "Small lit room." is an anagram for "Oll's Immortal", which this brilliancy surely is.
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| clue #56: prize claimed by Manic! | |
WC Zugzwang
| SOLUTION: | Steinitz vs Lasker, 1896 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | WC implies World Champion. Lasker's 24...Rg8!! leaves Steinitz without a move.
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| clue #57: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! |
click for larger view
| SOLUTION: | Leko vs Adams, 2001 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | The key is the weird position of the kings on the c-file, which can be easily explained only if this game was Fischerandom (Chess960).
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| clue #58: prize claimed by sneaky pete! | |
Don't kill him.
| SOLUTION: | D Weir vs J Messenger, 1951 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | A reference to the expression, Don't kill the messenger.
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| clue #59: prize claimed by Eric The Great! |
| SOLUTION: | A Kveinys vs Lim Yee Weng, 2002 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Each symbol is a digit reflected horizontally (obscure the left sides to see the numbers). And this is game # 1257207.
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| clue #60: prize claimed by MyCatPlaysChess! |
From 22:14 to 7:07
From Matthew to Michael
| SOLUTION: | Adams vs Kasimdzhanov, 2004 |
| PRIZE: | A One Year Subscription to New in Chess Magazine
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Matthew 22:14 is the famous line "For many are called, but few are chosen." At the 2004 FIDE World Championship, on the 7th game of the 7th round (hence 7:07) Rustam Kasimdzhanov scored the winning point against Michael Adams, to become the sole winner of a 128 player knockout tournament.
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| clue #61: prize claimed by arctic tern! | |
Odds were against him.
| SOLUTION: | Morphy vs J Thompson, 1859 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Morphy lost the game without his queen's kinght.
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| clue #62: prize claimed by Eric The Great! | |
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=n where n is the next number in this sequence: 1, 256, 19683...
| SOLUTION: | Geller vs Smyslov, 1952 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | 17=1, 28=256, 39=19683, 410=1048576
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| clue #63: prize claimed by ltsiros! | |
Premier Français.
| SOLUTION: | Greco vs NN, 1620 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Meaning "first French"; this is the first known French Defense.
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| clue #64: prize claimed by pawnofdoom! | |
Castling Into the Lion's Mouth
| SOLUTION: | Ed Lasker vs F Englund, 1913 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com
...plus an entry in to the Grand Prize drawing! (See Official Rules for info.) |
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| COMMENT: | Note by Tartakower in his book 500 Games of Chess
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SOME GENERAL TIPS AND HINTS:
- See the Official Rules for complete information.
- Bookmark this page and check back frequently. You never know when the next clue
might appear, and as soon as it does, the race is on.
- Some clues involve initials. A clue "B.F. vs B.S." may refer to Bobby Fischer
vs Boris Spassky.
- For some clues, a knowledge of chess players and chess history helps a lot.
- Some clues draw upon popular chess literature and anecdotes.
- Not all clues will narrow the field down a single game; some clues may refer
to more than one possible game. You'll simply have to search through the possible
games to find the specific game with the prize on it.
- Some clues are anagrams. For example, if a clue was "Apply Humor 1850" then you might
want to look at Paul Morphy games from 1850. ("Apply Humor" is an anagram of "Paul Morphy".)
- Some clues are puns, similar to what you might find on our Game of the Day.
- For some clues, a knowledge of chess history may be helpful--but there are also
references to literature, pop culture, and the arts.
- Many clues are intentionally misleading, in the spirit of crossword puzzles.
- Don't ask the chessgames administrators for any clarification of the meanings of clues.
Some of them are designed to be confusing and ambiguous; we will refuse to clarify their
meaning. We may, at our discretion, expand upon the given clue, if it proves too difficult.
- To give everybody a fair chance, there is a limit of five (5) prizes per member,
not including the Grand Prize.
- If is possible to design software that downloads thousands of games in bulk
to scan the HTML pages for prize graphics. This is regarded as cheating. We have
measures in place designed to detect and prevent this. Anybody caught using these methods
will be disqualified, and the prizes will not be awarded but instead returned to the
prize pool.
- These hints are not inclusive; some types of clues might not be described herein. You're
on your own--good luck!
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