2008 PRESENT HUNT PRIZES SPONSORED BY:
and Chessgames.com
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RULES FOR THE 2008 HOLIDAY PRESENT HUNT:
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, 2008. See our Official Rules to view the prizes
and for other important information.
NOTE: You are not currently signed into
Chessgames.com. In order to claim a prize, you must have a registered
account at Chessgames.com. Registration is easy, free, and confidential.
Visit our page to sign-up.
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The 2008 Chessgames Holiday Present Hunt is over.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Merry Christmas!
The Chessgames.com Staff
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THESE CLUES HAVE BEEN RECENTLY SOLVED: [click here for full list] | | clue #49: prize claimed by Domdaniel! | |
After 7...Ne5? White was salivating.
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| clue #50: prize claimed by mack! | |
Beaten by a tramp.
| SOLUTION: | N Banks vs Marshall, 1926 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | A reference to Morphy's famous (albeit perhaps apocryphal) quote, "Checkers is for tramps." Newell Banks was the world checkers champion.
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| clue #52: prize claimed by Frank Castle! |
| ❍❒❒❒❒❒ | = | It could be silver | | ❒❒❒❍ | = | Pulpit of old | | ❒❒❍❒❒❒❒ | = | Wicked things | | ❒❒❍❒❒❒ | = | To heap up | | ❒❒❍ | = | First lady? | | ❒❒❒❍❒❒❒ | = | Iron Mike's nemesis | | ❒❒❒❍❒ | = | Quicksilver |
| SOLUTION: | I Nikolic vs G Arsovic, 1989 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | The solutions to the mini-clues are: lining, ambo, candles, aggest, Eve, Smyslov, and azoth. The circled letters spell "longest". While this is not the longest game in the database, for many years it was the longest recorded game played under normal tournament conditions.
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| clue #53: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! | |
AK vs VK
| SOLUTION: | Khalifman vs Kotronias, 1993 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | Maybe you thought it was Karpov and Korchnoi, but these are never that easy.
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| clue #54: prize claimed by dakgootje! | |
He beats an amateur with his own gambit.
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| clue #55: prize claimed by Domdaniel! | |
Valiant "Big Mat" Realties
| SOLUTION: | Polerio vs G da Cutri, 1590 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | Valiant is an anagram of Latvian, while "Big Mat" is an anagram of "gambit", and realties is an anagram of earliest. This is probably the earliest Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5?!) in the database.
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| clue #56: prize claimed by sleepyirv! | |
Some people call me Maurice.
| SOLUTION: | S C Miller vs M Dougherty, 2002 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | A phrase from the song The Joker by the Steve Miller Band.
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| clue #57: prize claimed by sleepyirv! | |
Kasparov beats AK.
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| clue #58: prize claimed by ToTheKings! | |
"One of the most poetical chess compositions that has ever been devised in practical play."
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| clue #59: prize claimed by Stonehenge! | |
The doctor's gift.
| SOLUTION: | T Palmer vs R Present, 1986 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | Play on the name Present, this game features longtime Chessgames contributor Dr. Tony Palmer. It was played a few days after Christmas.
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| clue #60: prize claimed by aphasia! |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | 1 | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | | 2 | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | | 3 | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | | 4 | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | | 5 | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ | ❒ |
| | Across:- Round numbers?
- Anoint
- Bride or groom, for example
- Tree resin incense
- The player with the black pieces
| Down:- The player with the white pieces
- _____ Gay
- Gunlock
- Town near San Francisco
- Decoration on a letter
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| SOLUTION: | Z Andriasian vs I A Nataf, 2007 |
| PRIZE: | A One Year Subscription to New in Chess Magazine |
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| COMMENT: | The solution to the acrostic is:| Z | E | R | O | S | | A | N | E | L | E | | V | O | W | E | R | | E | L | E | M | I | | N | A | T | A | F |
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| clue #61: prize claimed by cu8sfan! |
At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
| SOLUTION: | W Grimshaw vs A Love, 1886 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | A quote from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost which is also the title given to the Chessgames game of the day on March 22, 2008.
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| clue #63: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! |
Rejected Christmas pun: "______ Other Reindeer"
(This game features a prominent grandmaster losing to a relative unknown.)
| SOLUTION: | K Spraggett vs O Brendel, 1986 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | Canada's Kevin Spragget became a GM in 1985, but German IM Oliver Brendel made him look like a beginner. The rejected pun would have been "Oliver Other Reindeer". Now you know why it was rejected.
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| clue #64: prize claimed by Pi Guy! |
Deck the halls with boughs of folly.
HINT #1: WHAT DO SANTA'S EARMUFFS KEEP WARM?
HINT #2: THE GAME BEGINS 1.d4
| SOLUTION: | Djurkovic vs Z Zvan, 2001 |
| PRIZE: | A Four Month Free Subscription to Chessgames.com |
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| COMMENT: | This game features the rare opening Santasiere's Folly, which usually begins 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.b4!?
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SOME GENERAL TIPS AND HINTS:
- This list is designed to provide some helpful hints and tips to win the contest.
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. E.g., the clue "B.F. vs B.S." might refer to Bobby Fischer
vs Boris Spassky.
- Some clues draw upon popular chess literature and anecdotes.
- Not all clues will narrow the field down to a single game; some clues may refer
to more than one possible game. Some clues are very hard exactly because they are
very vague. For clues like these, you'll simply have to search through the possible games and hope
that you get lucky.
- 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.
The Game of the Day Archive might come in handy, even though it only goes
back one year.
- For some clues, a knowledge of chess players and chess history is helpful--but there are also
references to literature, language, pop culture, mathematics, and the arts.
- Many clues are intentionally misleading, in the spirit of crossword puzzles.
- Sometimes a clue will be very hard, and then a subsequent clue will make a reference
designed to act as a hint for the earlier very hard clue. So if everybody is stuck on a real
stumper, pay careful attention to the new clues being released.
- We promise that we will never insert hints into the HTML of the pages. This includes
the filenames and "alt text" that we choose for our graphics. Don't bother investigating
those details, because we assure you that it will never help.
- 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. However, we sometimes offer additional hints to clues which go unsolved for a
long period of time.
- To give everybody a fair chance, there is a limit of five (5) prizes per member. If you
are skilled enough to win 5 prizes you'll have to stop playing until next year.
- If you are trying to solve a clue for which the solution is a seven-digit game ID number,
be aware that the valid range of game ID's goes from 1,000,000 to (approx.) 1,500,000. So you don't
have to examine all 10 million numbers, "only" half a million.
- It 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.
- Chessgames.com will be the most important site to use for all clues, but being
skilled with Google.com can also help a lot. Some of the clues will involve anagrams,
for which the Internet Anagram Server is an indispensable resource. For
questions of history, art, mathematics, or a number of other subjects that our clues reference, Wikipedia will surely come in handy. Having a good
dictionary will also be an asset.
- Since many clues refer to player names, our Player Directory
will be a valuable tool. When searching for players by name, it's probably best to use the
Advanced Search on the homepage.
- This contest would not exist were it not for the generous contributions of our sponsors. Whether or not
you win, you should take a minute to visit their websites and see the fine publications and merchandise
they have to offer.
- 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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