Simply 'beste' would do; it is generally used as informal start of a letter [formal would be 'geachte' which is as much as 'esteemed / respected'. Literally it obviously translated to 'best', reminiscent of 'my good fellow' et cetera.

<chess.com-quiz> Overall it seems fairly do-able - kind of stumped by #2 though. I've never been much for retrograde analysis so it doesn't say much but it seems fairly impossible :P

Is 'beste' best? Is 'lieve' too loving? What would one upper-middle-class Dutch gent say to another in the 1890s?

Of course that obscures the curious English tradition of addressing one's closest friends on strictly formal terms, surnames only. Watson would have been horrified if his flat-mate had addressed him as 'John'.

In 'The Final Solution' by Michael Chabon, the old detective is almost ninety and, quite properly, has no name at all.

What do the Dutch translators of Doyle use for 'dear' ... ?

My knowledge of 1890s verbosity is fairly limited. 'Lieve' is very loving though. I am not sure there is a direct translation for dear. For instance 'he/she is dear to me' would translated to 'hij/zij is mij dierbaar'; which is somewhere between 'dear' and 'beloved'. However, 'lieve' would be more 'my love' or 'my dearest'.

Of course there are exceptions to this but generally.. perhaps 'beste' has a bit too little and 'lieve' a bit too much warmth for, even very close, friendships. The problem with 'dierbaar' is that it is a bit old-fashioned. Not in 1890 maybe though ;)

<the curious English tradition of addressing one's closest friends>

Always thought it was a bit of a laugh. I presume that might be because it is used over here mainly in the upperclass, or -more accurately- some young snobs who feel they are much better than others and spit on everyone who has not gone to university and whose car is worth at least $50.000 [which might be a very small amount years from now ;]

<What do the Dutch translators of Doyle use for 'dear' ... ?>

I wrote some parody versions of 'The Second Coming' and 'Leda and the Swan', among others -- but I lost 'em. Gone the way of old scoresheets, frazzled motherboards, texts beyond recovery.

All I can recall of the latter version is that it substituted 'vibrator' for 'swan' -- as one does -- and included a line something like this (referring to the point when the god's batteries run low):

<And Hercules, the Wonder Willie/ Dead, or dying ...>

You'd have thought he was apparent enough in those wigs, but still. There is a new John Jnr for the world to gossip about and destroy, if it can.

And then, um, there's M. Hercule Poirot, a sort of Holmes Belgique.

Everything *is* connected ... and all tree-searches are infinite.

"Oh my God, it's full of checks and it goes on forever ..."

I can't do subtlety in Dutch. Best to leave it alone until I can. Enjoy the Holmes, Holmesy.

BTW ... there's a variety of sleeping pill named Rohypnol, which shot to fame about ten years ago as a so-called 'date rape' drug. I used to know a minor rockstar (plus entourage) who was fond of it, though not for nasty coercive purposes. They always seemed to be moving very slowly, like wading through glue.

Point being, its 'street' name was 'roofie'. I suppose it's *possible* that some Dutch wit called it 'dakkie' ... but it doesn't seem like the type of substance that leads to wit.

I'm considering hiring myself out as a sort of meta-search engine. Obviously I'd need an accomplice skilled in the use of Geurgle and similar devices.

Long hours, little reward, no pay to speak of ...

104,044,953,600.

8! = 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 40,320 ... which should be the possible number of ways of setting up 8 identical white pawns on the 2nd rank. Square to take care of 8 black pawns. Multiplied by 2^6 = 64, to take care of the six pairs of interchangeable pieces (RR, rr, NN, nn, BB, bb) on the board.

hahaha, very possible :P

<Could still be wrong.>

<Guess I'm just profond.>

Sometimes a solution suddenly appears to you <in passing>...

On #3, I know <where> the photos were taken, but I only think I know one of the GMs.

On #4, I haven't tried to do the math. Such questions always give me headaches and why would I bother for a quiz I'm not really going to enter when <Dom> is here, sort of an organic calculator...

I haven't tried the anagrams on #10 either. If I suddenly start solving anagrams next year, you'll know I went the MAJ route and put something together in preparation. I don't know why CG recommends that anagram site, as most of the anagrams used in the hunt have player names, which the anagram site will not recognize.

I don't recognize the amateur in #16. I had a couple of ideas, but they were wrong.

I haven't worked out the selfmate in #17, although I doubt it will look that complicated if and when it occurs to me.

Hehe, I solved it not too long after I posted the question - but thanks all the same ;)

Of course you can use "lieve" (ok- mijn 'liefste' dak - is better, 'zeer gewaardeerde' is also a nice alternative in Dutch, and a bit dated might be "mijn <waarde> [vriend/friend/name]", although accompanied of course by a "wink" through bodylanguage/facial expression, especially coming out in the pronunciation/tone/delivery.

But nuances are plentiful and abound, as always, when you get in depth into language translation. I have the UTMOST respect for top translators, perhaps even more so for translators of songlyrics... To accomodate the meter and get the essence of the song across any urge to translate literally must be suppressed... Am I getting across what I intend? heh

There was an interview with Seth Gaaikema (he was one of the few masters) on TV this morning that adressed the enormous difficulty of translating for example the My Fair Lady classic 'I've Grown Accustomed To her Face' ...

<Haar gezicht is net als het meubilair>

Ah, so...I'm in the wrong part of the world to recognize him on sight, but with that little hint I figured it out.

<Dom> Well, the ChessCafe quiz was heavily weighted for <power>, constructed so a perfect score is practically impossible, and giving entrants several weeks to work on the entire set of questions. Our holiday hunt has a significant <speed> component, where you can find the correct answer but be a bit too slow.

Some of the quiz answers could be found via resourceful use of the internet, but it helped to have actual paper and ink books as well. All the movie questions could be answered with Basalla's <Chess in the Movies>. The Irish tournaments question could be answered with Forster's bio of Amos Burn. The second brilliancy prize question could be solved by doing a position search to identify the games, then figuring out how they were alike. Soltis' book on <Soviet Chess> gave me the quote about Geller as well as the identity of Botvinnik's wife. And so forth. With about three weeks to solve it, some questions gradually yielded to determined effort.

Slight variation on your theme: "Ze heeft een kop als een bankstel", is actually not that bad... Only thing left is to weave in the "douanier" and we're close to a masterpiece. Fame and fortune within our grasp.