Chess & Go

40 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Which go term levels the field by letting a weaker player start with extra stones?
- A. dan
- B. kyu
- C. handicap stones
- D. atari
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handicap stones
Did you know? Handicap stones are traditionally placed on fixed star points.
2.Which chess champion swashbuckled sacrifices from Riga to the 1960 crown?
- A. Ding Liren
- B. Bobby Fischer
- C. Vladimir Kramnik
- D. Mikhail Tal
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Mikhail Tal
Did you know? Mikhail Tal was called the "Magician from Riga".
3.Which chess term forces a player to move even though every move weakens the position?
- A. a fork
- B. the knight
- C. zugzwang
- D. a pin
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zugzwang
Did you know? Zugzwang is German for "compulsion to move".
4.Which go term ranks the stronger amateur and professional Go players?
- A. fuseki
- B. Lee Sedol
- C. dan
- D. handicap stones
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dan
Did you know? Amateur dan ranks ascend from one dan upward, as in martial arts.
5.Which chess champion is recognized as the first official world chess champion?
- A. José Raúl Capablanca
- B. Paul Morphy
- C. Anatoly Karpov
- D. Wilhelm Steinitz
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Wilhelm Steinitz
Did you know? Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Zukertort in the 1886 match that formalized the title.
6.Which chess term trades moves by mail or server over weeks or months?
- A. the king
- B. correspondence chess
- C. the Ruy Lopez
- D. checkmate
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correspondence chess
Did you know? Correspondence chess once crossed oceans through the postal system.
7.Which go term keeps the initiative with a forcing move your rival must answer?
- A. ko
- B. komi
- C. AlphaGo
- D. sente
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sente
Did you know? The opposite of sente, gote, surrenders the initiative.
8.Which chess champion won the FIDE championship in 2005 for Bulgaria?
- A. Veselin Topalov
- B. Garry Kasparov
- C. Ding Liren
- D. Vera Menchik
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Veselin Topalov
Did you know? Veselin Topalov lost the 2006 unification match to Kramnik.
9.Which chess term delivers endless checks with no mating plan?
- A. the king
- B. blindfold chess
- C. perpetual check
- D. the fifty-move rule
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perpetual check
Did you know? In modern rules, perpetual check draws by forcing threefold repetition.
10.Which go term ranks Go beginners on the ladder below dan levels?
- A. kyu
- B. the Go board
- C. dan
- D. handicap stones
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kyu
Did you know? Kyu ranks descend from about 30 kyu up to one kyu before dan.
11.Which chess champion fortified the title from 1963 with legendary defensive play?
- A. Magnus Carlsen
- B. Paul Morphy
- C. Judit Polgár
- D. Tigran Petrosian
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Tigran Petrosian
Did you know? Tigran Petrosian pioneered prophylactic, exchange-sacrifice defense.
12.Which chess term draws the game when the same position appears three times?
- A. threefold repetition
- B. the rook
- C. the fianchetto
- D. FIDE
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threefold repetition
Did you know? Threefold repetition protects players from endless shuffling.
13.Which Go player held the world's top Go ranking when he faced AlphaGo in 2017?
- A. atari
- B. AlphaGo
- C. Ke Jie
- D. joseki
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Ke Jie
Did you know? Ke Jie lost the 2017 Future of Go Summit to AlphaGo's successor.
14.Which chess champion retired from chess in the 1850s after conquering every rival?
- A. Magnus Carlsen
- B. Paul Morphy
- C. Ding Liren
- D. Garry Kasparov
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Paul Morphy
Did you know? Paul Morphy never held an official title but ruled the chess world of his day.
15.Which chess term mates a king buried behind its own pieces, usually with a knight?
- A. the Elo rating
- B. threefold repetition
- C. smothered mate
- D. algebraic notation
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smothered mate
Did you know? The classic smothered mate pattern ends with a knight check the king cannot answer.
16.Which go term bars an immediate recapture that would repeat the position?
- A. Ke Jie
- B. atari
- C. dan
- D. ko
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ko
Did you know? The ko rule forbids recreating a position already played.
17.Which chess champion won the Women's World Championship in 2010 at age sixteen?
- A. Ding Liren
- B. Hou Yifan
- C. Garry Kasparov
- D. Veselin Topalov
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Hou Yifan
Did you know? Hou Yifan later studied at Oxford while remaining a top player.
18.Which chess term presses the knight on c6 with the bishop to b5?
- A. the Ruy Lopez
- B. discovered check
- C. grandmaster
- D. correspondence chess
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the Ruy Lopez
Did you know? The Ruy Lopez is named after sixteenth-century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura.
19.Which go term compensates White with points for Black's first-move advantage?
- A. komi
- B. AlphaGo
- C. joseki
- D. fuseki
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komi
Did you know? Komi values have grown as Go theory refined opening assessment.
20.Which chess champion earned the nickname "chess machine" with near-lossless endgames?
- A. Emanuel Lasker
- B. José Raúl Capablanca
- C. Bobby Fischer
- D. Hou Yifan
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José Raúl Capablanca
Did you know? José Raúl Capablanca was Cuba's world champion from 1921 to 1927.
21.Which chess term reveals a hidden attacker's check by moving another piece?
- A. threefold repetition
- B. discovered check
- C. the Queen's Gambit
- D. the king
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discovered check
Did you know? A double check arises when the moved piece also gives check.
22.Which go term records established corner sequences of local balance?
- A. ko
- B. Honinbo
- C. joseki
- D. handicap stones
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joseki
Did you know? Joseki study is a pillar of traditional Go training.
23.Which chess champion ended Kasparov's reign with the 2000 match in London?
- A. Anatoly Karpov
- B. Paul Morphy
- C. Vladimir Kramnik
- D. Mikhail Tal
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Vladimir Kramnik
Did you know? Vladimir Kramnik unified the world title by beating Topalov in 2006.
24.Which chess term allows a draw claim after fifty moves each without a pawn move or capture?
- A. threefold repetition
- B. the fifty-move rule
- C. a pin
- D. the queen
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the fifty-move rule
Did you know? Long endgames can be saved from the fifty-move rule by a pawn advance or a capture.
25.Which chess term attacks a valuable piece that must move and expose the one behind?
- A. a skewer
- B. the knight
- C. zugzwang
- D. threefold repetition
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a skewer
Did you know? The skewer is often called a reverse pin.
26.Which chess term faces the kings off with exactly one square between them?
- A. the bishop
- B. the opposition
- C. the fianchetto
- D. grandmaster
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the opposition
Did you know? The player without the move in the opposition must give ground.
27.Which chess term compels you to move any legal piece you touch?
- A. castling
- B. the touch-move rule
- C. discovered check
- D. the Elo rating
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the touch-move rule
Did you know? Under touch-move, adjusting a piece on its square must be announced first.
28.Which chess term develops a bishop to the long diagonal behind a knight's pawn?
- A. blitz chess
- B. threefold repetition
- C. castling
- D. the fianchetto
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the fianchetto
Did you know? Fianchetto comes from Italian, meaning "little flank".
29.Which chess term mates a king trapped behind its own pawns?
- A. the Queen's Gambit
- B. back-rank mate
- C. threefold repetition
- D. correspondence chess
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back-rank mate
Did you know? A "back-rank weakness" is the missing escape square that invites this mate.
30.For how many years did Emanuel Lasker hold the world chess championship?
- A. 27
- B. 21
- C. 33
- D. 17
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27
Did you know? Lasker's 27-year reign, from 1894 to 1921, is the longest in chess history.
31.Which chess champion won the 1948 championship tournament that rebuilt the crown?
- A. Mikhail Tal
- B. Mikhail Botvinnik
- C. Vasily Smyslov
- D. Vladimir Kramnik
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Mikhail Botvinnik
Did you know? Mikhail Botvinnik mentored future champions including Karpov and Kasparov.
32.Which chess term counts a single unit of move-making time in chess?
- A. the touch-move rule
- B. checkmate
- C. blitz chess
- D. tempo
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tempo
Did you know? Gaining tempo means developing while forcing the opponent to respond.
33.Which go term warns that a stone or group has one liberty left?
- A. handicap stones
- B. Honinbo
- C. atari
- D. komi
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atari
Did you know? A group in atari may be captured on the next move.
34.Which chess champion took the crown in 1957 before losing the 1958 rematch?
- A. Vasily Smyslov
- B. Gukesh Dommaraju
- C. Magnus Carlsen
- D. Ding Liren
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Vasily Smyslov
Did you know? Vasily Smyslov played three consecutive title matches against Botvinnik.
35.Which chess term inserts an unexpected in-between move before the expected reply?
- A. the rook
- B. the touch-move rule
- C. zwischenzug
- D. a pin
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zwischenzug
Did you know? Zwischenzug is German for "in-between move".
36.Which go term names the opening phase played across the whole board?
- A. fuseki
- B. ko
- C. handicap stones
- D. Lee Sedol
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fuseki
Did you know? Fuseki patterns set the battle lines for the middle game.
37.Which chess champion died in 1946 while still holding the world title?
- A. José Raúl Capablanca
- B. Alexander Alekhine
- C. Veselin Topalov
- D. Bobby Fischer
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Alexander Alekhine
Did you know? Alexander Alekhine recaptured the crown from Euwe in 1937.
38.Which chess term records moves with file letters and rank numbers, such as Nf3?
- A. zugzwang
- B. the rook
- C. algebraic notation
- D. blindfold chess
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algebraic notation
Did you know? FIDE adopted algebraic notation as the worldwide standard in the 1980s.
39.Which chess champion made China's first men's world champion in 2023?
- A. Wilhelm Steinitz
- B. Boris Spassky
- C. Viswanathan Anand
- D. Ding Liren
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Ding Liren
Did you know? Ding Liren defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi for the 2023 title.
40.Which chess champion took the crown in 1969 and lost it in the 1972 Cold War match?
- A. Gukesh Dommaraju
- B. Magnus Carlsen
- C. Vladimir Kramnik
- D. Boris Spassky
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Boris Spassky
Did you know? Boris Spassky faced Bobby Fischer in Reykjavík in 1972.

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