1) A pair of jeans fetched $36,100 at a charity auction in March. Whose were they, and what was special about them?
2) In April, Tunde Onakoya and Shawn Martinez set a Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon, playing in New York’s Times Square. How long did they last?
3) ‘In chess, the optimal state when you’re playing a game is somewhere between optimistic and delusionally optimistic. Because if you’re realistic, you’re just never going to be opportunistic enough to exploit your opponent’s mistakes.’ So said Magnus Carlsen during an interview with a famous podcaster this year. Which one?
4) Chess has a long history of running afoul of religious strictures, often due to being conflated with gambling games. Which government suspended chess-playing in 2025?
5) ‘It’s difficult losing to a five-year-old when in the middle of the game he’s asking you to come and wipe his bum.’ Which sports personality drily described the experience of playing chess against his son?
6) The diagram above shows perhaps the most spectacular move of the year, from Lazavik-Gurel, Turkish Super League, 2025. 1…Nxd3?? 2 Rh8+ leads to mate. Gurel found something much better. What did he play?
7) Which prominent player caused controversy when, on defeating the world champion Gukesh, he picked up the checkmated king and tossed it into the crowd?
8) Which columnist set a record for the longest-running continuous chess column, reaching the 70-year milestone in 2025?
9) In the memoir Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life published in September, the author describes his upbringing in a cult in Arizona. Who wrote it?
10) Which English ten-year old defeated the former women’s world champion Mariya Muzychuk in a classical game at the European Club Cup in October 2025?
11) The musical Chess, which debuted in the West End in 1986, recently returned to Broadway for the first time since 1988. Which of its songs references a capital city in its title?
12) The diagram below faintly resembles a Christmas tree. Mate in two, composed by Joseph Murphy, L’Opinion publique, 1880.
Answers 1) Magnus Carlsen was fined for wearing them at the 2024 World Rapid Championship and later withdrew in protest. 2) 64 hours, to match the number of squares on a board 3) Joe Rogan 4) The Taliban government in Afghanistan 5) Andy Murray 6) 1…Qf2+!! 2 Rxf2 Nxd3 3 Bxg7 Nxf2 4 Kxf2 Kxg7 and Black won 7) Hikaru Nakamura, at the Checkmate: USA vs India match in Arlington, Texas 8) Leonard Barden, in the Guardian 9) Danny Rensch, co-founder and ‘chief chess officer’ of Chess.com 10) Bodhana Sivanandan 11) ‘One Night in Bangkok’ 12) 1 Rxd6! If 1…e4 2 Ne5# or 1…c4 2 Nc5# or 1…Ke4 2 Qg6# or 1…Kc4 2 Ba6#
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