CITL Festival + Quizzes

The Chess in the Library Festival yesterday was awesome! We have an amazing, new executive team, and a great year to come. Everyone should pitch into this program - we're hoping to build a nationwide movement for the benefit of kids, families, and chess fans everywhere!

Website: http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/

I had the honour of hosting the CITL activities. We had a puzzle contest, a CITL quiz, and a fun chess quiz. The puzzles were derived from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/ChessPuzzles.htm (some were slightly modified, since we had five levels of difficulty). I will be posting the quiz questions here. Answers will be posted in a few days.

Thanks so much to Lennart, Stefan, and other volunteers who helped set up the puzzles/quizzes + assist the kids. Thanks to WIM Yuanling and CITL sponsors for providing twelve chess book prizes. With your help, the events were very successful.

Thanks also to GM Mark Bluvshtein for making a stellar speech on behalf of volunteers...including a joke about broccoli :) Eat broccoli and play chess!!! Mark's blog: http://markbluvshtein.wordpress.com/

Congrats North York Central Library for taking home the big trophy! Both the library and the trophy are beautiful - a good match!

Now for the quizzes:

CITL Quiz

1. What colour is CITL's logo?
2. How many library branches does CITL currently operate in?
3. Who is President of CITL?
4. Name three branches and leaders of those branches.
5. Name three provinces CITL operates in.
6. What year did CITL start operating and what was its first branch?
7. What library branch won last year's festival?
8. Find the names of five CITL participants + something cool about them!
9. In what town did CITL most recently open?
10. What's one thing you like about CITL?

Top score at the festival: 10/10
Second highest: 8/10

Fun Chess Quiz

1. When was chess invented?

a) Millions of years ago
b) Thousands of years ago
c) Hundreds of years ago
d) Yesterday

2. In May 2011, who was the top ranked chess player in the world (FIDE rating 2817)?

a) GM Garry Kasparov
b) GM Magnus Carlsen
c) GM Viswanathan Anand
d) GM Hikaru Nakamura

3. One of the following is not a true chess variant. Which is it?

a) Hedgehog Chess
b) Bomb Chess
c) Bug Eyed Monster Chess
d) Chicken Chess

4. “Scacchi” means chess in what language?

a) Greek
b) Spanish
c) Italian
d) Chicken Language

5. The longest game of chess ever played lasted how many moves?

a) Between 100 and 150 moves
b) Between 150 and 200 moves
c) Between 200 and 250 moves
d) More than 250 moves

6. What does ECO stand for?

a) Educational Chess Organization
b) Encyclopedia of Chess Openings
c) Early Childhood Opportunities
d) Easy Candle Oils

7. What is a “pig” in chess?

a) A player that eats too much before a game
b) An isolated pawn deep in the opponent’s territory
c) A move that wins a lot of material
d) A rook on the 7th rank

8. Who said “chess is life”?

a) GM Bobby Fischer
b) GM Anatoly Karpov
c) GM Mark Bluvshtein
d) GM Alexander Alekhine

9. What did the USSR (around Russia) ban in 1930?

a) Simultaneous Chess
b) Correspondence Chess
c) Blind Chess
d) All Chess

10. Which chess piece was once called an “asp”?

a) Pawn
b) Knight
c) Rook
d) King

11. Which country was the first to issue a stamp with a chess theme?

a) Poland
b) Armenia
c) United States
d) Bulgaria

12. How many possible positions exist after white and black make their first move?

a) 200
b) 300
c) 400
d) 500

13. The first game between astronauts in space and people on earth ended in a:

a) win for the astronauts
b) win for people on earth
c) draw
d) crash

14. GM Judit Polgar’s husband held what type of job?

a) magician
b) construction worker
c) veterinarian
d) plumber

15. GM Alexander Alekhine found what kind of animal to be good luck?

a) cat
b) dog
c) rabbit
d) elephant

Top score at the festival: 7/15
Second highest: 6/15
Top score by a volunteer: 8/15

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS EVENT POSSIBLE! KEEP SUPPORTING CHESS IN CANADA!