A Few Pix From Steph's Graduation

CITL Quiz Answers

CITL Quiz

1. CITL's logo is blue.
2. When the quiz was created, CITL operated in 20 library branches. However, a 21st library confirmed its participation in the program just before the festival!
3. WIM Yuanling Yuan is President of CITL.
4. For a list of branches, please visit http://www.chessinthelibrary.com/
5. CITL operates in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.
6. CITL started operating in 2009 at the Brookbanks branch.
7. Brookbanks won the 2010 CITL Festival.
8. Answers may vary.
9. Barrie (this is when CITL had 20 branches).
10. Answers may vary; most said they like chess!

Fun Chess Quiz

1. b) Thousands of years ago (though we had a good joke going about chess being invented 'yesterday')
2. c) GM Viswanathan Anand
3. a) Hedgehog Chess
4. c) Italian
5. d) More than 250 moves (actual number = 269 moves)
6. b) Encyclopedia of Chess Openings
7. d) A rook on the 7th rank
8. a) GM Bobby Fischer
9. c) Blind Chess
10. b) Knight
11. d) Bulgaria
12. c) 400
13. c) draw
14. c) veterinarian
15. a) cat

More Happy Face Coupons

I will be visiting the Canadian Youth Chess Championship on July 9, and the Canadian Open on either July 10 or July 16. I highly recommend attending, since these are two of the largest, most prestigious, tournaments in Canada!

(I will bring ten happy face pins per event, since I have extras from previous tournaments)

CYCC website: http://www.2011cycc.ca

Canadian Open website: http://www.canadianchess.info/home

Happy Canada Day!

What a great country! Keep supporting Canadian chess :)

Image designed using CorelDRAW

Wacky Wednesday - Brain Teaser!

As mentioned before, I have switched the Tuesday and Wednesday topics for this week.

This one's kind of silly, but here it goes...

Monkeyopolis has a population of 12,345 monkeys. To regulate such a large group, Monkeyopolis' head monkey, Guyrilla, has made a new rule regarding 'monkey do chess' (http://www.pathguy.com/chess/MonkeyDo.htm). If a game is won, the losing monkey must give two bananas to the winning monkey. If a game is drawn, the monkeys must exchange one banana each in good faith. Fred Isachimp decides to play in a 'monkey do' tournament. He comes in with fifteen bananas. After all five games, his score is 3.0/5.0. Exactly two of his games were drawn. Assuming no bananas are consumed, created, destroyed, or given away outside of what is required by the new rule, how many bananas does Fred walk home with?

Answer below
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V

If you said seventeen, good try, but Fred got a 1 point bye in his first game. He took home fifteen bananas. Since tournaments don't award byes to the same person (or monkey) twice, "fifteen or seventeen" is the most logical answer. That is, assuming Fred was in the pairing system every round, with no 1/2 point byes or withdrawn games.

Okay that one wasn't a very fair trick, so I'll have more brain teasers from Monkeyopolis some other time...

Twisted Tuesday - Artsy Stuff/Funny Pics

Hey Everyone!

Chess art is a Wacky Wednesday topic, but it's raining out here in T.O. (again) and photos always cheer me up :) I decided to switch the Tuesday & Wednesday topics for this week, so that I could share these with you today.

PART I: Chess art...or at least my attempts at it...

1. My first attempt at graphic design using CorelDRAW. It's a lot harder than it looks!

2. What can I say? Chess is cool!

3. Chess cat teaching birds how to play. You may question the irony of it, or how good a coach the cat could be if it holds the pencil the wrong way around, but hey, it was past midnight when I drew this!

PART II: Summer baking

I went on my usual baking craze this year. These are just a few of my creations...

1. A brownie that's too cute to eat.

2. A cupcake that's too cute to eat.

3. More cupcakes that are too cute to eat, and happen to look like checks.

4. Fudge that is NOT too cute to eat. Alright, guys, now you can dig in!

PART III: Bits and pieces from the CITL Festival

1. An "Activities" sign unintentionally made the perfect spot for kids to test out pens (notice the pen marks).

2. Mickey Mouse made his appearance on this sign.

3. This sign didn't actually get used but I think it's quite retro :)

4. Someone submitted this cute answer without a name. I love how kids write "pawn" as "pond". Chess kids are awesome.

5. The CITL t-shirt design, by Lennart, is stunning. I think I'll use it again to promote CITL in WLU's chess club. FM Hans Jung mentioned the nearby Waterloo Library as a potential opportunity if we get enough volunteers.

PART IV: A gift for mom's birthday

1. This is not chess-related, but I spent three days making it! Anything that takes three days of my time deserves a place on my blog!

2. Mom's reaction to finding out I spent three days hiding out with a latch hook.

3. Caught with nowhere to turn.

PART V: Random

1. Garfield is great...just thought I'd mention that.

Marvelous Monday - Joke!

Why do chess players despise the recent postal strike?
Answer: They can't send their "checks" in the mail.

Image: http://www.stokeseeds.com/articles.aspx?id=56496&checkCookies=1