2009 PRESENT HUNT PRIZES SPONSORED BY:

See previous contests:
The 2007 Present Hunt | The 2008 Present Hunt | The 2009 Present Hunt | The 2010 Present Hunt
The 2011 Present Hunt | The 2012 Present Hunt | The 2013 Present Hunt | The 2014 Present Hunt
The 2015 Present Hunt | The 2016 Present Hunt

RULES FOR THE 2009 HOLIDAY PRESENT HUNT: Each clue below refers to a chess game in our database, and these games contain a banner that you can click on to claim a present. Be the first to find the game and click the banner to claim your prize. We will be adding more clues to this page at random intervals until December 25th, 2009. See our Official Rules to view the prizes and for other important information.

NOTE: You are not currently signed into Chessgames.com. In order to claim a prize, you must have an account. Registration is easy, free, and confidential. If you don't have an account already, visit our Registration Page page to get a free account now! If you do have an account, sign-in so you can claim prizes.

The 2009 Holiday Present Hunt is over. Congratulations to all the winners, and have a wonderful holiday! The Chessgames Staff

THESE CLUES HAVE BEEN SOLVED: [click here for short list]

clue #1: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! NN and AK SOLUTION:  N Novotelnov vs A I Konstantinov, 1951 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  NN and AK are simply the initials of the players. This was your warm-up; the clues get much harder. Good luck! clue #2: prize claimed by cu8sfan! SOLUTION:  M Simonet vs Khalifman, 2004 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Silicon (chemical abbreviation "Si") + Monet = Simonet. clue #3: prize claimed by johnpap! http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=n where n =      (the number of indentations on a Titleist New Pro V1 golf ball)   x (the number of stitches on a regulation baseball)   x (the international dialing code for South Africa)   + (Toto song) SOLUTION:  Smejkal vs Timman, 1990 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The Titleist New Pro V1 has an icosahedral multi-dimple design with 392 indentations. There are 108 stiches on a regulation baseball. The code for international direct-dial phone calls to South Africa is 27. The rock-band Toto had a song called 99 on their album Hydra. clue #4: prize claimed by DCP23! yakz8lk SOLUTION:  W Pietzsch vs E Nievergelt, 1958 PRIZE:  A $25 Coupon to the Chessgames.com Online Store COMMENT:  The string yakz8lk is a "tinyurl" courtesy of tinyurl.com, a popular website which makes long URLs very short. That means that if you go to http://tinyurl.com/yakz8lk you will be instantly redirected to the solution page. clue #5: prize claimed by bumpmobile! SOLUTION:  vs ,  PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The photo is an elongated kid (a young goat). Therefore, the solution is a "long KID" (a long King's Indian Defense). This game is not the longest KID ever, but at 158 moves it's among the longest. (NOTE: No goat or any other animal was harmed in the creation of this clue.) clue #6: prize claimed by DanRoss53! PL or DB? SOLUTION:  Leko vs G Bakhtadze, 1995 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  In this game, Peter Leko (PL) employs the same opening that Deep Blue (DB) used to defeat Garry Kasparov. clue #7: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! 41 4E   41 4E 47 45 4C   47 45 54 53   49 54 53   57 49 4E 47 53 SOLUTION:  Rybka vs Scorpio, 2007 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The clue is ASCII (computer code) for "AN ANGEL GETS HIS WINGS". According to Mig Greengard (of The Daily Dirt Chess Blog), "Every time the Petroff loses an angel gets its wings." So the clue is what Rybka might have been thinking as it beat Scorpio. clue #8: prize claimed by imag! Ra6! SOLUTION:  Morphy vs NN, 1856 PRIZE:  A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The solution to Morphy's only known chess composition which was published around the time of this game. Congratulations to the winner--you just won a shirt with this exact problem on it! clue #9: prize claimed by Domdaniel! Delicate king, sloped bishop, relentless queen. SOLUTION:  Eliskases vs T P Accioly Borges, 1946 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A line translated (loosely) from Jorge Luis Borges' poem Ajedrez. clue #10: prize claimed by NakoSonorense! SOLUTION:  P Ripoll vs S Khlusevich, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A still from a video of a Shakira concert, featuring the song Octavo Día. (The screen behind her depicts Bush and Hussein playing chess.) Shakira's mother's maiden name is Ripoll. clue #11: prize claimed by rgr459! mama! SOLUTION:  M N Anderton vs Adams, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The initials of the players are MA and MA. clue #12: prize claimed by sleepyirv! 1-BISHOP SOLUTION:  M E Mendez Martinez vs E Fernandez Rodriguez, 2001 PRIZE:  Special prize to be determined later OR A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  If you dial "1-BISHOP" on a classic North American touch pad telephone, you will dial the game number 1247467. clue #13: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! 1st of 29th of 40. SOLUTION:  Distl vs Duras, 1900 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  On the Chessgames Statistics Page there is a list "Which players most often make winning sacrifices?", and of those 40, Oldrich Duras is number 29. This is Duras' first game in our database. clue #14: prize claimed by SamAtoms1980! SOLUTION:  Kostic vs Capablanca, 1918 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The photo is an inverted jenny (a female donkey). The Inverted Jenny is a famous postage stamp misprint from 1918, one of the most prized in all philately. This game was played around the time the stamp was produced. clue #15: prize claimed by Anatoly21! An angel gets his wings. SOLUTION:  Fischer vs C Barber, 1964 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Clarence is the name of the angel in the movie It's a Wonderful Life from which the clue is derived. If beating Bobby Fischer didn't earn Clarence his wings, we don't know what would. clue #16: prize claimed by NakoSonorense! All good children go to heaven. SOLUTION:  S Capak vs T Mikus, 1999 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A line the Beatle's song You Never Give Me Your Money which is sung in alternation with the line "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven." And this is game number 1234567. clue #17: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN MP3 playing ability required; if your browser cannot play MP3 files try downloading it to your hard-drive (right click; Save As...) then play it in your favorite MP3 player. < 1980 SOLUTION:  Bs6676 vs Elsa, 1977 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The musical clip is the early rock/doo-wop song Rubber Biscuit recorded by a band called "The Chips". And here is a relatively early game between "the chips". clue #18: prize claimed by Domdaniel! Tomorrow's Game of the Day, titled: 24   ❒❒❒❒❒   ❒❒❒❒   ❒❒❒❒ SOLUTION:  R N Bauer vs B Finegold, 2001 PRIZE:  A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The pun is "24 Karat Fine Gold", as this game is 24 moves long. clue #19: prize claimed by Billy Vaughan! http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=n where n = xy + T    where x and y are both integers    and T is a taxicab number. SOLUTION:  A Galliamova vs Chiburdanidze, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  -442 cubed is -86,350,888. Add to that the taxicab number (Hardy-Ramanujan number) 87,539,319 and you get 1,188,431. clue #20: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! HINT: No great math skill is required; a child could figure it out. SOLUTION:  A Ornstein vs Unzicker, 1978 PRIZE:  Special prize to be determined later OR A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The lights are numbered 1 through 12, but since you're obviously looking at them upside-down, they are numbered from right to left. The green bulbs are #1, #4, #7, #10, and #12. Put that together to get 1471012. clue #21: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! A contraband. SOLUTION:  Anand vs Bacrot, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An anagram for Anand-Bacrot. clue #22: prize claimed by Arthur.J.Fizelbotom! SOLUTION:  Salov vs Short, 1989 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The image is a stereogram ("Magic Eye") which, if you look at it with your eyes out of focus, will show the secret message "SHORT KID". In this game, GM Short wins a game with the KID (King's Indian Defense). (This stereogram was produced by easystereogrambuilder.com.) clue #23: prize claimed by 989! 1st of 15th of 20. SOLUTION:  W Paulsen vs Blackburne, 1880 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is the 1st game known that opens with 1.h3, and according to the Opening Explorer that is the 15th most popular of the 20 possible opening moves. clue #24: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! ❒❍❒❒❒  =  The first transfinite ordinal number ❒❒❍❒❒  =  Entrance ❒❒❒❒❒❍  =  Mr Claus ❒❍❒❒  =  Mainz goose ❒❒❍❒  =  Camera part SOLUTION:  H Chalupova vs Z Makai, 1967 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The solutions of the mini-clues are: omega, charm, St. Nick, Gans, and iris. The circled first letters spell out MAKAI. Zsuzsa Makai was a strong female player in the 1960s and 70s. clue #25: prize claimed by imag! Permit first win. SOLUTION:  L Rosen vs G Marco, 1900 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An anagram for first twin prime. The primes (1000037,1000039) are the first set of twin primes in our database. clue #26: prize claimed by tpstar! One ill grin. HINT: One sickly smile. SOLUTION:  G Neumann vs Blackburne, 1867 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A reference to Blackburne's note to 22...Rh2: I have a vivid recollection of Herr Neumann's countenance when this move was made. He gave a slight start, turned round to the Rev. G. A. Macdonnell, who was looking on, shrugged his shoulders and smiled, but it was a sickly sort of smile. The clue is also an anagram for "online girl", but that's a red herring. clue #27: prize claimed by Billy Vaughan! ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg ggg SOLUTION:  G Garcia vs Suetin, 1969 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Guillermo Garcia Gonzales' initials 25 times, and this game is 25 moves long. clue #28: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! 1-ribald-clerk-ribald-merchant-taverner-merchant SOLUTION:  M Gagunashvili vs M Etmans, 2004 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These odds words derive from Caxton's names for the pawns in Game and Playe of the Chesse in 1474. (The complete list--from right to left--is Labourer, Smith, Clerk, Merchant, Physician, Taverner, Guard and Ribald.) The diagram shows white pawns on various ranks (2-7) of the chessboard, providing the key to the cipher. (The black pawns are not relevant.) Therefore, the game number is 1272646. clue #29: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! NW, N, SW, S, SE, E, E SOLUTION:  Bobotsov vs K Makarczyk, 1952 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Another touch-pad telephone clue. The compass points describe the location of the digits (1278966) that you would type on the touch-pad of a telephone where 1 = NW, 2 = N, 3 = NE, 4 = W, etc. clue #30: prize claimed by WinKing! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN MP3 playing ability required; if your browser cannot play MP3 files try downloading it to your hard-drive (right click; Save As...) then play it in your favorite MP3 player. SOLUTION:  R Gibbons vs C Morrison, 2003 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The musical clip is the Rolling Stones, and the song is called Monkey Man. What could be more monkeyish of a game than a man named Gibbons playing the Orangutan opening? clue #31: prize claimed by acirce! 75th of 6th of 15 SOLUTION:  Botvinnik vs P Sharov, 1929 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Mikhail Botvinnik was the 6th of the 15* world champions. This is the 75th Botvinnik game in our database. (Note that for the purposes of this clue we excluded all of the FIDE championships during the period of the split title; so Kasparov was 13th, Kramnik 14th, Anand 15th.) clue #32: prize claimed by NakoSonorense! SOLUTION:  Budapest vs Paris CC, 1843 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  If you extend the red arrows they intersect in Paris. If you extend the green arrows, they intersect in Budapest. Click here for an illustration. clue #33: prize claimed by cu8sfan! SOLUTION:  C Cobb vs P D Helbig, 2006 PRIZE:  A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The fish is an arctic char; the guitar is a Les Paul. Put it together to get CHAR + LES PAUL, or Charles-Paul. A single advanced search on our homepage scans for all games between a "Charles" and a "Paul"; it yields 21 games, mostly between Maurian and Morphy, but also including this one. clue #34: prize claimed by sleepyirv! SO HE SEZ O HAI AND PLAYZ A RILLY WEIRD MOVE AND I GO LIKE LOLZ UR DOIN IT WRONG AND L8R HE PLZ TEH NITE 2 NOM MAI NITE AND I DUN LIKE DAT SO I NOM IT FERST! BUT INSTED OF NOMMING BACK, FERST HE GIVES ME HIZ POINTY AND SEZ CHEKZ! SO I GO OM NOM NOM LOLZ KTHXBYE BUT THEN TEH QUEEN GOES CHEKZ AND DEN HE GIVES ME TEH OTHER POINTY DOOD! THEN HIZ QUEEN GOES CHEKZ AGAIN AND I RUN AND HE LIFFS HIZ ROOK AND SEZ NOOB, I PWN U! OH NOOOOOES, HES IN MAH BASE KILLIN MY DOODZ! SOLUTION:  Lasker vs J Bauer, 1889 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A LOLspeak interpretation of this famous double-bishop sacrifice, from Black's point of view. clue #35: prize claimed by SamAtoms1980! 1st of 1st of 1st of 26. SOLUTION:  K Olsson vs A Aaberg, 1991 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is the first game of the first player (A. Aaberg) in the first page of our Player Directory. clue #36: prize claimed by goldfarbdj! SOLUTION:  J Sherwin vs Fischer, 1966 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is known as the Pigpen Cipher and was used during the American Revolutionary and Civil wars. It spells out "LONG BOBBY", and this is one of Bobby Fischer's longest games. Graphic courtesy of exploratorium.edu. clue #37: prize claimed by crawfb5! O-O O-O SOLUTION:  A Ac vs P Kastler, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Alfred Kastler. clue #38: prize claimed by alexmagnus! Think! HINT: Lee. Hint: This is the first hint; the hint above is actually part of the clue. Hint #2: The color variations are simply a red-herring. SOLUTION:  D Zarkua vs F Mammadov, 2007 PRIZE:  Special prize to be determined later OR A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An anagram for "like the ninth". Use the find similar game feature to locate games like the game in solution for clue #9 and you'll soon find this one. (The red and green letters were, well, a red herring.) clue #39: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN MP3 playing ability required; if your browser cannot play MP3 files try downloading it to your hard-drive (right click; Save As...) then play it in your favorite MP3 player. SOLUTION:  Fischer vs Spassky, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The musical clip is from the Australian rock band Lazy Susan performing their song Bobby Fischer. Other lyrics include When Bobby Fischer made his comeback in the 90s he was worse for wear. This game is one that Fischer lost during his match with Spassky in the 1990s. Whether he was really "worse for wear" we'll leave for you to decide. clue #40: prize claimed by rgr459! SOLUTION:  S Knight vs V Georgiev, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Such an easy one. The photo depicts "Simon" (a popular electronic game of the late 70s) and a "knight". Put them together to get British chess player Simon Knight. clue #41: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! SOLUTION:  R Stroop vs M Umansky, 2003 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are names of colors in Chinese (purple, blue, yellow, green, red, orange, and white.) If you can't read Chinese, you can call out the colors that you see very quickly--but if you can read Chinese, you'll find yourself stumbling and pausing due to the cognitive dissonance of seeing words written in the "wrong" colors. This is a demonstration of what psychologists call the Stroop Effect. Trivia: Militaries use this principle to detect spies in their ranks. More trivia: There was a secret message embedded in barely visible shades of grey on the borders of the clue, as this contrast adjusted version illustrates. That digital tampering was a red herring left behind as a joke by the graphic designer. Don't worry, we would never give you a clue based on that principle. clue #42: prize claimed by ILikeFruits! SOLUTION:  Geller vs Smyslov, 1952 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The probability of flipping 20 pennies and having them all come up heads is 1/220 or 1 in 1048576. And this is chessgames.com/1048576. clue #43: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! HINT: The photo on the left attempts to depict a middle village. SOLUTION:  Nakamura vs Y Gruenfeld, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  On the left is "the center of town" -- which is the literal meaning of the name Nakamura. On the right is a green field, which is the literal meaning of the name Gruenfeld. clue #44: prize claimed by acirce! 16th of 44th of 500 SOLUTION:  A Speijer vs A Neumann, 1903 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The "500" is a reference to the 500 chapters of the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. Note that because A00 is the first chapter, the 44th chapter is not A44 but rather A43, or Old Benoni Defense. This is the 16th game on that page. clue #45: prize claimed by Kvasir! SOLUTION:  J Minchin vs Bird, 1866 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The clue is Russian for "bird", and here Bird plays the Russian (Petroff) Defense. clue #46: prize claimed by TraglorfBob! 10FEED SOLUTION:  Ribli vs Portisch, 1979 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  That number is hexidecimal (base 16) for 1,113,837. clue #47: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! SOLUTION:  T Sachdev vs I Berzina, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is Tania Sachdev at the 2008 Women's Olympiad. clue #48: prize claimed by jalfano1! 93rd of 6th of 8. SOLUTION:  F Parr vs A Whiteley, 1975 PRIZE:  A $25 Coupon to the Chessgames.com Online Store COMMENT:  "6th of 8" is a reference to the six wives of Henry VIII, the sixth of whom was (Katherine) Parr. That brings to mind the British chess master Frank Parr. This is the 93rd game in Frank Parr's player page. Also of note is the 94th game, Keene vs Parr, 1979, beecause the winner of this clue will receive Keene's four DVD set, Duels of the Mind. clue #49: prize claimed by ShadowGnu! SOLUTION:  G Timoscenko vs L Gutman, 1978 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The odd of getting dealt a royal flush is in spades is 1 in 2,598,960. Cut that in half to get 1,299,480 which is the game number. clue #50: prize claimed by pepellou! OTRTEEHANHLCRSEBEEIEGIDAOEENANASFASTMTTE SOLUTION:  Horwitz vs Staunton, 1851 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The clue is a Caesar Box for "ONE OF THE EARLIEST CENTER GAMES IN THE DATABASE". In other words, you can write it in a box like this: O T R T E E H A N H L C R S E B E E I E G I D A O E E N A N A S F A S T M T T E and you can read the message by going down the columns starting in the upper left and ending in the lower right. clue #51: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN MP3 playing ability required; if your browser cannot play MP3 files try downloading it to your hard-drive (right click; Save As...) then play it in your favorite MP3 player. <1987 SOLUTION:  G Andruet vs J Boudre, 1984 PRIZE:  Special prize to be determined later OR A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The track is Miles Davis playing the haunting theme to the jazz classic Jean-Pierre. This game is played before 1987, by Jean-Pierre Boudre. clue #52: prize claimed by Simonkaser! Bzrap8Vtyq8 SOLUTION:  Nakamura vs Dlugy, 2006 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The code is a Youtube.com ID code, which means that if you visit youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8 you'll see a video. And it just happens to be a video of this very game. clue #53: prize claimed by Max of Tat! ❒❒❒❍❒  =  Ennoble ❍❒❒  =  Caravanseray ❒❒❍❒  =  A druid, for one ❍❒❒  =  Musician's job ❒❍❒❒❒  =  Suburb of Boston SOLUTION:  P Auchenberg vs R Lilja, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The solutions of the mini-clues are: exalt, inn, Celt, jam, and Salem. The circled first letters spell out LILJA. And this is one of Richard Lilja's finer wins. clue #54: prize claimed by Pantagruel! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN MP3 playing ability required; if your browser cannot play MP3 files try downloading it to your hard-drive (right click; Save As...) then play it in your favorite MP3 player. SOLUTION:  A Heimann vs A Stella, 2008 PRIZE:  A One Year Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The musical clip is Jerry Garcia's guitar solo from the Grateful Dead song Stella Blue (recorded in the Orpheum Theater, San Fransisco, 1976). After this game, Andrea Stella was blue. clue #55: prize claimed by Cushion! AEIOUs SOLUTION:  Steinitz vs Bird, 1866 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The clue is a French anagram for the word oiseau, meaning "bird"--and in this game, Bird played the French. The fact that the s was lowercase and in a different color was a red herring. clue #56: prize claimed by BlackWaive! SOLUTION:  S A Smithers vs O Pedersen, 1995 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The name of this cartoon character (from the Simsons) is Smithers. clue #57: prize claimed by Simonkaser! SOLUTION:  J Movsesian vs J Gokbulut, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These two figures are mathematical sets known as the Julia Set. This game is between two girls named Julia. clue #58: prize claimed by TheBish! SOLUTION:  R Hobson vs Jameson, 1966 PRIZE:  A $25 Coupon to the Chessgames.com Online Store COMMENT:  A rebus for (Jasmonic acid, or "JA") + (Meson) = JAMESON clue #59: prize claimed by BVer! Middle of nowhere Goat's head Fifty SOLUTION:  H Lachmann vs F Nuernberg, 1941 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  In the style of "cryptic crosswords", we were providing you with the initials of the player: H.G.L. The Player Directory has only one such player, Hans Georg Lachmann. This is one of his nicer wins. clue #60: prize claimed by Domdaniel! SOLUTION:  X Bu vs M Paragua, 2006 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pi, rounded off to 7 decimal places, is 3.1415927. This game number is comprised of those 7 decimals, 1415927. clue #61: prize claimed by aphasia! +fortnight/move SOLUTION:  Krasenkow vs Lputian, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A fortnight is two weeks, and the number of seconds in two week is exactly 1,209,600. (It was expressed in the form of a chess clock increment to get you to wonder how many seconds a fortnight was.) This is game number 1209600. clue #62: prize claimed by Buddy Revell! 1st of 6 of 9 HINT: 9 years HINT: A special Day. SOLUTION:  L Day vs Benko, 1980 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Chessgames.com turned 8 years old on December 10th, 2009. That means that on December 25th we'll be celebrating the 9th Christmas since our site was online. However, we really only started "celebrating" Christmas on the site in 2004--and this game is the first one we used as a Christmas-centric Game of the Day for Christmas, 2004. The pun was simply "Christmas Day". clue #63: prize claimed by NakoSonorense! Santa's Folly SOLUTION:  Santasiere vs S E Almgren, 1942 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Used as the Game of the Day for Christmas Eve, 2007. clue #64: prize claimed by Billy Vaughan! SOLUTION:  S Vajda vs I Rajlich, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  One final gift. The trick here is that some of the words are larger than the others. The 1st word of the top line, then the 5th word, then the 2nd, then the 2nd, then the 8th, the 6th, and the 6th. Put that together to get 1522866. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night! See you next year! The Chessgames Staff

SOME GENERAL TIPS AND HINTS:

1. This list is designed to provide some helpful hints and tips to win the contest. See the Official Rules for complete information.
2. Bookmark this page and check back frequently. You never know when the next clue might appear, and as soon as it does, the race is on.
3. Some clues involve initials. E.g., the clue "B.F. vs B.S." might refer to Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky.
4. Some clues draw upon popular chess literature and anecdotes.
5. Not all clues will narrow the field down to a single game; some clues may refer to more than one possible game. Some clues are very hard exactly because they are very vague. For clues like these, you'll simply have to search through the possible games and hope that you get lucky.
6. Some clues are anagrams. For example, if a clue was "Apply Humor 1850" then you might want to look at Paul Morphy games from 1850. ("Apply Humor" is an anagram of "Paul Morphy".)
7. Some clues are puns, similar to what you might find on our Game of the Day. The Game of the Day Archive might come in handy, even though it only goes back one year.
8. For some clues, a knowledge of chess players and chess history is helpful--but there are also references to literature, language, pop culture, mathematics, and the arts.
9. Many clues are intentionally misleading, in the spirit of crossword puzzles.
10. Sometimes a clue will be very hard, and then a subsequent clue will make a reference designed to act as a hint for the earlier very hard clue. So if everybody is stuck on a real stumper, pay careful attention to the new clues being released.
11. We promise that we will never insert hints into the HTML of the pages. This includes the filenames (e.g. what the clue graphic file is named in our web server) as well as "alt text" that we use for our graphics. Don't bother investigating those details, because we assure you that it will never help.
12. Don't ask the chessgames administrators for any clarification of the meanings of clues. Some of them are designed to be confusing and ambiguous; we will refuse to clarify their meaning. However, we sometimes offer additional hints to clues which go unsolved for a long period of time.
13. To give everybody a fair chance, there is a limit of five (5) prizes per member. If you are skilled enough to win 5 prizes you'll have to stop playing until next year.
14. If you are trying to solve a clue for which the solution is a seven-digit game ID number, be aware that the valid range of game ID's goes from 1,000,000 to (approx.) 1,566,000. So you don't have to examine all 10 million numbers, "only" about half a million. Every valid game ID begins with the numeral "1".
15. It is possible to design software that downloads thousands of games in bulk to scan the HTML pages for prize graphics. This is regarded as cheating. We have measures in place designed to detect and prevent this. Anybody caught using these methods will be disqualified, and the prizes will not be awarded but instead returned to the prize pool.
16. Chessgames.com will be the most important site to use for all clues, but being skilled with Google.com can also help a lot. Some of the clues will involve anagrams, for which the Internet Anagram Server is an indispensable resource. For questions of history, art, mathematics, or a number of other subjects that our clues reference, Wikipedia will surely come in handy. Having a good dictionary will also be an asset.
17. Since many clues refer to player names, our Player Directory will be a valuable tool. When searching for players by name, it's probably best to use the Advanced Search on the homepage.
18. This contest would not exist were it not for the generous contributions of our sponsors. Whether or not you win, you should take a minute to visit their websites and see the fine publications and merchandise they have to offer.
19. These hints are not inclusive; some types of clues might not be described herein. You're on your own--good luck!