2014 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 2014 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 24th, 2014. See our Official Rules to view the prizes and for other important information.

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The 2014 Chessgames Holiday Puzzle Hunt is over! Congratulations to the winners. All mailed prizes will be sent out by the first week of January. Thanks to everybody for playing, and we hope to do it again next year. Merry Christmas! The Chessgames Staff

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

clue #1: prize claimed by M0rkeleb81! Attennnnnn-hut! Let the Present Hunt Begin! SOLUTION:  Kmoch vs S Beutum, 1928 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each image is a depiction of one of the words used in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet: Sierra, Bravo, Echo, Uniform, Tango, Uniform, Mike. That spells "SBEUTUM", referring to Austrian player Sigmund Beutum. clue #2: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! A Number of Numbers The answer to this question is "1" The answer to question six, minus 1 The first question with an answer of "2" The number of answers which are "1" The number of answers which are "6" The first question with an answer of "5" Answer two minus answer one SOLUTION:  K Vasylius vs D Brokken, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a straightforward logic puzzle, the only answer being the game ID 1642175. clue #3: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Cipher Heaven RMN MRP WFGGWP FMGT MY TR MVPR ZMMK TRC NP YTWW CMNR GM GAP LGPV NAPIP ETWSTZWP PHHL YTIJFJTWWQ IPYSGP LPEPITW BSTFRG LSZNTQL CTXRPC ZQ IMNL MY PQPL. Hint: In the 2nd and 3rd steps, spaces don't count. SOLUTION:  Euwe vs Najdorf, 1953 PRIZE:  A six month subscription to Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets from Chess Evolution COMMENT:  The title was a clue to look for sevenths, as in "seventh heaven". First, use an online decrypting tool such as QuipQuip to decipher the cryptogram. It has only one solution, the perplexing phrase: "NOW ONE LITTLE IOTA OF AN OPEN BOOK AND WE FALL DOWN TO THE STEP WHERE VALUABLE EGGS FARCICALLY REFUTE SEVERAL QUAINT SUBWAYS DAMNED BY ROWS OF EYES." Ignoring spaces, take every seventh letter. You then reveal the secret phrase "LOOK AT SQUARES". Now look at the letters in positions which are square numbers (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, etc.) and it spells the second secret phrase, "NOTABLE EUWE". This is one of the notable games of Max Euwe. clue #4: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! Seven Card Lowball Hint: Suits count. SOLUTION:  Lautier vs Huebner, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The trick is to index into each suit based on the value of the card (ace = 1). For example, the 2nd letter of "clubs" is an "L" so that gives you the letter L. Repeating this procedure gives you LAUTIER and HUEBNER. clue #5: prize claimed by luisgc! Special Delivery 4244 7776 4186 6877 8677 SOLUTION:  J F Campbell vs A Ehrlich, 1990 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title hints at correspondence chess. These are codes in ICCF numerical notation for a humorously curtailed postal game, which went like this: 1.d4 g6 — and at this early stage Black stipulated an if-move: "Against any reply, I play 2...Bg7." White was happy to oblige with 2.Bh6(!) Bg7 3.Bxg7 1-0 Errata: That should read 3186, not 4186. clue #6: prize claimed by OBIT! Great Moments in Chess History SOLUTION:  M I Botvinnik vs T L Petrosian, 1998 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Yes, you're looking for a Botvinnik-Petrosian game, but not that Botvinnik and not that Petrosian. The solution game involves one Mikhail A Botvinnik and Tigran L Petrosian, in an under-16 tournament from 1998. clue #7: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! A Number of Letters 7315   ◯ _ _ _ 4370   _ ◯ _ _ 330   _ _ ◯ _ 2185   ◯ _ _ 24035   _ ◯ _ _ 70   _ ◯ _ 8645   _ _ _ ◯ SOLUTION:  G Kecskes vs I Presznyak, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Factor each number (e.g. 7315 factors into 5 * 7 * 11 * 19), then convert these numbers to letters (e.g., 5=E, 7=G, 11=K, 19=S). Each number will give you a very simple word jumble with only one solution. The solutions to all the words are: KEGS, WEBS, BECK, SEW, SKEW, BEG, and GEMS. The circled letters spell out KECSKES. clue #8: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Shrimp Kimchee SOLUTION:  N Thanarotrung vs Y Kim, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Korean numerals for the game ID, 1767500. (A guide to Korean counting is found at koreanfluent.com. Thanks to member JessicaFischerQueen for help with this clue.) clue #9: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! A Game of Chance My friend was just visiting, so we sat down for a game. These were the first few rolls: 3-1, 5-5, 5-4, 4-3, 6-4. SOLUTION:  M Dekker vs C Eichab, 2010 PRIZE:  The book Fried Liver & Burning Pants by "Coach Jay" Stallings COMMENT:  Hinted at by the words "chance" and "just visiting", this was a game of Monopoly. Consult a Monopoly board to follow the game: at the end of the sequence, one player will be on St. Charles Place and the other on Marvin Gardens. (Note that doubles indicates that player must roll again.) This is the only game between a Marvin and a Charles in the database. clue #10: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! Overheard in the Café jamesfromuk: I can't begin to figure out what the latest clue means. HeRateMe: I suspect it's some kind of book-code. SwappingQuinoa: I don't know what you mean--there aren't even numbers in it. QBIT: No, it's not a book-code, but certainly it's a well-known code? Squeaky: That's my guess. Perhaps the M-94 army cipher device? larrylemon: My opinion is that the Fab-Four were the greatest of all time. SOLUTION:  D Semcesen vs R Engman, 2007 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The best advice here is to put the kibitzers on ignore and just focus on the dots and dashes (periods and hyphens). Each line contains Morse code, spelling out E-N-G-M-A-N. clue #11: prize claimed by martin1456! Misprint SOLUTION:  Capablanca vs Lasker, 1924 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  In 1950, Yugoslavia issued five stamps to commemorate the 9th Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik. Pictured is the position of Capablanca-Lasker, 1924, after White's 39th. However there was a mistake on the stamp: it incorrectly places Lasker's bishop on the f8 square (it was really on g8). clue #12: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! A Number of Words seaweed eulogy arch essence obituary ukulele ecstasy SOLUTION:  X Delebarre vs L Cursoux, 1999 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each word starts with a sound of a letter: seaweed = C, eulogy = U, arch = R, etc. This spells CURSOUX. clue #13: prize claimed by Spuddy! Simple Past SOLUTION:  R Ilchov vs A Angelov, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  "Simple past" is an anagram for "palimpsest". A palimpsest is a manuscript that has been erased and written over, with traces of the original writing remaining. In this case the letters all disguise a previously etched letter, e.g. the T has an I within it, the E has an L, the G has a C, the H contains an H, the Q contains an O, and the W contains a V. clue #14: prize claimed by pandemic! Dear Chessgames Kindly remove my earliest game from your database, as it was nothing more than a typographical error, which I find a trifle embarrassing. You see, the game was played using the ICCF numerical notation, and I wrote the move down like a robot unaware that I had reversed the digits. Thanks! "D" from Germany SOLUTION:  M Tobor vs W Stamer, 1984 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  In addition to the implication that the game would be short, correspondence, and involve a German player who's name starts with a "D", the words "robot" and "reversed" gives an alternate way to arrive at "Tobor." (Please note, this is not a real email.) clue #15: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Zeus's Rebus SOLUTION:  Seliger vs S Nickel, 1990 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  MUSE - MU + LIGER = SELIGER clue #16: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Xword __  __  __  __  ◯ Bling for dollars? __  __  ◯  __  __   Type of account __  __  __  __  ◯ Borough of New York __  __  __  __  ◯ Sir comes after __  __  ◯  __  Dishonest __  ◯  __  __  __  Tutu, e.g. SOLUTION:  P de Pender vs Grischuk, 1996 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  These are straightforward crossword-stye clues, except that some of the spaces should be filled with chess pieces. The answers are: pawnshop (♙shop), checking (chec♔), Brooklyn (B♖lyn), knighthood (♘hood), crooked (c♖ed), and archbishop (arch♗). The circled letters spell PENDER. clue #17: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! I Got the Fever! SOLUTION:  T Tolnai vs P Haba, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictures are stills from the movie Chess Fever (Shakhmatnaya Goryachka), out of order. When you place them in the correct order, it spells P-ET-R-HA-BA-P-E-TR-OV, Petr Haba Petrov. clue #18: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Third Person Remember, folks: you just need to figure out the very important things. Some things are just fluff put here so it's difficult. Hint: The "things" are words. That includes the title. SOLUTION:  Fischer vs J H Donner, 1962 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title and the text are hints that this is a "skip code" -- you look at the first initial of every third word. It spells RJF VS JHD, Robert James Fischer vs Jan Hein Donner. clue #19: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Assembly Required start: lda #<pgn sta $0 lda #>pgn sta $1 lda #$00 sta $2 lda #$02 sta $3 pinPiece: lda $3 cmp #$6 bne caruana rts caruana: ldy #0 lda ($0),y cmp #$ff bne endgame iny lda ($0),y ; repeat # sta $4 iny lda ($0),y ; castle ldy $4 petrosian: ldx #0 sta ($2,x) jsr nextMove dey bne petrosian jsr getNextMove jsr getNextMove jmp pinPiece endgame: ldx #0 sta ($2,x) jsr nextMove jsr getNextMove jmp pinPiece getNextMove: inc $0 lda $0 cmp #$00 bne notCastled inc $1 notCastled: rts nextMove: inc $2 ldx $2 cpx #$00 bne notInCheck inc $3 notInCheck: rts pgn: dcb $ff,43,1,$f,$f,$f,$b,$f,$f,$f,$ff,24,1,$b,$f,$b,0 dcb $b,$f,$b,$ff,24,1,0,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,$b,$ff,24,1 dcb $b,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,$b,$ff,24,1,0,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,$b dcb $ff,24,1,$b,$f,0,0,$b,$f,$b,$ff,24,1,0,$f,$b,0 dcb $b,$f,$b,$ff,24,1,0,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,0,$ff,24,1 dcb 0,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,0,$ff,23,1,$f,0,$f,$b,0,$b,$f,0,$f dcb $ff,22,1,$b,0,1,$b,0,$b,$f,0,$b,$ff,21,1 dcb $f,0,0,1,0,0,$b,1,0,0,$ff,21,1,$b,0,$b,1,$b,0 dcb $b,1,$b,0,$b,$ff,19,1,$f,0,0,$f,1,$b,0 dcb $b,1,$f,0,0,$f,$ff,17,1,$f,0,0,0,1,1,$b,0 dcb $b,1,1,0,0,0,$ff,16,1,$f,0,0,0,$f,1,1,0,0 dcb $b,1,1,$f,0,0,0,$f,$ff,13,1 dcb $b,0,0,0,$b,1,1,1,$b,0,$b,1,1,1,$b,0,0,0,$b dcb $ff,10,1,$b,0,0,0,0,$b,1,1,1,1,0,0 dcb $b,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,$b,$ff,8,1 dcb 0,0,0,0,$b,1,1,1,1,1,0,0 dcb $b,1,1,1,1,1,$b,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,1,0,0,$b,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,$b,0 dcb $b,1,1,1,1,1,1,$f,$b,0,0,$ff,18,1,$f dcb $ff,53,1,0,$f,1,0,0,0,0,0,$f,1,$b dcb $b,1,1,1,$b,0,0,0,1,1,0,$f,$f,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,1,$b,0,0,1,1,1,0,$f,1,1,$f,0 dcb 0,$f,1,1,0,$f,1,$b,$b,1,0,$f,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,1,0,$f,0,$f,1,1,0,$f,1,1,$f,$b dcb $b,$b,1,1,0,1,1,$f,0,1,0,$f,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,1,0,1,$b,$f,1,1,$b,$f,1,1,0,$f dcb $f,0,1,1,0,$f,$f,0,$f,1,0,$f,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,$b,0,$b,0,0,1,1,0,$f,1,1,0,$b dcb $b,0,$f,1,0,$f,0,$f,1,1,0,$f,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,1,0,$b,$f,$f,0,$f,1,$b,$f,1,$b,$b,$f dcb $f,$b,$b,1,0,1,$f,$b,1,1,0,$f,1,1,1,1 dcb 1,1,$f,0,1,1,1,$b,$b,1,0,$f,1,0,$f,1 dcb 1,$f,0,1,0,$f,1,0,$f,1,0,$f,$ff,16,1 dcb $f,$ff,5,1,$f,1,1,1,$f,$ff,38,1 SOLUTION:  G Meier vs A Tari, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is 6502 assembly language. You can execute it with the amazing online 6502 emulator found at www.6502asm.com. (First paste the code in, then press COMPILE, then press RUN.) When you do this, it draws out the Atari logo, and this is a game by A Tari. clue #20: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Television and Music SOLUTION:  vs ,  PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The first picture is from the BBC television drama Luther, and the second photo is of trumpeter Miles Davis. clue #21: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Wrack and Rune SOLUTION:  Bacrot vs McShane, 1992 PRIZE:  A six month subscription to Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets from Chess Evolution COMMENT:  Shown are Ango-Saxon runes, upside down. It decodes into the message "KID SAEMISCH GAMBIT TOTS". This is a game between future grandmasters Bacrot and McShane, playing a well known gambit in the Saemish King's Indian Defense. clue #22: prize claimed by tpstar! Chessgames Member Weekender Thread Shams: I'll smash you all! Just one question: how do I get there? (2) Phony Benoni: Near the end of I-95, drive past the Ebony Inn, hop on the exit ramp and the hotel is on your left. (3) OhioChessFan: Soon, each fish that I play will learn that it is me who is destined to take home the trophy! (4) technical draw: I want childcare for the weekend, otherwise I'll have to nag my wife to look after the rugrats. (4) YouRang: You can nag your wife all you want, she won't let you take three days off while she watches the kids. (2) DomDaniel: I wish I could come, but my car is leaking damned oil like a sieve. (4) Travis Bickle: I know a lot of viable tricks that will baffle you screwheads! (2) SOLUTION:  S Neuschmied vs F Montani, 1984 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Hidden in each member's post is their name, anagrammed. The anagrams are: Shams = SMASH, Phony Benoni = EBONY INN HOP, Ohio Chess Fan = SOON EACH FISH, technical draw = WANT CHILDCARE, YouRang = NAG YOUR, DomDaniel = DAMNED OIL, and Travis Bickle = VIABLE TRICKS. Use the numbers to index into the anagrammed phrases (e.g. the second letter of SMASH is M) and you spell the name MONTANI. clue #23: prize claimed by PIEROS16! Re: Dear Chessgames Some people say he's the strongest chess player in the world, but the enclosed PGN will prove otherwise. He was mindlessly regurgitating well known theory, just like grandmasters do, when I whipped out my novelty, ...f6! HA! Take that, you booked-up patzer! Yours, "E" from Germany attachment: 385 bytes Hint: The "385 bytes" was just to add flavor. Closer inspection reveals the actual game is over 600 bytes. Let's assume he sent a zip file. SOLUTION:  Fritz vs E Nemeth, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This game is one by Eduard Nemeth, a recognized anti-computerchess expert. (Please note, this is not a real email.) clue #24: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! We're Off to See the Wizard (A) ? A ? ? ? (B) ? L ? ? ? SOLUTION:  E Zwerver vs R Ammerlaan, 2000 PRIZE:  The book Fried Liver & Burning Pants by "Coach Jay" Stallings COMMENT:  This mate in three is by "the Wizard of Grand Rapids", William Shinkman, 1890. The principal variations are (A) 1.Be2! Kb6 2.Qa5+! Kxa5 3.Bc7#, and (B) 1.Be2! Kb7 2.Qc8+! Kxc8 3.Ba6#. Fill in the question marks based on the letters of the board, and the first variation spells out R-A-M-M-E, and the second one R-L-A-A-N. Put them together for "R. Ammerlaan". clue #25: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Go Forth and Conquer ross cohen: big baby oldy bask ball your poor labman dry it method crabby exact for g7 cheap pin randy bishop acrimony with a e6 isolated bodega housemother. SOLUTION:  Fischer vs Reshevsky, 1958 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Another skip-code, hinted at the word "forth" (fourth). Read every 4th character of the post (not including spaces) and it spells "BOBBY PLAYED BXF7 AND SAM WAS TOAST." clue #26: prize claimed by kgforever! Takeaway 83 67 79 84 84 73 83 72 75 73 80 80 69 82 83 89 85 77 89 85 77 * - - - - - - = 1057 - * - - - - - = ?075 - - * - - - - = ?062 - - - * - - - = ?309 - - - - * - - = ?899 - - - - - * - = ?268 - - - - - - * = ?212 Hint: Fill in the blanks: left to right, top to bottom. SOLUTION:  Ehlvest vs A V Kharitonov, 1988 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  There are 42 digits and 42 hyphens, so take digits and "pour" them, left-to-right and top-to-bottom, into the grid to replace the hyphens. (Interpreting the numbers as ASCII characters reveals the hidden message, "SCOTTISH KIPPERS YUM YUM". That's just a red herring.) The grid contains implied subtractions. For example, the first line reads "* 8 3 6 7 7 9 = 1057", so the first asterisk is a 1 because 1836 - 779 = 1057. (The question-marks are not the game ID, they are merely hiding numbers that are irrelevant.) Reading the asterisks along the diagonals gives the answer 1539013. clue #27: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Paint by Numbers 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 26, 28, 32, 35, 39, 42, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 59, 62, 66, 69, 73, 77, 80, 82, 86, 89, 93, 96, 100, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 112, 117, 118, 119, 124, 125, 126, 131, 134 SOLUTION:  L Prins vs L Day, 1968 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  If you make a grid that is 27x5 and fill in the indicated numbers, it looks like this: ### ### ### # # # # # # # # ###### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ###### ### ### ### # # This is "OOO#" and this game ends castling long (O-O-O) with checkmate. clue #28: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Charles's Rebus SOLUTION:  J T D Halford vs H Cheshire, 1891 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  To be interpreted as "Ten + Niel (a small town in Belgium) + FIDE - Day + line" = Tenniel Feline. The feline illustrated by John Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland is the Cheshire cat. clue #29: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Hou Hou Hou The first time I played Yifan, I got into trouble and lost. I've never done particularly well against Be2 in that line of the Sicilian. But I got my revenge a few rounds later. It was a close game, but one wrong rook move and it was curtains. Three years later, another young lady tried Be3 in the exact same position, and I won in under 30 moves. Now that was a game! SOLUTION:  N Paikidze vs C Balogh, 2010 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The speaker is intended to be Csaba Balogh, refering to two games played at the 5th Gyorgy Marx Memorial in 2007. The solution is the game mentioned last, in which he defeated Nazi Paikidze who played 6.Be3 instead of Yifan's 6.Be2. (Note, GM Balogh did not actually say any of this.) Errata: Balogh lost, he didn't win. clue #30: prize claimed by BVer! Another Number Number The answer to this question is "1" The number of odd answers The first question with an answer of "3" The number of even answers The number of answers which are greater than 5 The number of answers which are less than 4 The first question with an answer of "4" NOTE: When we say "The first question with an answer of 3" you are guaranteed that there is at least one question with an answer of 3. SOLUTION:  Bob Brooks vs B Wall, 1973 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  We're not exactly sure how to logically arrive at the solution, but computers confirm that the only valid answer is 1433052. clue #31: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! OnE mOrE cryptOgrAm DUZEUMI ZAUSR LTK SOLUTION:  Caruana vs Vachier-Lagrave, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is indeed a cryptogram, but far too short to be able to crack through normal means. The title was a hint that you'll be incrementing the letters ("one more"). However, when you do that you get the equally cryptic "EVAFVNJ ABVTS MUL". The insight is that you need to treat consonents and vowels differently: for each consonent, pick the next consonent; and for each vowel, pick the next vowel. (In the case of Z, it wraps back around to B. In the case of U, it wraps back around to A.) With that technique, you get "FABIANO BEATS MVL". clue #32: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! It's a Small World Hint: There is no need to work out titles of the movies or the years they were released. SOLUTION:  V Borovikov vs N Maiorov, 2005 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  East meets west in this puzzle, where Disney animals are brought into accord with the Chinese Zodiac. When you arrange the zodiac animals in traditional order (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig) the math spells out 1203*237 + 18732*58 - 53 + 93 which is 1371607. clue #33: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Play fair, iunior. CV MP MH WH BL CZ DW ZH BQ LP WY SOLUTION:  Korchnoi vs Karpov, 1978 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Shown is a Playfair Cipher which decodes to "AXLONGXGAMEXBYXKARPOV" when using the standard ABCDE/FGHIK/LMNOP/QRSTU/VWXYZ tableau. (The use of that tableau was suggested by the word iunior used for junior.) clue #34: prize claimed by BVer! Bolt from the Blue E L G C H X F E A E O B T H N X U E X O E S L X T E R N D L O M S D A E X A X X I O S K A T L R S SOLUTION:  D Reinderman vs M Pavlovic, 2003 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When you read along the diagonals starting in the upper left corner, it reads "ELEGANCEXSHOULDXBEXLEFTXTOXSHOEMAKERSXANDXTAILORS." That's a quote by Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. The solution is based on the Bolztmann contstant, 1.3806488 x 10-23 JK-1. (Thanks to member WannaBe for the inspiration for this clue.) clue #35: prize claimed by 7krzem7! G Whiz SOLUTION:  J Cavendish vs R Marsh, 1990 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is a diagram of the apparatus used in the Cavendish Experiment of 1798, in which Henry Cavendish determined the gravitational constant G, and thereby the mass of the earth. (Diagram from A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy by Bely, Christian, and Roy, 2010) clue #36: prize claimed by BVer! It Takes a Villain SOLUTION:  F Hamond vs W E Evill, 1916 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is evil-doer Reverend Amos Howell from Superman: The Animated Series. He is an evil Reverend, and this is a game by Reverend W. E. Evill. clue #37: prize claimed by druid! A Regular Clue ^1 14|40 34|53 (3..)\1 SOLUTION:  J Friedel vs G Markzon, 2005 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The above statements are regular expressions displayed in Perl/Python style format. The lines mean, in order: starts with a 1, contains "14" or "40", contains "34" or "53", and contains a string of the form "3-(any)-(any)" followed by an identical string. The only 7 digit number that meets these criteria is 1340340. (This game is not a coincidence: another J. Friedel wrote the definitive book on the topic of regular expressions.) clue #38: prize claimed by BVer! Tom's Rebus SOLUTION:  Alekhine vs A V Aguirre, 1929 PRIZE:  A six month subscription to Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets from Chess Evolution COMMENT:  The images are a pictorial representation of the first few lines of Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim's song Aguas de Marco (Waters of March): A stick, a stone, it's the end of the road It's the rest of a stump, it's a little alone It's a sliver of glass, it is life, it's the sun The question mark indicates the missing item, the word "life", which in Portuguese is "vida". clue #39: prize claimed by Sastre! It's Golden The golden calf, back in business. Believe the hype. Here's a mnemonic that is logically suited for Wednesday's test: If debris is nearby, breathe in the autumn air. SOLUTION:  E Lie vs D Madsen, 2006 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  What's golden? Silence is golden. Some of the words here have conspicuous silent letters. In fact, every third word does: the L in calf, the I in business, the E in hype, the M in mnemonic, the A in logically, the D in Wednesday's, the S in debris, the E in breathe, and the N in autumn. That spells LIE-MADSEN. clue #40: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! Missing Words Find the missing words. Which one is different? Add one if it has an even number of letters. Then double it if it starts with a vowel. SEEING TIDE CARPET HOUR CEILING GOOGLE HOLE ENGLISH CARRIER BOARD DRIVE VOICE ON CONCEALED GRANT CHILD BIRD WASH SHINE WALK HONEY SOLUTION:  A Billio vs E Karakas, 1981 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  For each set of three, find the word that links up to the others. The solutions are RED (seeing red, red tide, red carpet), GLASS (hourglass, glass ceiling, Google Glass™), PIGEON (pigeon hole, pigeon English, carrier pigeon), OVER (overboard, overdrive, voice-over), CARRY (carry on, concealed carry, Carry Grant ;-), BRAIN (brainchild, bird brain, brainwash), and MOON (moonshine, moonwalk, honeymoon). In each set, one of the words is special in the way it links to the missing word, e.g. in the first set SEEING is different because it comes after while the others come before. Take the number by the special words and apply the rules, this gives 1-4-7-8-2-4-9. clue #41: prize claimed by tpstar! What's Next? SOLUTION:  S Rosenthal vs Zukertort, 1880 PRIZE:  A $150 shopping spree at the Chessgames Store COMMENT:  The goal is to enter the next word in sequence, based on the number and name of the page you are on. For instance, when it says "one", you type "two". Most of the in-game tips were meant to be humorous, but a few were useful. The complete solutions and explanations are: one = two (spelled out numbers) ttwwoo = tthhrreeee (double each letter) III = IV (roman numerals) rouf = eivf (changing the letters in a specific order) Davison = Baker (the 5th and 6th doctors of the Doctor Who series) hexagon = heptagon (names for 6 and 7 sided polygons) hét = nyolc (7 and 8 in Hungarian) 21 = 34 (the 8th and 9th numbers in the Fibonacci sequence) LAMECH = NOAH (the 9th and 10th decendants from Adam in the Old Testament) NONE = ODIUMS (anagrams for the 10th and 11th elements, neon and sodium) KLOP = ROLYAT (the 11th and 12th US Presidents, backwards) UXFMWF = UIJSUFFO (Add one to each letter of TWELVE to get UXFMWF; add one in each letter of THIRTEEN to get UIJSUFFO) RI = VT (postal abbreviations of the 13th and 14th states to join the US) APBONITUSA = TROCOTUSTV (the initials of the first 10 words of the 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution) Zukertort's Ra7+!! = referring to Zukertort-Rosenthal, 1880 from the 15th round of the Rosenthal - Zukertort Match (1880), implying that the solution is the 16th game of the same match. Congratulations to the winner! clue #42: prize claimed by crawfb5! Offer 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:  Stockfish vs Houdini, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The audio is a recording of Harry Houdini in 1914 using early Edison technology. He was offering $1000 to anybody who could prove that it was possible to draw air while trapped in his "water torture" apparatus. clue #43: prize claimed by druid! All Hands on Deck *** TOP SECRET *** Missives will be sent at the following times: 6:22:30, 9:22:30, 9:00:00, 6:07:30 (x2), and 12:30:00. Good luck and godspeed. SOLUTION:  G Speed vs N Littlewood, 1968 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a clue that has to do with naval codes, which brings to mind semaphore flag code. Each of the clock times, if interpreted in semaphore (with the right arm representing the hour hand) spells out G (6:22:30), S (9:22:30), P (9:00:00), E (6:07:30), E (6:07:30), D (12:30:00). Godspeed—it's Graham Speed! clue #44: prize claimed by shrdlu! Touchstones SOLUTION:  V Berlinsky vs J Olsar, 2007 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is simply Braille for the game ID, 1470732, taking you to an exciting and pivotal game from the IBCA European Individual Championship. clue #45: prize claimed by pepellou! Dial-a-Game SOLUTION:  M Szigeti vs Benko, 1945 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  You can make many words by spinning the dials, but when you make the word "FIRST" the opposite side will read, when inverted, "BENKO"; and this is Benko's first game in our database. clue #46: prize claimed by druid! Scrambled IRGB YKGT SSSI TEIA HANM SOLUTION:  L Egholm vs P Skjoldager, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  To unscramble the clue, order them like so: TEIA HANM IRGB SSSI YKGT the columns read "THIS YEAR'S KING'S GAMBIT" and this a goody from the Politiken Cup Tournament that took place in July of this year. clue #47: prize claimed by sleepyirv! Over the Rainbow b5 5e 98 45 04 7f 58 49 62 a6 72 08 b7 8d ed d0 SOLUTION:  Fischer vs Fine, 1963 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Above is the password "bobby63" hashed for security with MD5 (as hinted by the YouTube link to the song Code MD.) Normally this would be almost impossible to crack, but a quick search on Google for the compressed string b55e9845047f584962a67208b78dedd0 reveals at least one site that cracked this password. This is why it's critical to pick random letters and numbers in your password. clue #48: prize claimed by shoshonte! Dancing on the End of a Rope _ _ _ T _ _ U L H W P _ B _ _ U _ O T _ I Z _ _ _ O S V _ E _ G _ _ I O A U _ M _ _ _ T T _ A SOLUTION:  P Ament vs C Gallo, 1974 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  As the morbid title implies, this is a game of Hangman. Each line shows a partially filled word, along with letters that have already been guessed (which means they cannot be in the solution). Each line has one or two solutions: GRATEFUL/SPITEFUL, ABACUS, LIZARD/WIZARD, LENGTH, and OMELETTE/UMBRETTE. Choosing the right words, the initial letters spell the appropriate player name, Gallo. (Tip: there is an online tool called Hangman Solver which does all the work for you.) clue #49: prize claimed by shrdlu! Cryptos F W F S Z U X F O U Z D I B S B D U F S U A Q W T Q V C V G D A Q P G O Q T G V K D Q W K H S U H Y L R X V E O R F N X R X M P C S Y K I X X S F P S G O J M Z J Y M J S D T Z X Y F W Y Y T I J H W K S K T Z Z N K T A S H K X U L I N H Y H J A L Y Z W L Y I S V J R B V B Q T G W C N Q V I T T G O M C C Q N B N L A N C V N B B J Q O D R K D D O V V C I Y E E S L E E S P A C T K P T E T U P P Q Z U Z A Z Q B S G U R I R E L R N F Z W S G H U O A S H Q N I W T T X V X J X M E H B T T Y V J J T Y S E H A G F ✤ SOLUTION:  J Klavins vs Tal, 1949 PRIZE:  The book Fried Liver & Burning Pants by "Coach Jay" Stallings COMMENT:  This is a rotation cipher. At first it's as simple as subtracting one letter (e.g. "FWFSZ" becomes "EVERY") but it becomes tricky in that the cipher mutates as you go through it. The deciphered message describes how to solve itself. The entire deciphered message is: "EVERY TWENTY CHARACTERS YOU ROTATE BY ONE MORE THAN THE PREVIOUS BLOCK UNTIL YOU GET TO BLOCK FIVE THEN YOU START TO DECREMENT THE NUMBER OF CHARACTERS PER BLOCK UNTIL YOU FINALLY GET THE SECRET MESSAGE THAT TELLS YOU THAT THE PRIZE IS HIDDEN IN ONE OF THE VERY EARLIEST GAMES BY THE EIGHTH WORLD CHESS CHAMPION." clue #50: prize claimed by pandemic! Electronic Doodads Either this thing is on the fritz, or the exclusive German manufacturer isn't as great as people say. SOLUTION:  H Brunthaler vs J Eiler, 1989 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The words exclusive and or were a hint to combine the two displays using exclusive-or (xor), i.e. only look at the bars which are activated in one or the other of the columns, but not both. That produces something that looks like "EILer" (see illustration). clue #51: prize claimed by Sastre! Double Meanings Sports legend or layer __  __  ◯  __  __  __   Baseball or battery __  __  ◯   Steed or stinger ◯  __  __  __  __  __  __   Plunged or peacenik __  ◯  __  __   Coiled or cause stitches   __  ◯  __  __  __   Phish man or low card   __  ◯  __  __   Aftermath or arouse __  __  __  ◯   SOLUTION:  D Studen vs N A Moore, 2011 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Every answer fits both of the provided clues, e.g. Mickey Mantle is a baseball legend and the earth's mantle is a layer. The answers are: MANTLE, AAA, MANOWAR, DOVE, WOUND, TREY, and WAKE. This spells "NAMOORE", or N. A. Moore. clue #52: prize claimed by BVer! Another Furshlugginer Clue Convert 4mm into fp. SOLUTION:  M Bittaye vs M Maccapani, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The Potrzebie is a running gag in the early issues of Mad, in which 1 potrzebie = the thickness of Mad #26 = 2.263348517438173216473 mm. A farshimmelt potrzebie (fp) is .000001 potrzebies. (See diagram.) This bit of fun was invented by famed computer scientist Donald Knuth (you can see a video of Knuth discussing the history of this joke.) Do the math (using the original measurements, and not the standardized length based on cadmium wavelengths) and you'll get the game ID, almost exactly 1767293. clue #53: prize claimed by TheBish! Of course, in a state of sin. 1234567, 1398759, 1593442, 1353255, 1411192, 1316805, 1392967, 1509639, 1693234, 1511859, 1695232, 1373613, ? Hint: There is a function f(xn) = xn+1 which will produce all of the numbers shown, in sequence. The function relies only on basic arithmetic: no square roots, exponents, trig functions, or anything like that. Hint 2: The difference between the first two terms is 164192. That number has an interesting property (esp. with regards to the first term). If you discover that property, you are well on your way to the solution. SOLUTION:  Gufeld vs W Schmidt, 1974 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  The title is a reference to a quote by John Von Neumann on the nature of arithmetic producing random numbers. These numbers are pseudorandomly generated by a simple arithmetic algorithm. In each step, take the 7 digit number and break it apart into the leftmost digit, the rightmost digit, and the 5 digits in between. Then multiply them all together, and add 1234567. For example: 1234567 → 1 * 23456 * 7 + 1234567 = 1398759. Repeating this process on the last number gives you the solution, game ID 1346650. clue #54: prize claimed by Pi Guy! Wordplay Swordplay evil eternal life giggling massacre disfigured in wedlock straighten slander angry swashbuckler warehouse tyrant burning bird gambling mecca herbivores SOLUTION:  T Simpson vs S Yvonne, 2002 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each of these phrases indicates two words, the second of which can be created by adding a letter to the first. The solutions are: 1. immorality immortality, 2. laughter slaughter, 3. marred married, 4. align malign, 5. irate pirate, 6. depot despot, 7. flaming flamingo, 8. Vegas vegans. The letters added are T-S-I-M-P-S-O-N, Tony Simpson. clue #55: prize claimed by rogl! Bad Math? 33 = 23 21 - 3 = 13 5 + 19 = 23 5! = 80 31 - 25 = 4 12 * 5 = 61 102 - 11 = 21 73 = 292 50 - 5 = 47 SOLUTION:  Leko vs J Hickl, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  No, the math's not bad: these statements all make sense if interpreted in a base different than decimal. For example, 33 = 23 in base 12. The bases that make the expressions correct are: 12, 5, 11, 15, 8, 9, 3, 11, and 12. Converting those numbers to letters gives LEKO-HICKL. clue #56: prize claimed by druid! A Bolder Type of Clue SOLUTION:  Anderssen vs M Lange, 1868 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a test of font identification. The font displayed is an old and well known typeset called Aachen Bold and the solution game is one of the games from the master tournament played in Aachen at the 7th Congress of the Chess Association of West-Germany. (You can find that tournament easily by searching for "Aachen" in our Tournament Index.) clue #57: prize claimed by martin1456! Wordsearch W E S E N O J E R E E D N N P M C S H A N E G A L E E T S E U Q N O C V I E E N N O R W O O D I B K L S O H H S A N D E A T M H E S A O E N G S R L A N I D G S W H A R D E N B L E S D T E A T E U E E V E R Y O T L H N I R S E L I M N H G L SOLUTION:  W Golding vs Adams, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A number of prominent British players can be found in the grid: BARDEN, CONQUEST, DAVIES, HODGSON, HOWELL, JONES, KEENE, MCSHANE, MILES, NORWOOD, NUNN, SADLER, and SPEELMAN. The leftover letters spell, "We're English, and the English are best at everything." This is a quote from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. clue #58: prize claimed by Spuddy! London's Finest Hint: When you think Jaques, think Mieses. SOLUTION:  A Pop vs A Copi, 2012 PRIZE:  A six month subscription to Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets from Chess Evolution COMMENT:  First note the type of chess board, a high quality Jaques London. This brings you to a few games, notably Jacques Mieses vs Richard Teichmann, London, 1895. Now the job is to follow Mieses' knight as it hops around the board. The squares will spell out: A GAME WITH A POP HIT. That's a punny clue to a nice tactical shot by Alexandru Pop. clue #59: prize claimed by shrdlu! Life Wonderful It's That's why all offspring should be female. It's an act of God! It's an act of God! If one or the other of you witness an interloper in these parts, that's myself. What do you desire? Do you desire the earth's satellite? Just tell me and I'll loop it with a rope and force its descent. I've been storing this capital for a marriage dissolution, should I ever find a life-partner. Instructor claims that each instance of a resonator pealing grants a cherub his aileron. SOLUTION:  W Zagema vs R Kraut, 1988 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are straightforward restatements of lines from the classic Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life. The original lines are: ANNIE: That's why all children should be girls. MARY: It's a miracle! It's a miracle! ERNIE: If either of you two see a stranger around here, it's me. GEORGE: What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. ANNIE: I've been saving this money for a divorce, if ever I get a husband. ZUZU: Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings. The first letters of the character names spell out AMEGAZ, which backwards is ZAGEMA. (The title was the clue to reverse the order of the letters.) clue #60: prize claimed by centralfiles! Looking Good Note: Line 7 was removed as it was unnecessary and possibly confusing. SOLUTION:  S Galberg-Lund vs Dotzel, 1991 PRIZE:  The book Fried Liver & Burning Pants by "Coach Jay" Stallings COMMENT:  This varies from the standard Snellen eye-chart, notably that the letters ABCDEFGHI are all found in the top 4 rows. The ABCDEF portion should read DOTZEL. An extra prize for this puzzle is courtesy of Coach Jay's Chess Academy. clue #61: prize claimed by Zkid! I'd Like to Buy a Vowel open (5) street artichoke (3) beat hoop (4) steak mother (3) bumps punch (1) dancing exchange (2) driver SOLUTION:  D Marolt vs B Skok, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each of these word pairs has an implied middle word, in the style of the "before and after" clues of the game show Wheel of Fortune. The phrases are: OPEN SESAME STREET, ARTICHOKE HEART BEAT, HOOP SKIRT STEAK, MOTHER GOOSE BUMPS, PUNCH LINE DANCING, EXCHANGE STUDENT DRIVER. Indexing the numbers in the middle words spells out MAROLT. clue #62: prize claimed by tobywan! 20 Easy Pieces (click for larger view) SOLUTION:  W S Wilson vs S Langleben, 1893 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When you assemble the jigjaw puzzle you have a portrait of the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. (The completed portrait looks like this.) Puzzle created with jigsawplanet.com. clue #63: prize claimed by OBIT! SETI We have intercepted a message from two headed, six legged, seventeen fingered, chess playing aliens. It reads: EARTHLING GAME 13874E SHOWS PROMISE FOR THIS PRIMITIVE SPECIES SOLUTION:  V Gunina vs W Ju, 2013 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The key here was that the aliens have 17 fingers, implying they might use a base 17 numbering system. 13874E (assuming E = 14) is the game ID, 1711829. clue #64: prize claimed by Domdaniel! All is Calm, All is Bright SOLUTION:  Blackburne vs M Rudge, 1875 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An easy one to end the year: a game between Joseph and Mary. Merry Christmas to everyone, and a happy new year!

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. Each clue has a title. Occasionally the title is critical to solving the clue, most of the time it's intended to be a hint, and sometimes it's utterly meaningless.
4. Some clues involve initials. E.g., the clue "B.F. vs B.S." might refer to Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky. But don't expect the obvious: we like to be intentionally misleading, too.
5. If you are trying to solve a clue, keep your eye out for a seven-digit game ID number, for that is the index to all games in our database. For example, to see game number 1234567 you just go to https://www.chessgames.com/1234567. (Alternately, you can enter the 7-digit number into our EZ Search on the homepage.) Be aware that the valid range of game ID's goes from 1,000,000 to (approx.) 1,780,000. So you don't have to examine all 10 million numbers, "only" about 780 thousand.
6. Because every valid game ID begins with the numeral "1", if you see a sequence of 7 items try to figure out how the first item could possibly be interpreted as a "1"--once you've got that, the rest may follow.
7. Starting in 2012, all clues will have titles. These titles may provide additional hints to help solve the problem, although some are red herrings.
8. Some clues draw upon popular chess literature and anecdotes.
9. 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. We're not cruel: we try to keep the number of possibilities down to a manageable number.
10. Some clues involve 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".)
11. We like to pick games from collections, so don't rule out the Chess Game Collection Search as a solving method.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Many clues are intentionally misleading, in the spirit of crossword puzzles.
15. Some clues look easy and truly are. We call these "race clues" because once it's released, the race is on to get to the right game page and claim the prize.
16. 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.
17. 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. In other words, there's no point in viewing the hidden elements of the HTML page, because we assure you that it will never help.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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. Cryptograms are easily cracked with an online tool such as QuipQuip. 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.
22. There is no rule against discussing clues in progress. Traditionally, this is done at the Kibitzer's Café.
23. 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.
    
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24. 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.