2015 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 2015 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, 2015. See our Official Rules to view the prizes and for other important information.

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The 2015 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 chancho! It's Showtime! t2 + Peter Andreev vs Robert Kane, 2012 SOLUTION:  Deep Blue vs Kasparov, 1997 PRIZE:  (((ERROR:INVALID PRIZE CODE))) COMMENT:  The game indicated is number 1700844. t2 is another way of saying "tt", and if you concatenate "tt" with "1700844" you get "tt1700844". A quick Google search shows that this is the IMDB code for the movie The Deep Blue Sea. This is a game by Deep Blue that we've used as Game of the Day. clue #2: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! The Classics Vanquish Magnitudes Maximized Michelangelo Elevation SOLUTION:  C Wolf vs H Ramezani, 1994 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each word contains the first name of one of the players currently participating in the London Classic. They are: Anish, Magnus, Maxime, Michael, and Levon. When written in a list, the 5th column spells "HUMAN": A N I S H M A G N U S M A X I M E M I C H A E L L E V O N clue #3: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Wub a Lub a Dub Dub SOLUTION:  Teichmann vs J Mortimer, 1902 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured are Rick and Morty and here is a game between Richard and Mortimer. clue #4: prize claimed by martin1456! Blow by Blow So when he took on d4, knight took, bishop took, then rook took. After he played NxR he might have been expecting BxN+ Rf6, but I surprised him by inserting RxP+!! SOLUTION:  Steinitz vs Chigorin, 1892 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A straightforward description of Steinitz's famous victory over Tchigorin. clue #5: prize claimed by TheaN! Little Boxes    5   3   9    0   1   6    1   7   0 (Oh dear, the score has become jumbled!) O1 X9! X3 O2? O4▢ X5 X6! 1-0 SOLUTION:  Kasparov vs J Waitzkin, 1988 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  The score is a recording of a Tic-Tac-Toe game in the style of alegebraic notation, e.g. X6! means "X plays in square 6, and it's a good move." The squares are numbered in typical 1-9 telephone format. The unscrambled game reads: 1. X5 O2? 2. X6! O4▢ 3.X9! O1 4.X3 1-0. The numbers that this game trace in the grid spells out the game ID, 1-3-6-0-0-5-9. clue #6: prize claimed by martin1456! All the World's a Stage What a fish! He gives up the exchange just to start a speculative attack? That can't work! I don't believe it for a minute! Oh no, I'm such a loser. I can't believe I let him do this to me. Why bother even playing on? OK, look buddy. So you get a pawn, I get the exchange, even-steven. Let's just trade queens now, what do you say? You idiot! You insist on continuing with your attack? Impudence! You fill me with contempt and loathing! So what if you have the exchange? Your attack will fizzle out. I have absolutely no worries in the world. I think I'm going to be sick. This rook and queen ending is clearly lost for me. I just want to curl up in a fetal position. Good game; I resign. [offers handshake] SOLUTION:  M Schwarz vs S Wagner, 2006 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are all expressions of grief which can be measured on by the Kübler-Ross model of grief stages. The levels, 1 (denial), 4 (depression), (3) bargaining, (2) anger, (1) denial, (4) depression, (5) acceptance giving you the game ID 1432145. clue #7: prize claimed by Sastre! Cels Like Hot Cakes SOLUTION:  C Hartlaub vs Fleischer, 1913 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a still from the cartoon Chess Nuts (1932), starring Betty Boop, directed and produced by the Fleischer brothers. clue #8: prize claimed by OBIT! BANG2 B ≠ A ≠ N ≠ G SOLUTION:  P Villegas vs V Inkiov, 2012 PRIZE:  (((ERROR:INVALID PRIZE CODE))) COMMENT:  A reference to the song Bang Bang which mentions the expression "B to the A to the N to the G". There are several possible integer solutions which yield a valid game number, but only a few with the contstraint B≠A≠N≠G. The one we're looking for is 6^2^3^1 = 6^8 = 1679616. clue #9: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! You Have the Right To Remain Silent SOLUTION:  E Chinchilla Miranda vs S Mariotti, 1988 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is an arrested chinchilla, and this is a game by Chinchilla Miranda. clue #10: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Don't Worry Candles, Problems, Tears, Little Birds SOLUTION:  M Novik vs I Nikolayev, 1988 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each phrase is found in a song which contains a number: 16 Candles (The Crests), 99 Problems (Jay-Z), 96 Tears (The Mysterions), 3 Little Birds (Bob Marley), yielding the answer 16-99-96-3 clue #11: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Faces or Vaces? Hint: You are expected to recognize the profile of the man. Yesterday somebody might have known who he was. Hint 2: Don't fret; somebody will recognize him soon enough. SOLUTION:  Shankar Roy vs Sasikiran, 1999 PRIZE:  (((ERROR:INVALID PRIZE CODE))) COMMENT:  The faces are the profile of sitar master Ravi Shankar, taken straight from the album Raga Charukauns. clue #12: prize claimed by OBIT! A Santa at NASA Stupid muck Largest quiz Camel market Intelligent goats Sketched further Beast grease SOLUTION:  J Shaw vs K Beaton, 1994 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The crytpic phrases all refer to simple two-word palindromes: 1. DUMB MUD, 2. MAX EXAM, 3. LLAMA MALL, 4. SMART RAMS, 5. DRAWN ONWARD, and 6. LION OIL. The central ('pivot') letters of each palindrome spells BEATON. clue #13: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Engage le jeu que je le gagne zaiqquakivikauqqiaz Hint: Somebody's favorite word. SOLUTION:  Karpov vs T Krabbe, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  After some substitutions, zaiqquakivikauqqiaz becomes saippuakivikauppias which is Tim Krabbé's favorite word. The title is a French palindrome meaning "Begin the game so I can win." clue #14: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Early Periodicals 4, 31, 7, 17, 8, 6, 19, 16 SOLUTION:  Blackburne vs A Sellman, 1883 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are atomic numbers found early on the periodic table of the elements: Beryllium, Gallium, Nitrogen, Chlorine, Oxygen, Carbon, Potassium, and Sulpher. Their symbols spell Be-Ga-N Cl-O-C-K-S. This is the first game from our tournament collection London (1883) which is the first tournament to employ connected stop-clocks. clue #15: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Shall we take the freeway? SOLUTION:  P Dijkstra vs T Schmidt, 1990 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is an illustration of Dijkstra's Algorithm, a computer method invented in 1959 which finds optimal routes in weighted graphs. Today it is the backbone of software such as Google Maps and Apple Maps. The animation was provided by Stony Brook University; you can read an explanation at their web page about Dijkstra's Algorithm. clue #16: prize claimed by tpstar! Trig Hint: Take your time, you'll get it. SOLUTION:  J M Lopez Martinez vs Pelletier, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Ignoring the longest edge of each triangle, you can interpret these as clock hands. The left indicates 1:20, the right indicates 12:45, so the solution game is 1201245. clue #17: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Teamwork DON'T LET YOUR TEAM DOWN BY ▢▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢! SOLUTION:  J Van Pelt vs P S Spiller, 1977 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The full quote is, "Don't let your team down by showing up!", said by Lucy van Pelt in Peanuts, April 16, 1963. clue #18: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Start with the last that was first. iwsawhziin uad zikes atis hcu sunu mu SOLUTION:  Szabo vs A Phillips, 1955 PRIZE:  The book Fried Liver & Burning Pants by "Coach Jay" Stallings COMMENT:  Based on the title, reverse the clue text, preserving spaces, to get "um unus uch sita sekiz dau niizhwaswi". Google searching you find that each is a number in a different langauge: Portuguese um = 1, Latin unus = 1, Uzbek uch = 3, Swahili sita = 6, Turkish sekiz = 8, Welsh dau = 2, Ojibwe niizhwaswi = 7. This gives you 1136827--but wait, there's one more wrinkle. If you read the first letter of each language you see it spells "PLUSTWO", so add two to get the game ID, 1136829. (Thanks to MostlyAverageJoe for providing this pretty puzzle.) clue #19: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Tit for Tat Queen for queen, rook for rook, bishop for bishop, knight for knight. SOLUTION:  J N Babson vs Steinitz, 1893 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A reference to the Babson Task, in which a promoted queen is answered with a promoted queen, a promoted rook with a promoted rook, etc. clue #20: prize claimed by tpstar! A Child Can Solve It SOLUTION:  M F Drew vs A Suess, 1967 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  One fifth, two fifth, red fifth, blue fifth: a reference to the children's book by Dr. Seuss clue #21: prize claimed by martin1456! Would You Like Them Here or There? SOLUTION:  G Sam vs P Atoufi, 2015 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The first image is the angel Gabriel, the second is the character Sam from Green Eggs and Ham. The game is that of Gabriel Sam. clue #22: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Got My Moji Workin' U+1F4A3 U+1F3CF U+1F697 SOLUTION:  P Aurangabadkar vs B Anuja, 2008 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are Emoji codepoints for 💣 🏏 🚗 (bomb, bat, car) to indicate Bombatkar Anuja. clue #23: prize claimed by ll931110! Use a Pen to Work This Out Bb7-e4-h7 Bf8-c5-f2 Ra5-a1-e1-e5 Qb3-f3-f7 Rc3-f3-f7-c7 Rd1-h1-h5 Bb4-e7-h4 Rc4-c8-g8 Qc6-f6-f3-c3-c6 Qb6-e3-h6 SOLUTION:  Suba vs N Davies, 1990 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  The title hints at the Pigpen cipher which is illustrated by the shapes that the pieces make on a chessboard. It decodes into SUBA-DAVIES. clue #24: prize claimed by BVer! Synthesia 1, 5, 8, 10, 18, 19, 24, 29, 39, 40 SOLUTION:  A Planinc vs E Bukic, 1969 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  We call this one synthesia because it's about the color of music. Each symbol refers to a color-oriented song, "Purple Rain", "Red Red Wine", "Black Dog", "Blue Moon", and "99 Red Ballons". Putting this together you get PURPLERAINREDREDWINEBLACKDOGBLUEMOON99REDBALLONS. Use the number to index into this string to get the secret phrase, "PLANINC B99". clue #25: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! First! The first first. Hint: This clue is very different. We're asking you to locate the first game where a certain Chessgames "tradition" began. If nobody can find it, more clues will follow. Hint 2: It's the tradition of "First", "Second", "Third", etc. Surprisingly, it's not a live game. Hint 3: The person who posted "first" is a chess author who sometimes posts on Chessgames. SOLUTION:  H Kennedy vs E Lowe, 1849 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  On the fateful day of August 5, 2005, chess author Bill Wall innocently posted, "Or 9.Qa4+ first. Better may be Qf2." He was later joined by a chorus of "second" and "third" thus beginning a tradition that has annoyed Chessgames members ever since. (Note: the tradition of saying "one, two, three" dates back to at least 2012. Additional 4-month-memberships may be awarded here.) clue #26: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Value the Obscure playwriting groundwork provoke queueing archbishop broomstick acquiescence SOLUTION:  Hracek vs J Markos, 2009 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  In each word is hidden a chess piece, e.g. (p)l(a)y(w)riti(n)g has a pawn and g(r)(o)undw(o)r(k) has a rook. Using the common piece values you get the number 1-5-5-9-3-5-9. clue #27: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Where Parallel Lines Meet SOLUTION:  Alekhine vs L Zollner, 1938 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is called the Zollner Illusion after German astrophysicist Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner. clue #28: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Three Million Knights There are 3,000,000 knights, numbered 1 through 3 million, sitting at a circular table in numerical order. A sword is given to knight #1. This knight kills the knight on his left (knight #2) and then passes the sword to the next living knight in sequence (#3). Knight #3 now kills knight #4 and passes the sword to knight #5. This process continues until there is only one knight remaining. In the end, which knight has the sword? SOLUTION:  Ivanchuk vs S Zhigalko, 2015 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The first thing to realize is that if the number of knights is a power of 2 (4, 8, 16, etc.) then the first knight will be the surivor. Note that 2^21 (2097152) is the largest power of 2 under 3 million. Therefore, after 3000000-21^2 iterations, there will be exactly 2^21 iterations left to go, which means that whichever knight then has the sword at that time will be the one who survives. 3000000-2097152 = 902848, and after 902848 iterations the sword is in seat 902848*2+1, or #1805697, who will be the final survivor. This Perl program is provided as proof. Also see Ask Dr. Math for a more in-depth discussion. clue #29: prize claimed by OBIT! Shall we take the freeway? Billy Joel (1982) Randy Newman (1977) SOLUTION:  N Ondersteijn vs B Diesen, 2007 PRIZE:  A $150 shopping spree at the Chessgames Store COMMENT:  The artists and dates hinted at two geographical songs: Allentown by Billy Joel and Baltimore by Randy Newman. As the title suggests, you can google "Allentown to Baltimore" to find that the optimum route involves US highways I-476 and I-95. Put those together (I=1) to get 1476195. clue #30: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Out of Order Come, Iguana! SOLUTION:  S Levitsky vs Marshall, 1912 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An anagram for "AU COIN GAME", referring to Marshall's famous "gold coin game." clue #31: prize claimed by Thrajin! Knockout SOLUTION:  Capablanca vs J Lewis, 1941 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a photo of boxer Joe Louis. A different Joe Lewis defeated Capablanca in a 1941 simultaneous exhibition. clue #32: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Trio SOLUTION:  H Holder vs H Lahlum, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are sections of Rush album covers: their debut album, "Fly By Night", "Caress Of Steel", and "2112". Thus, simply concatenate 1,2,3 and 2112. clue #33: prize claimed by tpstar! Teamwork Beating 2700+ players is easy. Just open with something unusual and sac a couple of rooks. SOLUTION:  Rapport vs Fressinet, 2015 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title and the game description point to this game from the 2015 European Team Championship. clue #34: prize claimed by druid! It's Unanimous SOLUTION:  J Sajtar vs Boleslavsky, 1953 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The images are: a Hancock, a Button, a Penn, a Stone, and a Hart (stag). All of these are (phonetically) either first or last names of signers of the Declaration of Independence. Starting with Hancock as signer #1, we also have 2 (Button Gwinnet), 7 (John Penn), 14 (Thomas Stone), and 42 (John Hart), which yields 1271442. clue #35: prize claimed by zanzibar! Clue #97464 46 4c 49 50 2d 46 4c 4f 50 21 Hint: Another clue for computer nerds exclusively, or not? Hint 2: The title is in hexadecimal as well. Hint 3: If you get 6000c you are well on your way to the answer. SOLUTION:  H Fabri vs K Arkell, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  46 4c 49 50 2d 46 4c 4f 50 21 is ASCII for "FLIP-FLOP!" This implies exclusive-or (XOR) and if you XOR 464c49502d with 464c4f5021 with the clue title (interpreted as hex), you get hex f7468 (the game ID, 1012840 in decimal). clue #36: prize claimed by rcs784! Picture Mixture SOLUTION:  D Andersen vs T S Christiansen, 2009 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title implies we're looking for rhymes, and sure enough, each image rhymes with a number: GUN HIVE DOOR MATE HEAVEN SCREW TREE rhymes with ONE FIVE FOUR EIGHT SEVEN TWO THREE. clue #37: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Blueprints Could twenty years of computerized technology, averaging coded systems, digesting chromosomes, tell us? SOLUTION:  A Bianchi vs J D Garcia Castro, 2001 PRIZE:  (((ERROR:INVALID PRIZE CODE))) COMMENT:  The text hints at the Human Genome Project. If you look at only the letters C (cytosine), G (guanine), A (adenine), and T (thymine), you will get "CTTACTTCGA AGGCTGTGCT". If you know how to use Google to search for genes, you'll find that this is the nucleotide sequence that begins OCA2, the human gene responsible for oculocutaneous albinism, and here is a game by Albino Bianchi. clue #38: prize claimed by rcs784! Winter Iceskating 9321, 6077, 9999, 1000, 6811, 6806, 2395 SOLUTION:  Belke vs Looper, 1978 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  An entirely nonmathematical clue. Each number has a value equal to the number of "holes" in the numerals. For example an 8 has two holes, and 6806 has 5 holes altogether. So the game ID is 1243351. clue #39: prize claimed by OBIT! My Daddy SOLUTION:  M Bartel vs R Psyk, 2012 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Korean pop artist PSY and an atom of potassium (K) spells PSYK. clue #40: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! Round to Nearest 100 Billion KUMI NA TISA! SOLUTION:  C Arduman vs M Erdogdu, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Swahili for 19, and 19 factorial (19!) equals 121,645,100,408,832,000. Divide that by 100 billion to get the game ID. clue #41: prize claimed by Sastre! A Long Time Ago SOLUTION:  P Bielby vs M Binks, 1962 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The images are from movie posters of the Star Wars franchise: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (twice); Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back; Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; Episode V again; Episode VII: The Force Awakens; Episode I again. This gives you the game number of 1153571. clue #42: prize claimed by BVer! Lay it on the Line L C G S A O E O S M T M T E S E SOLUTION:  B Craps vs M Roeder, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When written in a 4x4 square, the columns read "LAST COME GETS SOME". This is a term used at the craps table when the shooter loses ("sevens out"). clue #43: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! Lightning Strikes A special election was held to fill the chair of former secretary, Mr. Duane Hall. Spassky vs Nogueiras, 1985 ? SOLUTION:  Svidler vs Kramnik, 2015 PRIZE:  A six month subscription to Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets from Chess Evolution COMMENT:  The first item is taken from Chess Nuts, December 1955, which indicates a date of Nov 12, 1955: the date that lightning struck the clock tower in the movie Back to the Future. The second item is Boris Spassky vs Jesus Nogueiras played on Oct 26, 1985: the date that Doc performs temporal experiment #1, sending his dog Einstein forward in time 1 minute. Therefore, the solution is a game played on the third critical date of the trilogy: Oct 21, 2015 from the 2015 European Club Cup. For more information see Futurepedia: Back to the Future Timeline. clue #44: prize claimed by druid! Stir Crazy SOLUTION:  H Spangenberg vs Van Wely, 1994 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Prisoner #24601 is Jean Valjean from Les Misérables, and this game was used a GOTD earlier this year as "Victor Hugo". clue #45: prize claimed by Stonehenge! Das Werdente SOLUTION:  E M Faust vs G Krauss, 1954 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A quote from Faust, meaning: "Let that which grows and ever works and lives / Clasp you in the fond embrace of love, / And whatever floats in wavering appearance / Fix with enduring thought." clue #46: prize claimed by shrdlu! Loop the Loop SOLUTION:  H Kortner vs Nilssen, 1985 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  "Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop." -- Shirley Temple. The idea here is to add one letter to each item to create the name of an animal. The solutions are: MONEY + K = MONKEY; MUSE + O = MOUSE; HOSE + R = HORSE; RABBI + T = RABBIT; SAKE + N = SNAKE; MU + E = EMU; AT + R = RAT. The added letters spell Kortner. clue #47: prize claimed by sleepyirv! Spoiler Alert! (WARNING: This clue will actually reveal endings to popular movies. Skip this clue if you don't want that!) He's Luke's father! (9,18) It's ... people! (9) He was Söze all along! (8) Mom's a corpse! (3) He's a ghost and doesn't know it! (1,5) He killed his own wife and forgot! (1,3) It's a sled! (9,10) SOLUTION:  F Hoorweg vs Timman, 1964 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Each line is a "spoiler" that gives away the twist ending of a popular movie. The solutions are: 1. The Empire Strikes Back, 2. Soylent Green, 3. The Usual Suspects, 4. Psycho, 5. The Sixth Sense, 6. Memento, 7. Citizen Kane. The numbers index into the movie titles (skipping spaces, as always) to spell out EARLY TIMMAN. clue #48: prize claimed by martin1456! Happy Geeta Jayani! part I · part II Hint: The first verse means, in part, "He who is friendly to every living entity certainly comes to me." SOLUTION:  K Coates vs V Knox, 1978 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are two verses of the Bhagavad Gita sung in Sanskrit. They mean: · My dear Arjuna, one who is engaged in my pure devotional service, free from the contaminations of previous activities and from mental speculation, who is friendly to every living entity, certainly comes to me. (11:55) · But you cannot see me with your present eyes. Therefore I give you divine eyes by which you can behold my mystic opulence! (11:8) This is game 1155118 (11:55, 11:8). clue #49: prize claimed by martin1456! Yo Dawg, I Heard You Like Word Searches E V G E L F A N D W U E O H A O A K E A N L O R C K G S O R E N I K A J R A K O S D N M R P I A N N L A U K U A S M S I R R K Y A K C A A A A I V A N C H U K N C R P O A V U T O R K I N M A R K C A B Note: do not circle anything less than 4 letters. SOLUTION:  H Wang vs So, 2007 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  First, find and circle the ten hidden grandmasters in the 10x10 grid: ARONIAN, CARLSEN, CARUANA, GELFAND, GRISCHUK, IVANCHUK, KARJAKIN, KASPAROV, KRAMNIK and NAKAMURA. This will leave you with 36 letters left over, which you can pour into a 6 by 6 grid that looks like this: E W U E H A O K E L O S O D N A N A K A M S K Y K A R P O V T O R C A B Now you can find six more grandmasters: ANAND, BACROT, EUWE, KAMSKY, KARPOV and LEKO. Finally the leftover letters spell "HAO-SO". clue #50: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Who? SOLUTION:  S Castelli vs R Marconi, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is Guglielmo Marconi known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmissions. clue #51: prize claimed by tpstar! Just Desserts Start things off on 12/25 with a slice of Christmas pi! SOLUTION:  V D Chaschikhin vs V Ardomin, 1989 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Simply begin with the first occurrence of the holiday in question (Christmas) in the number pi. It occurs in the first 10,000 digits forming the GID 1225714. clue #52: prize claimed by BVer! Doc Brown's Notebook SOLUTION:  Blackburne vs Pillsbury, 1897 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The idea is to simply order the events by date and perform the arithmetic suggested by the notes. However, there's a wrinkle: three of the entires are bogus, because the dates shown do not in fact exist. There's no such thing as April 31st, 1900 was not a leap year, and there was no September 12 in 1752. Therefore, skipping bogus entries, the proper math is: 1029 x 1000 - 16 (Louis XVI) + 425 - 73 = 1029336. clue #53: prize claimed by 360degrees! Initially Perplexing Take a ST-AB at this one. SOLUTION:  Tartakower vs Burn, 1911 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  ST-AB is Savielly Tartakower vs Amos Burn. clue #54: prize claimed by tpstar! ♘ Tour F T T Y H A K T O J D E * G A N R E A G V S I D R SOLUTION:  J Sajtar vs Pachman, 1943 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a 5x5 knight's tour which spells "GOTD SAJTARDAY KNIGHT FEVER". clue #55: prize claimed by Enrico Leon! Home is Where the Hearth Is Hint: Quickshot was nerfed. Now it costs one more. SOLUTION:  N Ninov vs J Zawadzka, 2006 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are cards from the game Hearthstone with their mana-costs in the upper-left corner obscured. Reading from the top of the stack to the bottom, the mana-costs are 1, 4, 3, 6, 9, 3, and 2, giving you the game ID. clue #56: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Numbering First is Delaware; eighth is David. SOLUTION:  H Rittner vs M Umansky, 1996 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The text is meaningless except for the first initials, which spell FIDE ID. Carlsen's FIDE ID is the game ID, 1503014. Inspiration for this clue came from Mostly Average Joe. clue #57: prize claimed by OBIT! Flowery Speech Berberis aquifolium Camellia japonica Solidago gigantea Prunus persica Magnolia SOLUTION:  T Oral vs V Nedela, 2005 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  State flowers for Oregon (OR), Alabama (AL), Nebraska (NE), Delaware (DE), and Louisiana (LA). That spells ORAL-NEDELA. clue #58: prize claimed by shalgo! Chess Invasion I placed the queen beneath my first finger. I have aggressive knights! For energy, I ate molasses-based sucrose. He's only got 3 minutes before time control; I've got 45. 6, 14-15, 21-25, 27-28, 33, 36-37, 40. Hint: Believe it or not, it makes a huge difference whether you interpret 'first finger' as the index finger, or thumb. SOLUTION:  Miles vs Bronstein, 1976 PRIZE:  (((ERROR:INVALID PRIZE CODE))) COMMENT:  Not only a chess invasion, a British Invasion! These are all rephrased titles of Rolling Stones songs: Under My Thumb, Wild Horses, Brown Sugar, and Time is on my Side. The numbers index to get the secret message MILESBRONSTEIN. clue #59: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! It's Showtime! SOLUTION:  Spassky vs Fischer, 1972 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A scene from the recent movie Pawn Sacrifice depicting the 3rd game of the Spassky-Fischer match, right before 12.Bxh5. clue #60: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Brilliancy game. SOLUTION:  Maroczy vs Chigorin, 1903 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is a portion of a Christmas card that was sent out by Geza Maroczy to "his wide circle of friends." See chesshistory.com for details. clue #61: prize claimed by MostlyAverageJoe! Winter Wonderland Time for a SL-ED ride! SOLUTION:  Lipschutz vs E Delmar, 1889 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  SL-ED in this case is Samuel Lipschutz vs Eugene Delmar. clue #62: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! See Pics: SOLUTION:  Karpov vs Ribli, 1977 PRIZE:  The book Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition from New in Chess COMMENT:  Each image is a species from Star Wars, with the last image being the poster for the original film. Simply take the first letter of each species: on the top row we have Kaminoan, Aqualish, Rodian, Pa'lowick, Ortolan, Vulptereen, on the bottom we have Ranat, Ithorian, Besalisk, Lannik, and Ishi Tib. The result is KARPOV on top, RIBLI below, and the poster represents 1977, the year Star Wars was released. clue #63: prize claimed by sleepyirv! Christmas Spirit SOLUTION:  M Mancini vs J F Jolly, 2012 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Music by Henry Mancini, in a jolly Christmas spirit. clue #64: prize claimed by Stantler66! A Merry Time of Year SOLUTION:  A L'Ami vs A Merry, 2015 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This concludes the 2015 Chessgames Holiday Present Hunt! Thanks to everybody for playing and congratulations to the winners.

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.