2016 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 | The 2017 Present Hunt

RULES FOR THE 2016 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, 2016. See our Official Rules to view the prizes and for other important information.

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The 2016 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 PhilFeeley! Roughed Up in the Opening SOLUTION:  I A Horowitz vs Pilnik, 1945 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  From Chess Review Oct 1945 the caption reads: "ABOVE: Herman Pilnik, Argentine ace, was badly hurt in an automobile crash while on his way to Hollywood. Although he had to make up his first three games and was not fully recovered from his accident, Pilnik played excellent chess all the way, finishing only half a point behind Reuben Fine." Analysis of the board indicates that this was his game against Horowitz. clue #2: prize claimed by Chizoad! Pop Hit I SOLUTION:  Pillsbury vs von Popiel, 1900 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is the Pillsbury Doughboy beside Iggy Pop—hence Harry Pillsbury vs Ignatz von Popiel. clue #3: prize claimed by wienke7! Sorry, I missed that. New Pony Sheet Fur Says And Drake Inn SOLUTION:  Nepomniachtchi vs D Andreikin, 2012 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is how Apple's SIRI interpreted "Nepomniachtchi versus Andreikin." #SIRIFAIL clue #4: prize claimed by tpstar! Guess-the-Game I: Finish Him! ♗e8! SOLUTION:  Reti vs Bogoljubov, 1924 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A famous combination. clue #5: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! On the Road to the Championship I SOLUTION:  A Ushenina vs W Ju, 2012 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  Pictured on the clip-art model is the medal of The Order of Princess Olga, Second Class which was bestowed upon Anna Ushenina in 2013 after winning the Women's World Championship in 2012. This is one of the critical games on her road to the championship. clue #6: prize claimed by wienke7! I don't get that reference. SOLUTION:  Carlsen vs Karjakin, 2016 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A reference to an unusual comment about funnel cakes made by Peter Svidler during the 2016 Carlsen-Karjakin World Chess Championship. clue #7: prize claimed by wienke7! Pop Hit II The most popular reply to the most popular reply to the second most popular reply to the most popular reply to the most popular reply to the most popular reply to the second most popular reply to the most popular reply to the most popular reply to the most popular reply to the most popular reply to the second most popular reply to the second most popular reply to the most popular first move--and it was only a draw! SOLUTION:  J Wygrecki vs W Shipman, 1986 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The Opening Explorer will help you decipher this babble into a King's Gambit variation: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 g4 5. O-O gxf3 6. Qxf3 Qe7 7. d4 Nc6. There are 13 games but only this one is drawn. (By the way, you have heard that the Opening Explorer is free for everybody this month, right?) clue #8: prize claimed by shalgo! Spectators SOLUTION:  Novag vs Bobby, 1983 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Botvinnik, Fine, and Reshevsky spectating the World Computer Chess Championship of 1983. This was one of the games they were watching. Photograph is a distorted version of the real one courtesy of chess programming wiki. clue #9: prize claimed by Touch of Knight! Comma Chameleon , ,,,,,, ,,,,, ,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,,, : SOLUTION:  R Comas Colon vs L Avalos, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Featured is a game by Rinelly Comas ("commas") Colon. The arrangement and count of punctuation marks were purely red herrings. clue #10: prize claimed by shalgo! Line Noise | (\. \ ,/) | | \( |\ | | )/ ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-| |._ //\ | \ /\\ | | `6_ 6 ) `-. ( ).`-.__.`) | | (/ /\_#oo#_/\ \) (_Y_.)' .| |_ ) `._ `. ``-..-' \/\ #### | | /\/ _..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,| |' `##' (| |il),-'' (li),' ((!.-' | Hint: Snip out everything between the leftmost and rightmost | symbols and work with that. Hint: The ASCII art for this clue was taken from http://ascii.co.uk. SOLUTION:  Tal vs Petrosian, 1974 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  If you neaten-up the text (found between the left and right | symbols) by laying it out with a different column-width, it reveals this ASCII art: (\. \ ,/) \( |\ )/ ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._ //\ | \ /\\ `6_ 6 ) `-. ( ).`-.__.`) (/ /\_#oo#_/\ \) (_Y_.)' ._ ) `._ `. ``-..-' \/\ #### /\/ _..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,' `##' (il),-'' (li),' ((!.-' Therefore the game is Tal-Petrosian (Wizard vs Tiger). clue #11: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Literature Quiz SOLUTION:  R Antonio vs D Laylo, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This clue is all about the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, Bob Dylan. Reading on the diagonals starting in the upper left, it spells the phrases, "NO RELIEF", "PARROT THAT TALKS", "BACK OF THE FISH TRUCK", and "HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO". These are all phrases from the following Bob Dylan songs: All Along the Watchtower, Simple Twist of Fate, Visions of Johanna, and Lay Lady Lay. Now put the titles of the song back into the chessboard, starting at the upper left, diagonally, so it looks like this. The circled letters spell "ANTONIO LAYLO". clue #12: prize claimed by chinaski! Horse Pucky We're in deep DOO-DOO Hint: It's a very late transposition into D00. SOLUTION:  A Lehtinen vs J Sietio, 1996 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Here Lehtinen danced his knights around the board (with his opponent's cooperation) before actually playing d4 and transposing into D00 on move 25 (!) clue #13: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! X Files SOLUTION:  Spielmann vs Salwe, 1912 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  Interpreted as "Grace (grays) Under Pressure", Track 5, 1:22. This refers to an album by the Canadian power trio Rush. A tool such as YouTube will let you hear the lyrics "One Zero Zero, One Zero Zero, One: S.O.S." from the song The Body Electric. Clue by Sargon. clue #14: prize claimed by moppa! Guess-the-Game II: The Debut ...d5! SOLUTION:  Capablanca vs Marshall, 1918 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  With this gambit in 1918, Marshall debuted to the world his famous attack in the Ruy Lopez. clue #15: prize claimed by Sastre! Dark and Light Squares SOLUTION:  Reshevsky vs Smyslov, 1953 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When the two halves are overlapped (one way or another) you see the photo of the game (with the name tags obscured). clue #16: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Inconceivable SOLUTION:  I Montoya Irigoyen vs I Cheparinov, 2001 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title should tip you off that this is a YouTube code, for a short video depicting the fictional character Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. clue #17: prize claimed by 7krzem7! DVD Sale SOLUTION:  Fischer vs W Addison, 1970 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A still from this video in which Karpov discusses this game by Fischer. clue #18: prize claimed by kereru! It Naturally Follows Levon Aronian's favorite jazz bassist? SOLUTION:  C Hooker vs C McBride, 1974 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Levon is a well known fan of jazz. Among the people that Levon follows on Twitter is jazz bassist Christian McBride. clue #19: prize claimed by Sastre! On the Road to the Championship II This is one of the games that made Bobby Fischer world champion. SOLUTION:  K Burger vs Benko, 1969 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  As noted in the comment by kingscrusher, this win qualified Benko for the 1970 Interzonals, who later gave up his spot to Fischer. More information at Graeme Cree's website. clue #20: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Curses, another Klu! Hint: What's another word for curse? Hint: Multiply the right things together and you got it. SOLUTION:  J Uznanski vs R Slawinski, 1992 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Shown is Fischer's famous Game of the Century right before the move 18. Bxb6 Bxc4, followed by an American quarter dollar. The title (curses, aka hexes) indicates that we'll be working with hexadecimal. Now, treat the chess move as hexadecimal numbers and multiply them, treating the capture symbol (x) as multiplication as well:       B x B6 x B x C4 = 11 x 182 x 11 x 196 = 4316312. Divide that by 4 (multiply by a quarter) to get the game ID, 1079078. Clue by Sargon. clue #21: prize claimed by SwitchingQuylthulg! Plus One F G M L Z K B V K B K M B M P M SOLUTION:  Topalov vs Anand, 2010 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Subtracting one letter (e.g. F becomes E), and reading the columns from top left to bottom right, it spells Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that delayed, by one day, the first game of the Anand vs Topalov 2010 World Championship. clue #22: prize claimed by syracrophy! Pop Hit III SOLUTION:  A Nimzowitsch vs Systemsson, 1927 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Shown is a frame from Britney Spears' video for her hit Overprotected, and this is the "Immortal Overprotection Game" (a spoof of Nimzowitsch by Kmoch). Clue by Annie K. clue #23: prize claimed by crawfb5! MDDIII [LISTEN HERE] (This is an audio clue. If your browser does not play the file, download it to your favorite MP3 player.) SOLUTION:  T Hannibal vs D Harrington, 1979 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The title indicates legendary jazz musician Miles Dewey Davis III, and the clue is a fragment of the song Hannibal performed by the Miles Davis Group in Hamburg, 1991. clue #24: prize claimed by Sastre! Guess-the-Game III: Interference ♖c1! SOLUTION:  Averbakh vs Korchnoi, 1965 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Korchnoi's ...Rc1! is so miraculous it appears composed. clue #25: prize claimed by IAmMe! Gautamaths दश•(log(बोधिसत्व)/द्विद्वाविंशतिशत)षष् SOLUTION:  P Simonsen vs T Skovgaard, 2001 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  The Mahavaipulya Buddhavatamsaka Sutra (alternately Avatamsaka Sutra) is an influential text of Mahayana Buddhism which contains a treatment of very large numbers centered on the struggle to comprehend divinity. The largest meaningful number in this work is given the name bodhisattva (बोधिसत्व) and is equal to 1037218383881977644441306597687849648128. Knowing that दश is the Sanskrit word for ten, while षष् is the Sanskrit word for six, and द्वि is two, and द्वाविंशतिशत is 122, you substitute the bodhisattva value for बोधिसत्व in the above equation, you get 10*7^6 = 1176490. For more info, see The Indian idea of infiniteness and History of Large Numbers (Wikipedia). clue #26: prize claimed by Sastre! The Greatest Match That Never Was In a parallel universe, Fischer played the first move in the first game of the title match with his Soviet rival Anatoly Karpov. Hint: It's a notable game. SOLUTION:  Timman vs Kasparov, 1985 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Assuming each player played the moves they usually play in each position, find a notable game similar to the way their game started. Use the repertoire explorers for Fischer and Karpov to determine the game starts as a Ruy Lopez: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. d4 Re8. At that stage, there are no examples of Fischer playing the position. One of the notable games on the Opening Explorer page for that position is the solution. clue #27: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Technically Speaking SOLUTION:  Alekhine vs Ecole Polytechnique Paris, 1925 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A game played by the Ecole Polytechnique Paris Chess Team in 1925. clue #28: prize claimed by 1 2 3 4! Brevity ...is the soul of book reviews. SOLUTION:  J S Rubin vs E Winter, 1974 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  You might have thought of Tony Miles' famously terse review "Utter crap" (of Eric Schiller's Unorthodox Chess Openings)--but we refer instead to the very shortest book review ever, chess or otherwise. Chess Rules of Thumb by Lev Alburt and Al Lawrence received a zero-word book review by Edward Winter in C.N. 3480. clue #29: prize claimed by shalgo! Slav to Fashion второй второй первый первый первый первый первый первый (etc.) SOLUTION:  Onischuk vs Jakovenko, 2011 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Russian for "Second second first first first first first first (etc.)" If you consult the Opening Explorer and play the 2nd most common moves you'll have 1.d4 d5, from there the Slav defense is attained by playing the most popular move over and over. You'll end up at a handful of highly theoretical Slav and Semi-Slav games, this one included. clue #30: prize claimed by BVer! Guess-the-Game V: The Blundering ♘Ng5?? SOLUTION:  Petrosian vs Bronstein, 1956 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Petrosian had a rare mental lapse and hung his queen. clue #31: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Lauf Around the World SOLUTION:  Korchnoi vs Pirc, 1965 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Hidden in this chessboard are 13 bishops of different languages: BISHOP (English), ALFIL (Spanish), LAUFER (German), CAL (Romanian), ESGOB (Welsh), FOU (French), GAJAH (Indonesian), LAHETTI (Finnish), LAIDNIS (Latvian), LOPARE (Swedish), LOPER (Dutch, Norwegian, Afrikaans), NEBUN (Romanian), OFICERI (Albanian). The unused letters read VLK-PIRC, referring to the immortal Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi. This is one of his three games against Vasja Pirc. Errata: CAL should not have been on the list (it's Romanian for Knight). clue #32: prize claimed by 7krzem7! And Sorry I Could not Travel Both 0.0025° SOLUTION:  N Povah vs A Compton, 2015 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  0.0025 degrees is 9 seconds, the clue that you should look at the second choice in the Opening Explorer, nine times in a row. If you keep playing the 2nd most popular move over and over you come to this position, and this is the most recent example game. clue #33: prize claimed by wienke7! Guess-the-Game IV: The Averaging ♘Nd6!   ♕h8+!   ♗xh7+! SOLUTION:  D Gurevich vs R Forster, 1997 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The moves refer to famous moves found in Spassky-Bronstein, '60, Petrosian-Spassky, '66, and Lasker-Bauer, '89. The average of the game IDs (1034110+1106725+1026352)/3 is the game ID where the prize was hidden. Errata: We messed up the numerical ordering of these clues. It's not some tricky meta-clue to the contest, just a mistake. Sorry! clue #34: prize claimed by disasterion! Directions SOLUTION:  Tal vs P Grave, 1965 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The city of Corinth combined with the unlikely driving time of 15:55 leads you to the Bible, Corinthians verse 15:55, "O, grave! Where is thy victory?" -- used as the Game of the Day title on April 30th of this year. clue #35: prize claimed by Domdaniel! Sunday Funnies SOLUTION:  D King vs G Hertneck, 1991 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A king playing a man with a neck injury: King vs Hertneck. clue #36: prize claimed by stingray0104! For many be called, but few chosen. ABATE PETROL CULT JAGGED SURF SCARED BANANA SLUMP ANIMAL DIARY REDUCES CHEER RAIL ACRE RAGGED TIED MYRIAD PESTER ANOINT ALIEN YARN BLOW VERTIGO Hint: The title is important in more ways than one. Hint: In the final stage you'll have to examine the columns. SOLUTION:  A Bachmann vs Rudiger, 1985 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  The title refers to Matthew 20:16: "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." If you swap the first and last letters of each word, you'll find that only some of them yield sensible results. Put these words in a list, like this: FURS = SURF PLUMS = SLUMP SEDUCER = REDUCES LAIR = RAIL DAGGER = RAGGED DIET = TIED NARY = YARN Read the third column to find the key name, RUDIGER. clue #37: prize claimed by The HeavenSmile! The Colonel SCARCE SCARED SCARRED SACRED SOLUTION:  J Hampton vs B Wall, 1986 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  What appears to be more wordplay and anagramming is really a song lyric from Gone Today and Here Tomorrow by Colonel Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. Googling those words (in that order) yields precious little, but just enough to lead you to search for "Hampton" and find the target game. clue #38: prize claimed by DavidDM! TV Entertainment: Then and Now SOLUTION:  J Mortimer vs M Sterling, 1900 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  On the left is Mortimer Snerd, the puppet that made Edgar Bergen famous. On the right is the FX cartoon Archer depicting Sterling Archer. And so, Mortimer-Sterling. clue #39: prize claimed by chessgames.com! Guesstimates Number of dimples on a golf ball. Number of chess moves played by Viktor Korchnoi in the Chessgames database. The total weight of the members of the House of Commons, in stone. The number of apples that fit in a FINA regulation Olympic-size swimming pool. Number of galaxies in the observable universe. Number of words in the King James Authorized Bible. Height of the poet Milton in centimeters. Hint/Errata: Sorry, one of the figures we computed was wildly off. For purposes of this clue assume that the answer to #4 is (the absurdly tiny) 600,000. Errata 2: We've come to learn that this clue is broken beyond repair. To save further grief, we are going to cancel this clue and convert the prize into a present for our Dear Santa Contest. SOLUTION:  E Paoli vs G Sansonetti, 1989 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  We are sincerely sorry about this muddled clue. The defective intended solution follows. First find estimates for all of the numbers (exact figures are not needed and for the most part impossible to obtain.) 1 = 300-500, with 336 being most common; 2 = roughly 93,000 according to our own software; 3 = about 7854 stone based on the average weights of men and women and the current makeup of Parliament; 4 = The pool is 50x25x3 = 3750 cubic meters, which should hold over 2 million apples 7-8cm in diameter packed loosely; 5 = at least 2 trillion according to a 2016 survey by NASA's Hubble telescope; 6 = Between 770,000 to 790,000 words depending on the version and counting methodology; 7 = nobody knows, but most men are in the area of 145-190 cm. Now put them in order, smallest at top, and use only the most significant digits (the first digits) to get the game ID 1379672. We know that some of these figures are a little "iffy" (some golf balls have over 400 dimples; the size of the universe still unknown; perhaps a well-fed Parliament tips 8000 stone; we don't really know) — so some guesswork was required. clue #40: prize claimed by BVer! Look, Up in the Sky... Hint: He's not the hero we want, but the hero we need. SOLUTION:  D Hoefler vs Adianto, 1999 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The text below each picture is an anagram of a popular computer font: (1) Times New Roman, (2) Comic Sans, (3) Tahoma. The fourth picture is that of an "elf hero", which anagrams to Hoefler. Clue by Sargon. clue #41: prize claimed by chessgames.com! Guess-the-Game VI: A Perfect Fifth ...♖h1!   ♕h6!   ...♕b5!   ♕xf3! SOLUTION:  A Cerin vs Bagirov, 1988 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  We're very sorry, this clue was ruined by a miscalculation. As with #39 we are going to cancel this clue and add an extra prize to our Dear Santa contest. We promise no more botch-ups this year. clue #42: prize claimed by disasterion! Vocabulary Quiz #400769 Hint: Listen, this isn't so much about the number, it's about finding the vocabulary quiz in the first place. Hint: If you listen to what we're trying to say, it will be easy. SOLUTION:  Huebner vs Short, 1988 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  The number given is a FIDE ID of Andrew Webster. If you go to his page you might notice that a pronunciation is provided. (Rather odd, as we don't often provide pronunciations for English names.) Upon clicking, you'll hear the pronunciation, then you'll hear Daniel Freeman deliver the secret vocabulary quiz: "mugwump, zwieback, zenith, nescience, invective." All of these words were included in the Merriam Webster Word of the Day from 2016. Find the exact date of each: mugwump: Jan 11th; zwieback: Feb 24th; zenith: Apr 3rd; nescience: Jun 7th; invective: Oct 5th. Ignoring the years and months, string the days of the month together, to get 11-24-3-7-5 = 1124375. Clue idea by Annie K. clue #43: prize claimed by Sastre! Pandamonium SOLUTION:  Y Cho vs A Ayiku, 2014 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is Lorewalker Cho from the game Hearthstone / World of Warcraft. clue #44: prize claimed by xajik! Simul? SOLUTION:  Denker vs Botvinnik, 1945 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  What's this, Botvinnik on the receiving end of a simul? Of course not; this is a still from a YouTube video of the famous USSR - USA Radio Match in 1945. clue #45: prize claimed by shrdlu! On the Road to the Championship III 6 of 20 SOLUTION:  Gligoric vs Fischer, 1970 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is the 6th game in Bobby Fischer's famous 20-game winning streak. clue #46: prize claimed by OBIT! Holiday Cheers SOLUTION:  K Kelley vs I Nikolayev, 2009 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A reference to a song sung by Woody on the sitcom Cheers, in which he sings "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly..." etc. clue #47: prize claimed by shalgo! Remember to Phrase Your Response in the Form of a Question SOLUTION:  J Chiarelli vs D Jennings, 1979 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Pictured is golfer Jack Newton who famously lost to Tom Watson in the 1975 British Open. The title is a tip-off to the game show Jeopardy! and the two humans to lose to the IBM computer Watson on Jeopardy! were Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. So the prize was hidden in a game where Jennings lost. Clue by Ohio Chess Fan. clue #48: prize claimed by BVer! Curse of the Goat I SOLUTION:  M Mrdja vs M Ashley, 1998 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Referring to this year's World Series winners, the Chicago Cubs. The box score for the 7th game is missing several numbers, fill them in to get (from left to right, top to bottom) the game ID 1021311. clue #49: prize claimed by xajik! Curse of the Goat II 7D7 SOLUTION:  Krasenkow vs Nakamura, 2007 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Curse, as before, implies hexadecimal. "Goat" is a reference to our Notable Game feature, a.k.a. GOAT ("greatest of all time"). The clue is simply 2007 in hexadecimal, and this is the most notable game of 2007. clue #50: prize claimed by 7krzem7! eps2.2_init_1.asec SOLUTION:  Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 1851 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A still from the TV show Mr. Robot (season 2, episode 4). Although it's hard to tell from that particular shot, the game shown in the show was following the Immortal Game. clue #51: prize claimed by BVer! Wrasslin' is REAL Hint: The quickest way from point A to point B. SOLUTION:  A Fox vs K Rusev, 2003 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When you draw a line from A to B you'll run through professional wrestlers Rusev and Alicia Fox, and so the solution is A Fox vs Rusev. Clue by Sargon. clue #52: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Just Wing It emgVJ^R SOLUTION:  T Montoyo vs P Bersamina, 2011 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These letters, when rendered in the popular font Wingdings, reveals glyphs that look like "MONTOYO": clue #53: prize claimed by DavidDM! Picross SOLUTION:  Kasparov vs Smyslov, 1981 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  When you solve this nonogram (a.k.a. Picross) you'll get this image spelling out "GK VS". clue #54: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Way Out There SOLUTION:  Ehlvest vs Kamsky, 2010 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  These are simply astrological planetary symbols, you should assign each one a number based on how far it is from the sun. Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Neptune = 1572468. clue #55: prize claimed by OBIT! Museum SOLUTION:  Harper vs Blackburne, 1868 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  On top is a Harpist ("Harper"), on the bottom is the "Black Death" (a nickname for Blackburne). clue #56: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Gotta Catch 'em All Pokémon leave us songs of natural enthusiasm. Hint: Here's but one example of natural enthusiasm. Here's another one. SOLUTION:  N Gaprindashvili vs A Aleksandrov, 1990 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  The title is a Pokémon indication, and the text is an acrostic for "PLUS ONE". The trick is to focus on a particular aspect of Pokémon: their proclivity to say (or sing) their own name. Of the characters shown, the ones often say/sing their own name are 500,000 (Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, "I am Groot!"), 325,000 (Timmy from South Park, "Timmmmmy!"), 65,724 (The Dinks from Spaceballs, "Dink!"), 50,000 (American rap artist Flavor Flav, "Flava Flaaaaav!"), 66,503 (Scooby Doo, "Scoooooooby Doo!"), 40,001 (The Incredible Hulk, "Hulk Smash!"), and 349 (the cuckoo bird, sings "cuckoo, cuckoo"). Simply add these numbers up: 500000 + 325000 + 65724 + 50000 + 66503 + 40001 + 349 = 1047577; then use the acrostic ("plus one") to get 1047578. clue #57: prize claimed by tpstar! On That You Can Rely Three Little Words SOLUTION:  Lasker vs Tarrasch, 1908 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  A reference to the Lasker vs Tarrasch WCC of which there is a famous (probably apocryphal) anecdote that Tarrasch said something to the effect of, "Mr. Lasker, I have only three words to say to you: check and mate!" clue #58: prize claimed by shrdlu! Say Uncle! SOLUTION:  Spirit of Adventure vs Donald Duck, 1959 PRIZE:  A One Year Subscription to NIC Magazine Digital COMMENT:  Pictured are jazz legends Hugh Masekela, Miles Dewey Davis, and Louis Armstrong. Together this makes "Huey, Dewey, and Louie" -- the nephews of Donald Duck! clue #59: prize claimed by 7krzem7! Have a Slice of Christmas Pi JHdoi-RxlMI SOLUTION:  M Cichy vs R Fiala, 1995 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The code is a YouTube ID for 9,999,999 Tears by Dickey Lee. According to tools such as the Pi Search Page, the first occurance of the string 9999999 appears at position 1722776 after the decimal point. (Fun fact: the slightly shorter 999999, against all odds, appears at the very early position of 762.) Clue by Sargon. clue #60: prize claimed by lucifuge1968! Merry Pawn Mass   ♟ ♙ ♟ ♙ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♙ SOLUTION:  Ding Liren vs Aronian, 2013 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  The diagram illustrates the pawns on the queenside at the end of this game. clue #61: prize claimed by druid! Join the Band SOLUTION:  S Polgar vs V Spasov, 1993 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Depicted are elements from The Twelve Days of Christmas song: a piper piping, a lord a-leaping, a goose a-laying, and drummer drumming. Using the numbers in the song this gives you 11-10-6-12 or 1110612. clue #62: prize claimed by DavidDM! That's What Christmas Is [LISTEN HERE] (This is an audio clue. If your browser does not play the file, download it to your favorite MP3 player.) SOLUTION:  Labelle vs J Hardinge, 1969 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This is Patti LaBelle singing That's What Christmas Is To Me. You can watch the performance live on YouTube. clue #63: prize claimed by kevinatcausa! Air Traffic Control SOLUTION:  Ikarus vs Comet, 2000 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  Oh no, Icarus and Comet are on a collision course! Clue idea by Annie K. clue #64: prize claimed by AnimusEtOblivio! Easiest. Clue. Ever. SOLUTION:  NN vs Santa Claus, 1908 PRIZE:  A Four Month Premium Subscription to Chessgames.com COMMENT:  This clue was a real present, and also a reminder that if you didn't win a prize in our annual Holiday Present Hunt Contest, you still can register to win a free year of Chessgames premium services over at our Santa Claus page. Just make a post starting with the words "Dear Santa" and you'll automatically be entered into the drawing. Merry Christmas to all!

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.