On Monday night's edition of Jeopardy!, Tournament of Champions, they had a category called,
"Let's talk about chess, champ".
The questions were far more sophisticated than I would have expected, albeit simple enough for the chess initiated. What impressed me was they used a combination of visuals and algebraic notation to pose the questions.
Here are the questions, as my memory serves:
1. In the following position, although White is up two pawns, he cannot win because these pieces can only move on the diagonals of opposite color.
2. This two word phrase, which means 'in passing', is used to describe a move in which one pawn captures another pawn that has just moved past it.
3. Although White has an extra piece, White failed to win the game after moving the queen to the d6 square, creating this. (Posed as a video with an actor moving the queen to d6 on a chess board)
4. This defence, which starts with the moves 1. e4 e6 is named after a Paris team that employed it in a match.
5. In the following position, the White knight is unable to move because it would expose the king to check. The knight is said to be in this kind of tactical situation, named for a small object.
The players had a hard time, missing both the first question (!) and the 4th question, which was the only one my wife BJ hadn't learned through osmosis from me. She actually believed me for a change when I exclaimed, "Bet it ALL!"
By the way, I hate the new Jeopardy! set and final music.
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