Chess
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115 free Chess trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
70 free chess trivia questions with answers. Are you a chess master or just learning the game? Test your knowledge with our comprehensive 115-question chess trivia quiz covering everything from legendary grandmasters to classic openings and game rules. Whether you're a casual player or a serious competitor, this quiz will challenge your understanding of the Royal Game.
30 of 115 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On whose turn is the fool's mate, chess's fastest possible checkmate, delivered?
On Black's second turn
On Black's second turn, and only Black can do it, after White opens with the disastrous g4 and f3 in either order and the queen swoops to h4.
Q 02Which chess opening arises after 1. e4 c6, preparing ...d5 while keeping the queen's bishop free?
Caro-Kann Defence
The Caro-Kann Defence, named for 19th-century analysts Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann, sidesteps the classic flaw of 1...e6, which shuts that same bishop in behind its own pawn.
Q 03Which German chess term describes a position where every legal move worsens things?
Zugzwang
Zugzwang means 'compulsion to move': the player would be fine if allowed to pass, but chess never lets anyone skip a turn, and some endgames can only be won by forcing it.
Q 04In which city was FIDE, the world chess federation, founded in 1924?
Paris
Paris was hosting the 1924 Olympics, and delegates at a team chess tournament staged alongside the Games founded FIDE on its final day, 20 July.
Q 05Which chess move lets the king move two squares toward a rook, which then jumps over it?
Castling
Castling is the only move in which two pieces move at once; players use it to tuck the king away safely and bring a rook into the game.
Q 06The queen combines the moves of which two other chess pieces?
Rook and bishop
Rook and bishop: the queen began as one of the weakest pieces, a counsellor creeping one square diagonally, until new rules in the late 1400s made it the strongest on the board.
Q 07After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6, White plays 3. Bc4 to enter which opening?
Italian Game
One of the oldest recorded openings, it is still taught to beginners, though it lost ground to the Ruy Lopez in the late 19th century.
Q 08In which 1851 game did Adolf Anderssen sacrifice both rooks and his queen?
Immortal Game
The Immortal Game was only a casual game during a break in a tournament, yet loser Lionel Kieseritzky is said to have been so impressed that he sent the moves home to his own chess club.
Q 09What is the term for a draw claimed when the same position keeps recurring?
Threefold Repetition
Threefold Repetition has to be claimed by a player; if nobody does and the position comes up five times, the game is drawn automatically.
Q 10Which FIDE title normally requires a player to reach a 2500 rating?
Grandmaster
Grandmaster is a title for life: once earned, a player keeps it even if their rating later slips well below 2500.
Q 11Which company built Deep Blue, the computer that beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997?
IBM
IBM dismantled Deep Blue soon after the win; one of its two racks is now held by the National Museum of American History.
Q 12Which chess opening begins 1. e4 e6, with Black usually intending 2...d5?
French Defence
The French Defence builds a solid pawn chain at a price: the light-squared bishop is shut in behind the e6 pawn and can stay passive all game.
Q 13The 1972 world title showdown between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky is commonly known by what nickname?
The Match of the Century
The Match of the Century nearly died at the start: Fischer lost game one, forfeited game two in a dispute over cameras, and still came back from 0–2 down to take the title.
Q 21What is the primary objective in a game of chess?
Checkmate the opponent's king
Checkmate the opponent's king and the game ends on the spot: the rules forbid actually capturing a king, so it is never taken off the board.
Q 22How often is the Chess Olympiad, the team event contested by national federations, held?
Every two years
Every two years since 1950, with one break: the pandemic wiped out the 2020 edition, and FIDE staged an online Olympiad instead.
Q 23How many squares are on a standard chessboard?
64
64 squares are enough to ruin a king in the old legend: one grain of wheat on the first square and twice as many on each square after it comes to more than 18 quintillion grains.
Q 14Which challenger lost a record 136-move title game to Magnus Carlsen in 2021?
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ian Nepomniachtchi had drawn the first five games; after losing the sixth, nearly eight hours long, his play fell apart and he lost three of the next five.
Q 15Which 1920s world champion, unbeaten for eight straight years, was nicknamed 'The Human Chess Machine'?
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca played endgames so flawlessly that he seemed to calculate like a computer; his unbeaten run ended in 1924, when Richard Réti beat him in New York.
Q 16Which country does Magnus Carlsen, world chess champion from 2013 to 2023, represent?
Norway
Norway's Magnus Carlsen never lost his world title at the board: in 2023 he simply declined to defend it, giving up the crown voluntarily after ten years.
Q 17Which term describes developing a bishop to b2 or g2, on the board's longest diagonal?
Fianchetto
Fianchetto comes from a word meaning 'little flank': the knight's pawn steps forward so the bishop can slip in behind it and rake the long diagonal.
Q 18How many pawns does each player start with in a standard game of chess?
8
8 pawns line up in front of each player's pieces, and unlike every other chessman they can never move backward, so a pawn move can never be taken back.
Q 19In which city did Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky for the world title in 1972?
Reykjavík
Reykjavík almost lost its star turn: Fischer flew in only after British financier Jim Slater boosted the prize fund and Henry Kissinger phoned to urge him to play.
Q 20Which letter does a knight's move trace on the board?
An L
An L: two squares one way, then one to the side. The knight is also the only piece that can jump over others, so it can come out on move one before a single pawn has moved.
Q 24Who became the first woman ranked among the world's top ten chess players?
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár and her two sisters were home-schooled in chess from early childhood, their parents' experiment to show that genius is trained rather than born.
Q 25In which country is chess widely believed to have originated?
India
India's game chaturanga took its name from an army's battle formation of elephants, chariots, cavalry and foot soldiers; its elephant piece later became the bishop.
Q 26Which quick win, a classic beginner's trap, strikes at f7 with queen and bishop on move four?
Scholar's Mate
Scholar's Mate hits f7 because only the king guards that pawn; it is easy to parry, though, and a failed attempt usually leaves the attacker worse off.
Q 27Which fast form of chess gives each player only about three to five minutes for the whole game?
Blitz
Blitz leaves no time for paperwork: FIDE excuses players from writing down their moves, a duty that is compulsory in classical games.
Q 28What term describes a player whose king is not in check but who has no legal moves?
Stalemate
Stalemate ends the game as a draw, which makes it the losing side's last trick: a player far behind can still escape by leaving himself no legal move.
Q 29What is the name of the rating system FIDE uses to rank chess players?
Elo
Elo is simply its inventor's surname: Arpad Elo, a physics professor and chess master, devised it to rate American players before the rest of the chess world took it up.
Q 30What is the special capture of a pawn that has just moved two squares called?
En passant
En passant means 'in passing': the rule stops a pawn using its double first step to slip safely past an enemy pawn, and the capture must be made at once or the right is lost.