1. Woman. Alive.
2. No, she was not born in any of the A continents.
3. No, she is not a politician.
4. No, she is not a sports person.
5. Yes, the first letter of her first name comes before n.
6. No, she is not a scientist or a mathematician.
7. No, she is not associated with the film industry or television.
8. No, she is not a writer.
9. No, she is not a musician.
10. No, she does not belong to royalty.
11. No, she is not a model.
12. No, she is not a dancer.
13. No, she is not famous for any of the Arts (painting, writing, acting, etc)
14. No, she is not involved with medicine.
15. No, she is not commonly known as the wife of someone famous.
16. No, she is not someone from this website.
17. No, she does not hail from UK.
18. No, she does not hail from France.

mikau · 2007-12-28 07:05:05

man, i'm REALLY curious now...

19. is she known for her accomplishments? (as opposed to just who she is)

Jai Ganesh · 2007-12-28 18:27:43

4. No, she is not a sports person.

Hint: She is involved with a board game.

Contradiction?????

Sorry, siva.eas! Your post got deleted when I was trying to quote you.

Devantè · 2007-12-29 10:39:34

We've got no chance of getting it ... it could be anyone, although she's most likely not to be a historical person.

So she's alive and her name begins with 'n'. HMM.

MathsIsFun · 2007-12-29 12:18:08

We have one small chance ... an "Alive Woman involved with a board game" (siva gave us that clue, but accidentally deleted by ganesh) ... any ideas?

mikau · 2007-12-29 12:27:27

oh what the heck, lets end this

20. Is it Vanna White?

siva.eas · 2007-12-29 15:25:33

1. Woman. Alive.
2. No, she was not born in any of the A continents.
3. No, she is not a politician.
4. No, she is not a sports person.
5. Yes, the first letter of her first name comes before n.
6. No, she is not a scientist or a mathematician.
7. No, she is not associated with the film industry or television.
8. No, she is not a writer.
9. No, she is not a musician.
10. No, she does not belong to royalty.
11. No, she is not a model.
12. No, she is not a dancer.
13. No, she is not famous for any of the Arts (painting, writing, acting, etc)
14. No, she is not involved with medicine.
15. No, she is not commonly known as the wife of someone famous.
16. No, she is not someone from this website.
17. No, she does not hail from UK.
18. No, she does not hail from France.
19. Yes, she is known for her accomplishments.
20. No, she is not Vanna White.

The person I had in mind was Judith Polgar, the highest ranked female chess player. She has defeated former world champions Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov and the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand. Two of her sisters have also achieved Grand Master and International Master status in chess.

Jai Ganesh · 2007-12-29 17:14:05

siva.eas wrote:

1. Woman. Alive.
2. No, she was not born in any of the A continents.
3. No, she is not a politician.
4. No, she is not a sports person.
5. Yes, the first letter of her first name comes before n.
6. No, she is not a scientist or a mathematician.
7. No, she is not associated with the film industry or television.
8. No, she is not a writer.
9. No, she is not a musician.
10. No, she does not belong to royalty.
11. No, she is not a model.
12. No, she is not a dancer.
13. No, she is not famous for any of the Arts (painting, writing, acting, etc)
14. No, she is not involved with medicine.
15. No, she is not commonly known as the wife of someone famous.
16. No, she is not someone from this website.
17. No, she does not hail from UK.
18. No, she does not hail from France.
19. Yes, she is known for her accomplishments.
20. No, she is not Vanna White.
The person I had in mind was Judith Polgar, the highest ranked female chess player. She has defeated former world champions Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov and the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand. Two of her sisters have also achieved Grand Master and International Master status in chess.

Isn't that a contradiction?

I thought you had a tarot reader in your mind at the end of 19 questions.

mikau · 2007-12-29 18:38:00

ahhh... i probably never would have guessed that.

Ganesh: I don't know, really. I never thought of chess as a sport. Besides if siva.eas had said 'yes' i never would have thought that could include chess players.

Oh well. Who's next?

Jai Ganesh · 2007-12-29 18:55:42

A Biography of Judit Polgar:-

Judit Polgár is Jewish, and from Budapest. Members of her family perished in the Holocaust.

She and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Zsuzsa and International Master Zsófia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis. He and his wife Klara educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject.

The father also taught his three daughters the international language Esperanto.

The rest of Judit's family eventually emigrated (Zsófia and her parents to Israel and later to Canada, Zsuzsa to New York), but she remained in Hungary and married Gusztáv Fonts, a veterinary surgeon from Budapest.

Jai Ganesh · 2007-12-29 18:57:06

mikau wrote:

Oh well. Who's next?

Who's next?

MathsIsFun · 2007-12-29 20:49:16

Yeah ... Chess as a Sport is debatable.

Devantè · 2007-12-29 21:37:01

Well, some argue that it is a competitive game, therefore it must be a form of sport. The same sorts of general mental and physical disciplines needed by the sportsman (e.g. mental toughness, strong self-confidence, endurance, etc.) are required for chess players to succeed. To take a prominent example, Karpov's (then-) frail physique nearly cost him twice in big matches against Korchnoi (one for the world championship, the other in a final candidates match) and quite possibly did cost him the title to Kasparov when he lacked the endurance to finish him off in 1984.

Take this example of what a sport is;

a. That it's a competitive activity.
b. That the performance of the activity have an intrinsically physical component.

Chess fulfills (a) but not (b). As far as the nature of chess is concerned, it could be played by disembodied spirits using mental telepathy or by conscious computers.

mathsyperson · 2007-12-30 03:12:56

I saw a documentary about her a while ago.
It said that the main thing to do to become a master is just to play lots and lots.
After playing lots of games, you'll start to recognise familiar board positions and develop an "intuition" about how a game will play out, without actually having to think ahead.

They did some scans of her brain while she was looking at pictures of Chess board positions, and they found that she was using the same part of her brain that everyone else uses when recognising faces.

MathsIsFun · 2007-12-31 12:48:19

Cool. I have played very good players (and lost) and it is interesting to see how they think. At the end of one game my opponent said "that ending reminded me of ..." and then set the whole board up to show me a game he remembered!

Anyway, who is next?

BTW: we may want to consider a rule change to allow "too hard to answer Yes or No". Maybe "Pass" as an option?

mikau · 2007-12-31 18:03:59

I'd say so. I assume that would mean the question doesn't count and we ask a new one?

I guess i'll go next.

1. Man. Alive

Jai Ganesh · 2007-12-31 19:56:32

2. Does he hail from the A continents?

MathsIsFun · 2007-12-31 22:19:41

mikau wrote:

I'd say so. I assume that would mean the question doesn't count and we ask a new one?

Yes, we could list the hard question as a "pass", but not number it.

Jai Ganesh · 2008-01-01 00:05:13

3. Is he a scientist or a mathematician?

mikau · 2008-01-01 09:28:42

3. no he is not a scientist or mathematician

but for 2, by 'hails from' does that mean 'born in' or 'now lives in'?

Jai Ganesh · 2008-01-01 16:49:41

Question 2 refers to place of birth.

Jai Ganesh · 2008-01-01 16:50:12

#4. Is he associated with movies or music?

mikau · 2008-01-01 17:06:05

sorry for being slow to respond:

1. Man. Alive
2. No he does not hail from the A continents
3. no he is not a scientist or a mathematician
4. yes he associated with movies or music

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