Weekly Quiz: War Wagers, Chess Cheaters, and Local Leaders

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const title = "Weekly Quiz: War Wagers, Chess Cheaters, and Local Leaders"; const date = "April 25, 2026"; const data = [ { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/WEB_PredictionMarkets_APR26-1536x1024.jpg", title: "Prediction Markets Are Coming to Canada. Are We Ready to Bet on War?", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/prediction-market-betting/", question: "Polymarket, a prediction market firm created by Shayne Coplan in 2020, is the industry leader in geopolitical wagering. There are currently over 700 betting topics to choose from under the platform’s “Geopolitics” theme. Which three topics, ranked below by popularity, are currently the most actively traded?", options: [ "1. US-China Tensions; 2. Iran War Predictions; 3. Venezuela", "1. Iran War Predictions; 2. The Middle East; 3. Ukraine", "1. The Middle East; 2. Ukraine; 3. NATO", "1. NATO; 2. Venezuela; 3. US-China Tensions", ], answer: "1. Iran War Predictions; 2. The Middle East; 3. Ukraine", correct: "There are an astounding number of betting topics to choose from under Polymarket’s “Geopolitics” theme—717 in total when The Walrus contributing writer Wesley Wark looked (the number is constantly changing, depending on the specified end date for trades). The top three were Iran war predictions (125), followed by the Middle East (121), followed by Ukraine (105). The top grossing wager on Iran is a yes-or-no bet on US ground forces invading the country—$81 million (US) has been put down on that one, with a 54 percent bet it will happen before April 30 and a 65 percent bet on it happening before December 31. Nearly $3 million (US) has gone into a prediction bucket on the idea of the US escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, with bets split between April 15 and April 30. There are multiple options for betting on a Ukraine peace deal and even more for betting on the Russian capture of various Ukrainian front-line towns.", incorrect: "There are an astounding number of betting topics to choose from under Polymarket’s “Geopolitics” theme—717 in total when The Walrus contributing writer Wesley Wark looked (the number is constantly changing, depending on the specified end date for trades). The top three were Iran war predictions (125), followed by the Middle East (121), followed by Ukraine (105). The top grossing wager on Iran is a yes-or-no bet on US ground forces invading the country—$81 million (US) has been put down on that one, with a 54 percent bet it will happen before April 30 and a 65 percent bet on it happening before December 31. Nearly $3 million (US) has gone into a prediction bucket on the idea of the US escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, with bets split between April 15 and April 30. There are multiple options for betting on a Ukraine peace deal and even more for betting on the Russian capture of various Ukrainian front-line towns.", }, { title: "The Stress of Elite Chess Is Wearing Down the Game’s Champions", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/the-stress-of-elite-chess-is-wearing-down-the-games-champions/", question: "Concerns about cheating have plagued chess for decades, but technological advances have intensified the issue. Which event brought these concerns into the global spotlight?", options: [ "The 1997 match-up between Garry Kasparov and IBM supercomputer Deep Blue", "The 2006 World Chess Championship’s “toiletgate” controversy", "Hans Niemann’s victory over Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup", "Chess.com reporting a spike in fair-play violations during pandemic-era events", ], answer: "Hans Niemann’s victory over Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup", correct: " It wasn’t until nineteen-year-old American grandmaster Hans Niemann beat Magnus Carlsen in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, ending the Norwegian’s fifty-three-game undefeated streak, that the chess world was finally forced to reckon with its cheating problem. After the game, Carlsen, the best player in the world, withdrew from the tournament, something he had never done before. The next day, he tweeted a video of Portuguese soccer coach José Mourinho saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble.” The implication was clear, the chess world concluded: Niemann had cheated.", incorrect: " It wasn’t until nineteen-year-old American grandmaster Hans Niemann beat Magnus Carlsen in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, ending the Norwegian’s fifty-three-game undefeated streak, that the chess world was finally forced to reckon with its cheating problem. After the game, Carlsen, the best player in the world, withdrew from the tournament, something he had never done before. The next day, he tweeted a video of Portuguese soccer coach José Mourinho saying, “I prefer really not to speak. If I speak, I am in big trouble.” The implication was clear, the chess world concluded: Niemann had cheated.", }, { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Lada_Steele_Friendship_Apps_1800-1536x1024.jpg", title: "I Was Lonely and Let an App Pick My New Friends. Here’s How It Went", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/i-was-lonely-and-let-an-app-pick-my-new-friends-heres-how-it-went/", question: "Timeleft and 222—the two dominant platforms in the friendship-curation space—are locked in a fierce rivalry, each accusing the other of copying its model. Which phrase appears in both companies’ marketing, raising questions about originality?", options: [ "“Meet your people”", "“No profiles, no DMs, no scrolling, no swiping”", "“Connection is the new currency”", "“Built for the real world”", ], answer: "“No profiles, no DMs, no scrolling, no swiping”", correct: "On April 24, 2023, Timeleft co-founder Maxime Barbier posted on his Instagram account, announcing the launch of artificial-intelligence-powered social matching. “Not a dating app. Not another distraction. No mindless scrolling. No profiles, no DMs. No scrolling or swiping,” the Instagram post reads. It reads a lot like the description on 222’s webpage: “This is not mindless scrolling . . . This is not a distraction.” And, toward the bottom of the page, “no profiles, no DMs, no scrolling, no swiping.” According to a digital archive of the site, a version of this copy (which also included the phrase “This is not a dating app”) has existed on the 222 website since December 2022, months before Barbier announced his version. (Timeleft did not respond to The Walrus’s request for comment regarding these parallels.)", incorrect: "On April 24, 2023, Timeleft co-founder Maxime Barbier posted on his Instagram account, announcing the launch of artificial-intelligence-powered social matching. “Not a dating app. Not another distraction. No mindless scrolling. No profiles, no DMs. No scrolling or swiping,” the Instagram post reads. It reads a lot like the description on 222’s webpage: “This is not mindless scrolling . . . This is not a distraction.” And, toward the bottom of the page, “no profiles, no DMs, no scrolling, no swiping.” According to a digital archive of the site, a version of this copy (which also included the phrase “This is not a dating app”) has existed on the 222 website since December 2022, months before Barbier announced his version. (Timeleft did not respond to The Walrus’s request for comment regarding these parallels.)", }, { title: "Why So Many Mayors Are Quitting", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/why-so-many-mayors-are-quitting/", question: "Compensation for municipal politicians is a persistent point of debate: salaries are often considered too low to attract candidates, yet proposed increases still draw public criticism. What is Christa Lowry’s current annual pay as mayor of Mississippi Mills, Ontario?", options: [ "Just under $38,000", "Just under $49,000", "About $55,000", "About $61,000", ], answer: "Just under $38,000", correct: "Mississippi Mills just voted to raise the next mayor’s pay to about $61,000 a year, starting in November. For now, it stands below $38,000, which Lowry supplements with other governance roles and gigs as a professional musician. Councillors make about $21,000; starting next term, they’ll make just over $24,000. Marc-André Guertin has a relatively comfortable base salary of $84,000 as mayor of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, a town of 19,000 people in the greater Montreal area. But the compensation doesn’t reflect the political complexity of the job and the sixty- to eighty-hour weeks, he says.", incorrect: "Mississippi Mills just voted to raise the next mayor’s pay to about $61,000 a year, starting in November. For now, it stands below $38,000, which Lowry supplements with other governance roles and gigs as a professional musician. Councillors make about $21,000; starting next term, they’ll make just over $24,000. Marc-André Guertin has a relatively comfortable base salary of $84,000 as mayor of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, a town of 19,000 people in the greater Montreal area. But the compensation doesn’t reflect the political complexity of the job and the sixty- to eighty-hour weeks, he says.", }, ];