List of world records in chess: Difference between revisions

For the American record label, see Chess Records.

This is a list of world records in the game of chess as achieved in organized tournament, match, or simultaneous exhibition play.

Longest game

The longest tournament chess game ever to be played under modern time rules was Nikolić - Arsović, Belgrade, 1989, which lasted for 20 hours and 15 minutes, ending in a 269-move draw. At the time this game was played, FIDE had modified the fifty move rule to allow 100 moves without a piece being captured in a rook and bishop versus rook ending, the situation in Nikolić - Arsović. FIDE has since rescinded that modification to the rule, meaning that this record is unlikely to ever be broken.

Shortest tournament game

The shortest decisive game ever played in master play that was decided because of the position on the board (i.e. not because of a forfeit or protest) is Đorđević - Kovačević, Bela Crkva 1984. It lasted for only three moves (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.e3?? Qa5+ winning the bishop), and White resigned. This was repeated in Vassallo-Gamundi, Salamanca 1998. Even shorter decisive games have occurred in amateur play, including two-move games ending in Fool's Mate (1.g4? e5 2.f3?? Qh4# and variants thereof).

There have been a number of forfeited games (which could technically be regarded as a loss in zero moves), the most notable examples being Game 2 of the 1972 World Chess Championship match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, which Fischer defaulted, and Game 5 of the 2006 World Championship match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, which Kramnik defaulted. A game between Fischer and Oscar Panno, played at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970, went 1. c4 resigns. Panno refused to play to protest the organizers' rescheduling of the game to accommodate Fischer's desire not to play on his religion's sabbath. Panno was not present when the game was to begin. Fischer waited ten minutes before making his move and went to get Panno to convince him to play. Fifty-two minutes had elapsed on Panno's clock before he came to the board and resigned. (An absence of sixty minutes results in a forfeit.)

The German grandmaster Robert Hübner also lost a game without playing any moves. In a World Student Team Championship game played in Graz in 1972, Hübner and Kenneth Rogoff agreed to make a draw without playing any moves. However, the arbiters insisted that some moves be played, so the players made up a score sheet with ludicrous moves (according to the tournament book the game went 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Ng1 Bg7 4. Qa4 0-0 5. Qxd7 Qxd7 6. g4 Qxd2+ 7. Kxd2 Nxg4 8. b4 a5 9. a4 Bxa1 10. Bb2 Nc6 11. Bh8 Bg7 12. h4 axb4 draw agreed). The referees didn't accept that either — and as Hübner still resisted making a move, it was counted as a win for Rogoff. This game may thus be said to be both the shortest draw (unofficially) and the shortest decisive game (officially).

A game may be drawn in any number of moves, or even no moves, if the tournament officials (unlike those at Graz) do not object. According to ChessGames.com, in 1968 Dragoljub Janosevic and Efim Geller agreed to a draw before any moves.

Latest first capture

In Rogoff-Williams, World Junior Championship, Stockholm 1969, the first capture occurred on White's 91st move, 91.bxc5.

Longest decisive game without a capture

Nuber - Keckeisen, Mengen 1994 lasted 31 moves without a single capture. In the end Keckeisen, facing imminent checkmate, resigned.

Greatest concentration of chess grandmasters

As of December 2005, Reykjavik, Iceland, with eight grandmasters (Jon Arnason, Johann Hjartarson, Margeir Petursson, Fridrik Olafsson, Throstur Thorhallsson, Helgi Gretarsson, Hannes Stefansson, and Bobby Fischer) had a higher percentage of grandmasters per capita than any other city worldwide; the city of 110,000 had one grandmaster per 13,750 residents. As of April 2008, the population of Reykjavik had grown to 118,861; Fischer died on January 17, 2008.

Perfect tournament and match scores

In top-class chess it is rare for a player to complete a tournament or match with a 100 percent score. This outstanding result was however achieved in tournaments by:

• Emanuel Lasker at New York in 1893 (he scored 13 out of 13)
• Henry Atkins at Amsterdam 1899 (15/15)
• José Raúl Capablanca at New York in 1913 (13/13, including one default)
• Capablanca at New York in 1914 (11/11)
• David Janowski at Paris in 1914 (9/9)
• Alexander Alekhine at Moscow in 1919-20 (11/11)
• Boris Kostic at Hastings 1921-22 (7/7); Kostic, of Yugoslavia, was the only non-British participant. (Cload and Keene 1991, p. 123-24)
• Bobby Fischer at the US Championship of 1963/64 (11/11)

(Hooper and Whyld 1984, p. 67-68) (Soltis 2002, p. 81-83) (Sunnucks 1970, p. 76). Hooper and Whyld call Fischer's achievement "the most remarkable achievement of this kind", noting that the 1963/64 U.S. Championship was "a tournament of about category 10." (Hooper and Whyld 1984, p. 68)

Sunnucks also lists Alekhine's 10/10 score at Caracas 1939, but Soltis writes that it, and Buenos Aires 1926, which Alekhine won with the same score, were "weak events." (Soltis 2002, p. 81).

Perfect scores were achieved in matches by:

• Wilhelm Steinitz over Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1876 (7/7)
• Capablanca over Kostic in 1919 (5/5)
• Fischer over Mark Taimanov in 1971 (6/6) (quarter-final (Candidates Match)
• Fischer over Bent Larsen in 1971 (6/6) (semi-final Candidates Match)

(Hooper and Whyld 1984, p. 67-68).

Most games lost

Most games lost in a single tournament: 31, N. M. MacLeod, New York, 1889 (Chernev 1974, p. 50) (Winter 1996, p. 3).

Lost all games on time

At Linköping 1969, Friedrich Sämisch lost all thirteen games in a Swedish tournament by exceeding the time control. (Hooper and Whyld 1984, p. 293).

Consecutive games without a loss

Between October 23, 1973, when he lost a game in a Soviet championship, and October 16, 1974, when he lost to Kirov at the Novi Sad tournament, Mikhail Tal had a string of 95 games without a loss (46 wins and 49 draws). This does not count an exhibition game that was a adjudicated a loss for Tal in his 1974 telex match against eight Australians. (Soltis 2002, p. 44) (Tal 1976, p. 500)

Best and worst results in simultaneous exhibitions

In 1922, José Raúl Capablanca, the recently crowned World Champion, played 103 opponents simultaneously in Cleveland. He completed the exhibition in seven hours, scoring 102 wins and one draw (99.5%), the best result ever in a simultaneous exhibition on over 75 boards. (Damsky 2005, p. 235)

The best result in a simultaneous exhibition solely against grandmasters is World Champion Garry Kasparov's performance against a West German team consisting of Vlastimil Hort, Eric Lobron, Matthias Wahls, and Gerald Hertneck at Baden-Baden in 1992. Unusually for simultaneous exhibitions, half of the players (Lobron and Hertneck) played White. Kasparov beat Lobron and Wahls, and drew the other two players, for a 3-1 victory. (Damsky 2005, p. 247-49) Before the term "grandmaster" was in common usage or had an established meaning, Paul Morphy gave an arguably even more impressive exhibition. On April 26, 1859, at London's St. James Chess Club, Morphy played "five games simultaneously against a group of masters who could be described as among the top ten players of the day." Morphy defeated Jules de Rivere and Henry Bird, drew Samuel Boden and Johann Löwenthal, and lost only to Thomas Wilson Barnes. (Soltis 2002, p. 103)

In 1951, International Master Robert Wade gave a simultaneous exhibition against 30 Russian schoolboys, aged 14 and under. After seven hours of play, Wade had lost 20 games and drawn the remaining ten (16.7%). (Chernev 1974, p. 110)

See also

• Tasks and records in chess problems
• List of youngest grandmasters
• Chess libraries

References

• Chernev, Irving (1974), Wonders and Curiosities of Chess, New York: Dover Publications, ISBN 9780486230078
• Cload, Raymond; Keene (1991), Battles of Hastings, Oxford and New York: Pergamon Chess, ISBN 0-08-037791-2
• Damsky, Yakov (2005), The Batsford Book of Chess Records, London: Batsford, ISBN 0713489464
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1984), The Oxford Companion to Chess, London, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192175408
• Soltis, Andy (2002), Chess Lists Second Edition, Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland and Company, ISBN 0786412968
• Sunnucks, Anne (1970), The Encyclopaedia of Chess, New York: St. Martin's Press
• Tal, Mikhail (1976), The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, New York: RHM Press
• Winter, Edward (1996), Chess Explorations, London: Cadogan Books, ISBN 978-1857441710

External links

• Tim Krabbé's chess records page
• Free Open World and Local Records (see Games->Chess)
• Guinness Chess Records in Mexico City