World Chess Records by Bill Wall (
Best match player.
William Steinitz
played 27 chess matches from 1862 to 1896, and won 25 of the 27. He won 160 games, lost 70, and drew 57.
Best world championship record. Vera Menchik-Stevenson
(1906-1944) was World Women’s Chess Champion from 1927 to 1944. She defended her title 6 times. In world championship play, she won 78 games,
drew 4 games, and only lost once.
Briefest world champion. Mikhail
Tal was the friefest world
champion. He was world chess champion
for 1 year and 5 days.
Fewest draws in a world championship. There was only
one draw in the 1889 World Championship match between Steinitz
and Chigorin.
It was the last game.
Greatest Comeback. Steinitz overcame a 1-4 deficit against Zukertort to win
the world championship in 1886
Greatest number of checks. In
Wegner - Johnson, Gausdal 1991, there were 141 checks
in the game. White had 100 checks and
Black had 41 checks. The game lasted 200
moves.
Highest USCF Correspondence rating. In 1993, John Penquite
had a USCF correspondence rating of 2933 after 58 straight wins with no losses
or draws.
Highest Elo rating. In
the July 1999 and the January 2000 FIDE rating list, Garry Kasparov had an Elo rating of 2851.
In 1996, Judit Polgar
had an Elo rating of 2675, the highest for any woman.
Highest per capita chess population.
Highest performance rating. Bobby Fischer
had the highest performace rating of 3080 when he
defeated Bent Larsen by the score of 6-0.
In 1989, Sofia Polgar had a peformance rating of over 2900 when she scored 8.5 out of 9
in an international tournament in
Highest USCF rating. In 1972, Bobby
Fischer’s USCF rating was 2825.
Largest age discrepancy. The largest
age discrepancy in world championship matches is 32 years when Lasker,a ge
26, played Steinitz, age 58. In 1996, Smyslov,
age 75, played Bacrot, age 13, for an age difference
of 62 years.
Largest chess library. The largest public library for chess is the
J.G. White Collection at the Cleveland Public Library. It contains over 32,000 chess books and over
6,000 volumes of bound periodicals. The
largest private library for chess is owned by Grandmaster Lothar
Schmid. He has
over 20,000 chess books.
Largest chess set collection. Floyd Sarisohn is the owner of the largest chess set collection
in the world. He owns over 670 chess
sets and has been collecting for over 40 years.
Largest chess tournament. In 1935-36,
the USSR Trade Unions chess championship was held. It had 700,000 entrants, the largest of any
chess tournament. Every year the
Largest Olympiad. The 35th Chess
Olympiad in Bled in 2002 had 136 men’s teams and 92 women’s teams, the large
Olympiad ever.
Latest castling. In Neshewat - Garrison,
Longest chess career. Walter Ivans (1870-1968) of
Longest chess problem. The longest solution to a composed chess
problem requires 292 moves.
Longest game without a capture. In 1996, Filipowicz-Smederevac, Polanica Zdroj played 70 moves without a capture. The game was drawn because fo the 50-move rule.
Longest match. The longest
world championship match was the 1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov
match. It
lasted 48 games and 159 days.
Longest running chess column. Hermann Helms (1870-1963) wrote a chess
column for 62 years, from 1893 to 1955, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. George
Kolranowski wrote a chess column for 52 years, totalling over 19,000 chess columns.
Longest running chess match. The longest
running annual match in chess is the Cambridge-Oxford match. The traditional series began in 1873. There has been 124
matches from 1873 to 2006. Cambride is ahead in the series, 74 to 60.
Longest running correspondence chess rivalry. Reinhart
Straszacker and Hendrick
van Huyssteen, both of
Longest running state championship.
Longest running tournament. As of 2005-6,
Longest series of checks. In 1995 in the
Longest tournament. In 1889 in
Longest world champion. Emanuel Lasker was world chess champion for 26 years and 337 days.
Losses on time. In 1969, Fritz
Saemisch lost all 13 games on time at
Most active chess player in one year. In 1995,
Robert Smeltzer of
Most blindfold games played consecutively. In December
1960, George Koltanowski played 56 opponents
blindfold consecutively (not simultaneously) in San Franciso. He won 50 and drew 6. The exhibtion
lasted 9 hours.
Most blindfold games played simultaneously. In October 1960,
Janos Flesch of
Most chess books written. Raymond Keene
has authored over 100 books on chess, more than any other author. Other chess authors of over 100 chess books
include Fred Reinfeld, Eric Schiler,
and Eduard Gufeld. Reinfeld wrote 102
chess books and 260 books in total from other subjects.
Most correspondence games. In 1988, Stan Vaughan played 1,124
correspondence games at once. The prior
record was 1,001. In 1948, Robert Whller of
Most drawing Grandmaster. Ulf Andersson of
Most games simultaneosly. Grandmaster
Susan Polar player 326 opponents simultaneously at a shopping mall in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida on July, 2005.
She won 309, drew 14, and lost 3.
Her winning percentage was 96.93%.
The previous record was 321.
International Master Andrew Martin played 321 opponents simultaneously
at
Most Grandmasters in one tournament. In 1989, the
Belgrade Grandmaster’s Association had 98 grandmasters participating, the most
grandmasters in one tournament.
Most games simultaneously, winning all games. In 1966, Jude
Acers played 114 opponents at the Louisiana State Fair, and won all 114 games.
Most moves in a chess game. The longest
chess game is 269 moves between Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic,
Most moves in a chess game with a winner. The
longest chess game with a winner is 193 moves when Yedael
Stepak beat Yaakov Mashian in the Israel Championship seminfinals in 1980.
It is also the longest game in time, lasting 24 hours and 30 minutes.
Most moves in a world championship chess game. The longest
world championship game is 124 moves in the 5th game of the 1978 Korchnoi-karpov match in
Most opponents in consecutive games of chess. The
record for the most consecutive games played with different opponents is 1,131
by Grandmaster Susan Polgar in
Most participation in a chess tournament. Edgar McCormick (1914-1991) played in the
U.S. Open 37 times, more than anyone else.
Most state titles. Howard Ohman
(1899-1963) won the Nebraska State Chess Champions 25 times.
Most titles. John Kalish,
born in 1937, won the national championship of
Most tournaments won. Anatoly Karpov
has won over 160 chess tournaments, more than anyone else in history.
Most
Most valuable chess set. The world’s
most valuabe chess set in the world is the Faberge
chess set, owned by Dr. George Dean.
Most world championship career wins. Lasker had 52 career wins in world championship play.
Most world championship games. Botvinnik played 157 world championship games. He won 36, lost 39, and drew 82.
Most wins in a match. In 1929, Alekhine had 11 wins in his world championship match with Bogoljubow.
Number of chess players. The World
Chess Federation (FIDE) estimates there are over 700 million chess players in
the world. It is estimated that there
are over 200 million people who ahve played chess on
the Internet. It is estimated that there
are 45 million chess players in the
Oldest chess player. Kirk Holland
of Chicago is still playing in rated chess tournaments at the age of 94. Jane Lady Carew
(1797-1901) was a chess player who lived to 104. Jared Moore (1893-1995) was a chess player
who lived to the age of 101. He was the
oldest player to play correspondence chess.
He was active in postal chess until he was 100 years old. In 1914, Joseph Henry Blackburne
tied for 1st in the British Championship.
In 1988, Smyslov was 67 when he played in the
55th USSR Championship.
Oldest grandmaster. Arthur Dake (1910-2000) was the oldest competitive chess
grandmaster. He was still playing in
rated chess tournaments at the age of 89.
Andor Lilienthal,
born in 1911, is the oldest grandmaster in the world. Enrico Paoli
(1908-2005) received an honory Grandmaster title at
the age of 88. He was still playing
chess at the age of 97. Vassily Smyslov won the
Oldest master. Oscar Shapiro
(1910-2000) became a chess master at the age of 74. In 1991, Bernard Friend became a chess master
for the first time at the age of 71. Gyorgy Negyesy (1893-1992) was a
Hungarian master who died just short of his 99th birthday. He was the longest-lived master.
Oldest movie with a chess scene. In 1903, R.W.
Paul (Paul’s Animatograph Works of
Oldest national champion. In 1948, Edith
Price won the British Ladies’ Championship at the age of 76.
Oldest state champion. Harlow Daly (1883-1979) won the chess
championship of
Oldest world champion. William Steinitz
was 58 years, 10 days when he lost his title to Emanuel Lasker
on
Perfect scores. Gustav Neumann
went 34-0 at
Richest chess master. Joop J. van Oosterom
of the
Richest chess match. In 1992, Fischer won $3,650,000
for defeating Spassky, who took home $1.35 million in their world
championship match. In 1990, Kasparov
won $1.7 million for defeating Karpov, who took home
$1.3 million in their world championship match.
Richest chess tournament. In May 2005, the HB Global Chess Challenge
was held in
Shortest chess career. Carlos Torre played international chess for less than one year, in
1925. He then gave up the game.
Shortest game. The shortest
decisive game in tournament play was Dordevic-Kovacevic,
Bela Crkva 1984. It last 3 moves (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.e3
Qa5+).
Shortest world championship win. In 1872, Steinitz defeated Zukertort in 19
moves.
Slowest chess move. In
Streaks. Bill Martz played 104 consecutive USCF-rated
games without a loss. From 1873 to 1882,
Steinitz won 25 games in a row without a loss or a
draw. He was undefeated for 9 years and 283 days. Capablanca went
undefeated for 8 years and 40 days, from 1916 to 1924. In that time he played 63 games, winning 40 games and
drawing 23 games. Bobby Fischer won 20
straight games from 1970 to 1971 at the very top level of grandmaster chess.
Strongest chess computer. The Hydra
supercomputer is the strongest chess computer in the world. It has en estimated Elo
rating of 3000.
Strongest chess tournament. The 1996
Strongest Swiss System tournament. In 1989, the Belgrade Grandmaster’s Association had
98 grandmasters participating, making it the strongest Swiss System tournament
of all time.
Worse score. In 1901, at
the
Youngest American champion. Bobby Fischer
was the youngest American chess champion ever, at the age of 14.
Youngest arbiter. The youngest
international arbiter of a major tournament was Sophia Gorman (Rohde) who, at
age 19, was an arbiter at the FIDE World Candidates tournament.
Youngest Candidate for the World Championship. Bobby Fischer
was the youngest Candidate for the World Chess Championship at the age of 15.
Youngest country champion. Niaz Murshed won the championship
of
Youngest gold medallist. Judit Polgar won a gold medal in the 1988 Saloniki
chess olympiad at the age of
11. In 2000, Alexander Grischuk won a gold medal at the age of 17 in the Istanbul
Olympiad. In 1992, Vladimir Kramnik won a gold medal at the age of 17 in Manila Olympiad.
Youngest grandmaster. Sergey Karjakin, born in 1990, became a grandmaster at the age of
12 years, 7 months. On
Youngest international master. In 2001, Hikaru Nakamura became
Youngest national champion. Arturo Pomar won the championship of the
Youngest national junior champion. Bobby Fischer was the youngest national
junior champion at the age of 13.
Youngest master. Etienne Bacrot, born in 1983, became the youngest FIDE master a the age of 10. In
1998, Hikaru Nakamura became a USCF master at the age
of 10 years and 79 days.
Youngest Olympiad player. In 1986, Heidi
Cueller played for the women’s
Youngest player in a national championship. In 1995, Irina Krush played in the U.S.
Women’s Championship at the age of 11.
In 1976,Nigel Short qualified to play in the
British Championship at the age of 11.
In 1995, Luke McShane played in the British
Championship at the age of 11.
Youngest player to beat a master. In 1993, at
the age of 9, Irina Krush
beat a chess master rated 2257, the youngest ever to beat a master in rated
play.
Youngest player to beat a grandmaster. In 1999, David
Howell, age 8, became
the youngest player to beat a
grandmaster . He defeated GM John Nunn
in
Youngest state champion. In 1948, Kit
Crittenden won the
Youngest world chess champion. Ruslan Ponomariov, born