Most games simultaneously. Grandmaster Susan Polgar 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 Wellington College, Berkshire, England on February 21, 2004. He won 294 games, drew 26 games, and lost one game (to Talal Shakerchi). It took him 16 hours and 51 minutes. He walked over 5 miles and played over 7,000 moves. The previous record was 310, achieved in 1996 in Sweden by Ulf Andersson. On December 24, 2010, there were 20,500 players in a multi-simul held in Ahmadabad, India.
Most games lost in a tournament. Nicholas MacLeod lost 31 games at the 6th American Chess Congress at New York 1889.
Most games won in a tournament. Gustav Neumann won all 34 of his games at Berlin 1865.
Most gold medals. Vasily Smyslov won 10 chess Olympiad gold medals, 5 European Championship gold medals, the World Championship gold medal, 4 USSR Team Championship gold medals, 2 Spartakiad gold medals, 1 All-Union Chess Olympiad gold medal, and 2 European Club Cup gold medals, for a total of 25 gold medals in chess.
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 insulting chess prize. In 1926, Aron Nimzovich defeated Paul Johner at Dresden and won the brilliancy prize. It consisted of 5,000 cigarettes. Nimzovich did not smoke and was almost allergic to tobacco smoke.
Most moves in a chess game. The longest chess game is 269 moves between Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic, Belgrade, 1989. The game ended in a draw. The game lasted over 20 hours.
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 Baguio City, Philippines. The game ended in a stalemate.
Most national championships. International Master Carlos Armando Juarez Flores (born in 1965) has won the national championship of Guatemala 24 times, from 1980 to 2012. From 1993 to 2007, he won 15 in a row.
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 Palm Beach Gardens, Florida on August 1-2, 2005. She won 1,112 games, drew 16 games, and lost 3 games in 16.5 hours. Her winning recod was 99.03%. The previous record was 1,102 opponents by Woman Grandmaster Anna-Maria Botsari at Kalavryta, Greece, on February 27-28, 2001. The simultaneous exhibition took 17 hours. The previous record was by Ye Jiangchuan, who played 1,004 opponents in 28 hours, 33 minutes, starting on December 31, 2001. He won 912 and drew 76.
Most participation in a chess tournament. Edgar McCormick (1914-1991) played in the U.S. Open 37 times, more than anyone else.
Most queens. In Szalanczy-Nguyen, Budapest 2009, 6 Queens were on the board at the same time.
Most rapid blindfold games. In 2011, FIDE master Marc Lang played 60 players in a rapid blindfold exhibition.
Most simultaneous games. On Feb 8-9, 2011, Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami played 604 players in 25 hours. He won 580, drew 16, and lost 8, for a 97.35% winning score.
Most state titles. Howard Ohman (1899-1963) won the Nebraska State Chess Championship 25 times.
Most titles. John Kalish, born in 1937, won the national championship of Okinawa 25 consecutive times, from 1959 to 1984. Ortwin Sarapu (1924-1000) won the New Zealand championship 20 times. Ingrid Larsen won the Danish women’s championship 17 times. Arkadijs Strazdinis was won the the New Britain, Connecticut chess club championship 30 times, from 1952 to 1994. From 1952 to 1975, he had won it 23 times in a row.
Most tournaments won. John Curdo (born in 1931) of Boston has won 865 chess tournaments in his career. Anatoly Karpov has won over 170 chess tournaments, more than any Grandmaster in history.
Most US chess championships. Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship 8 times. Gisela Gresser (1906-2000) won the women’s U.S. Chess Championship 9 times.
Most valuable chess set. The world’s most valuable chess set in the world is the Faberge chess set, owned by Dr. George Dean.
Most voluminous chess book. In 2001, Linder wrote Kings of the Chess World. It is 972 pages.
Most wins against world champions. Paul Keres defeated 9 world chess champions in his career.
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 have played chess on the Internet. It is estimated that there are 45 million chess players in the United States. There are 7.5 million FIDE registered chess players in over 160 countries.
Oldest candidate. Vasily Smyslov played in the Candidates Final match at the age of 63 years. He lost to Kasparov, but remained No. 3 in the world.
Oldest chess author. David Lawson (1886-1980) wrote Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess at the age of 89.
Oldest chess club still in existence. Zurich Chess Club, founded in 1809.
Oldest chess player. 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. Yuri Averbakh, born in 1922, is the oldest grandmaster in the world. Enrico Paoli (1908-2005) received an honorary Grandmaster title at the age of 88. He was still playing chess at the age of 97. Vassily Smyslov won the Staunton memorial at Groningen at the age of 75. Jaanis Klovans was 60 when he finally earned his grandmaster title.
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. In 1992, A. Grachev became a Sooviet master for the first time at the age of 83.
Oldest movie with a chess scene. In 1903, R.W. Paul (Paul’s Animatograph Works of England) made a silent movie called A Chess Dispute. It featured two men playing chess, then getting into a fight over a disputed move.
Oldest national champion. In 1948, Edith Price won the British Ladies’ Championship at the age of 76. She had previously won in 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1928.
Oldest printed chess book. The oldest printed book with chess content in Summa Collationum by John of Walyes in 1470.
Oldest state champion. Harlow Daly (1883-1979) won the chess championship of Maine at the age of 85. In 1961, Robert Scrivener won the chess championship of Mississippi at the age of 80.
Oldest world champion. William Steinitz was 58 years, 10 days when he lost his title to Emanuel Lasker on May 26, 1894.
Perfect scores. Gustav Neumann went 34-0 at Berlin in 1865. Henry Atkins went 15-0 at Amsterdam in 1899. Emanuel Lasker went 13-0 at new York in 1893. Capablanca went 13-0 at new York in 1913. Alekhine went 11-0 in the Moscow Championship in 1919-1920. Bobby Fischer went 11-0 in the US Championship in 1963-64.
Richest chess master. Joop J. van Oosterom of the Netherlands is a billionaire. He was the 19th World Correspondence Chess Champion.
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 Minneapolis. It was the richest open chess tournament in the history of chess, with a $500,000 prize fund. 1st place was $50,000, won by GM Zviad Izonia. There were 1,514 players in the tournament.
Shortest chess career. Carlos Torre played international chess for less than one year, in 1925. He then gave up the game. Rudolf Charousek only played in 4 international tournaments, then had to give up chess because of his tuberculosis. He died at the age of 27. Miss Fatima played for 2 years, winning the British Women’s Chess Championship in 1933. She then left England and returned to India, never to be heard of again.
Shortest game. The shortest game, 1.g4 e6 2.f4?? Qh4 mate, may have been played between Lance Darling and Richard Wood in Seattle in 1983. The shortest decisive game in master play was Z. Dordevic – M.Kovacevic, Bela Crkva 1984. It last 3 moves (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.e3 Qa5+). The shortest game in world championship play is 9 moves in the 21st game of the Botvinnik-Petrosian match in Moscow in 1963.
Shortest world championship win. On May 31, 2012, Vishy Anand defeated Boris Gelfand in 17 moves.
Slowest chess move. In London 1851, Elijah Williams took 2 hours and 30 minutes over one move. In 1980, International Master Francisco Trois took 2 hours and 20 minutes for his 7th move against Luis Santos at Vigo, Spain. He only had two possible moves to consider with his knight.
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 strongest chess computer is Houdini 3, with a rating over 3300, followed by Rybka.
Strongest chess tournament. In 2011, the Tal Memorial in Moscow was a Category 22 tournament, with an average rating of 2776, making it the strongest tournament ever. Four players were rated 2800 or more. The 1996 Las Palmas tournament was a Category 21 tournament with the average rating of 2756. The event took place from December 9 through December 21, 1996. The six best players in the world participated in a double round event. The event was won by Kasparov (2785), followed by Anand (2735), Kramnik (2765), Topalov (2750), Karpov (2775), and Ivanchuk (2730). Five of the six have been world champions. In Vienna 1882 and Linares 1993, 9 of the top 10 players in the world participated. Both tournaments had the top 8 players in the world, and the 10 best player in the world, only missing the 9th ranked player in the world.
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.
Worst score. In 1901, at the Monte Carlo chess tournament, Colonel C. Moreau lost all 26 games. In 1889, Nicholas MacLeod lost 31 games in the 6th American Chess Congress in New York. John Schulten played a series of matches with Lionel Kieseritsky, winning 37, drawing 10, and losing 107 games.
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 chess author. Murray Chandler (1960- ) wrote A White Pawn In Europe at the age of 15.
Youngest country champion. Niaz Murshed won the championship of Bangladesh at the age of 12 years and 309 days. Henrique Mecking won the championship of Brazil at the age of 13. In 2000, Humpy Koneru won the British Ladies’ Championship at the age of 13 years and 4 months. Nigel Short tied for 1st in the British championship at the age of 14. Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Championship at the age of 14.
Youngest expert. On April 16, 2011, Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) became the youngest chess expert (rated over 2000) in the United States Chess Federation (USCF) at the age of 8 years and 7 days.
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 August 20, 2002 he fulfilled his 3rd and final GM norm at the international tournament in Sudak. The youngest American grandmaster is Hikaru Nakamura, who earned the title at the age of 15 years, 2 months. The youngest female grandmaster is Hou Yifan, who became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 6 months. Currently, the world’s youngest GM is Wei Yi, who became a GM at the age of 13 after getting his third GM norm at the 2013 Reykjavik Open.
Youngest international master. In 2001, Hikaru Nakamura became America’s youngest International Master at the age of 13.
Youngest national champion. Arturo Pomar won the championship of the Balearic Islands at the age of 11.
Youngest national junior champion. Bobby Fischer was the youngest national junior champion at the age of 13.
Youngest master. On March 23, 2013, Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, born April 9, 2003, became the youngest master at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 13 days. His USCF rating was 2207 after playing in the Midwest Open Team Chess Festival in Dayton, Ohio. Etienne Bacrot, born in 1983, became the youngest FIDE master at the age of 10.
Youngest Olympiad player. In 1986, Heidi Cueller played for the women’s Guatemala chess team in the chess Olympiad at Dubai. She was 10 years old. In 1970, 11 year old Schermann of the Virgin Islands played at Siegen. 12 year old Kiem Tjing-Tjin-Joe of Surinam played in the 1982 chess olympiad.
Youngest Olympiad team. In 2002, the average age of the Azerbaijan team at Bled was 16 years, 5 months.
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 of a published game. Jose Capablanca had one of his games published when he was 4 years old.
Youngest player to beat a master. In 2011, Awonder Liang, age 8, beat an International Master. In 2012, Joaquin Perkins (1598), age 8, beat Pablo Pena (2220), In 1993, Irina Krush, age 9, beat a chess master rated 2257.
Youngest player to beat an International Master. On August 5, 2011, at the age of 8 years and 118 days, Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) became the youngest player to beat an International Master (IM). He defeated IM Daniel Fernandez (USCF rating of 2448, FIDE rating of 201) at the US Open in Orlando, Florida.
Youngest player to beat a grandmaster. In 1999, David Howell, age 8, became the youngest player to beat a grandmaster (GM) . He defeated GM John Nunn in London. In 2009, Hetul Shah, age 9, beat GM Nurlan Ibrayev in a tournament game in India. On July 29, 2012, Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) became the youngest person ever to defeat a GM in a standard time limit tournament game. He defeated GM Larry Kaufman at the Washington International in Rockville, MD. Awonder was 9 years, 111 days old at the time.
Youngest state champion. In August, 1948, Charles “Kit” Crittenden of Raleigh, NC, won the North Carolina chess state championship at the age of 14 (Chess Review, September, 1948, page 5, says that Kit was 13 at the time – an error).
Youngest world chess champion. Ruslan Ponomariov, born October 11, 1983, became the youngest world chess champion on January 23, 2002 at the age of 18 years, 104 days. Maya Chiburdanidze, born January 17, 1961, became the youngest women’s world chess champion in 1978 at the age of 17.
– Bill Wall

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