The world records in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

listed here are achieved in organized

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, match, or

simultaneous exhibition A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition (commonly chess or Go) in which one player (typically of high rank, such as a grandmaster or dan-level player) plays multiple games at a time with a number of other pl ...

play.

Game length records

Longest game

The longest tournament chess game (in terms of moves) ever to be played was Nikolić–Arsović,

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

1989, which lasted for 269 moves and took 20 hours and 15 minutes to complete a drawn game. At the time this game was played,

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

had modified the

fifty-move rule The fifty-move rule in chess states that a player can claim a draw if no has been made and no pawn has been moved in the last fifty moves (for this purpose a "move" consists of a player completing a turn followed by the opponent completing a tur ...

to allow 100 moves to be played without a piece being captured in a rook and bishop versus rook endgame, the situation in Nikolić versus Arsović. FIDE has since rescinded that modification to the rule. The longest decisive tournament game is Danin– Azarov,

Turnov Turnov (; german: Turnau) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. It is a traditional centre for gemstone polishing, glass craftsmanship and arts. The town centre is well preserv ...

2016, which Danin won in 239 moves. In the 9th round of THT Extraliga (highest Czech team league), Danin needed to win his game to make the match end in a 4:4 draw. Although he managed to do so, his team (TŽ Třinec) was relegated from the highest league in the end. The second-longest decisive tournament game is Fressinet– Kosteniuk,

Villandry Villandry () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. The Château de Villandry is located there. Population See also *Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department The following is a list of the 272 communes of the Ind ...

2007, which Kosteniuk won in 237 moves. The last 116 moves were a rook and bishop versus rook ending, as in Nikolić – Arsović. Fressinet could have claimed a draw under the fifty-move rule, but did not do so since neither player was keeping count, it being a

rapid chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

game. Earlier in the tournament, Korchnoi had successfully invoked the rule to claim a draw against Fressinet; the arbiters overruled Fressinet's argument that Korchnoi could not do so without keeping score. Fressinet, apparently wanting to be consistent, did not try to claim a draw against Kosteniuk in the same situation. The longest game played in a

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

is the 6th game of the 2021 World Chess Championship between

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

and

Ian Nepomniachtchi Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi ( rus, Ян Алекса́ндрович Непо́мнящий, r=Yan Aleksandrovich Nepomnyashchiy, p=ˈjan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈpomnʲɪɕːɪj, a=Ru-Ian Alexandrovich Nepomnyashchij.ogg; born 14 J ...

, which Carlsen won in 136 moves by resignation. The game lasted for 8 hours, 15 minutes and 40 seconds.

Shortest game

Shortest decisive game

The fewest moves required to deliver checkmate in chess is two, in what is known as

Fool's mate In chess, the fool's mate is the checkmate delivered after the fewest possible moves from the game's starting position. It arises from the following moves, or similar: :1. f3 e6 :2. g4 Qh4# The fool's mate can be achieved only by Black, givin ...

(1.g4 e5 2.f3 Qh4 and variants thereof). This has been known to occur in amateur play.

Chessgames.com Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...

gives a game L. Darling–R. Wood, 1983, that was published on

April Fool's Day April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which ma ...

in ''Northwest Chess'' magazine (1.g4 e6 2.f4?? Qh4#). Bill Wall lists, in addition to Darling–Wood, three other games that ended with Black checkmating on the second move. In a tournament game at

odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

of , White delivered

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

on move 2: W. Cooke–"R____g", Cape Town Chess Club handicap tournament 1908 (remove Black's f-pawn) 1.e4 g5?? 2.Qh5#. The same game had previously been played in Leeky–Mason, Dublin 1867. If one counts forfeited games as a loss in zero moves, then there have been many such forfeits, the most notable examples being Game 2 of the 1972 world championship match between

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky ( rus, Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский, Borís Vasíl'yevich Spásskiy; born January 30, 1937) is a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 ...

and

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

, which Fischer defaulted, and Game 5 of the 2006 world championship match between

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...

and

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

, which Kramnik defaulted. Under recently instituted

rules, a player who is late for the beginning of a round loses the game, as does a player who has a forbidden electronic device (by default any device). The former rule was used at the 2009 Chinese Championship to forfeit

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

for arriving five seconds late for the beginning of a round. The latter rule was used to forfeit Aleksander Delchev against

Stuart Conquest Stuart C. Conquest (born 1 March 1967 in Ilford, England) is an English chess Grandmaster, commentator and tournament director. Chess career In 1981, at the age of 14, he won the World Youth Chess Championship in the under-16 category. Conquest ...

after the move 1.d4 in the 2009 European Team Championship. The German grandmaster

Robert Hübner Robert Hübner (born November 6, 1948) is a German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and papyrologist. He was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. Chess career At eighteen, he was joint winner of the West German Chess ...

also lost a game without playing any moves. In a World Student Team Championship game played in Graz in 1972, Hübner played one move and offered a draw to

Kenneth Rogoff Kenneth Saul Rogoff (born March 22, 1953) is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard University. Early life Rogoff grew up in Rochester, New York. ...

, who accepted. However, the arbiters insisted that some moves be played, so the players played the following ridiculous game: 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 arbiters ruled that both players must apologize and play an actual game at 7 p.m. Rogoff appeared and apologized; Hübner did neither. Hübner's clock was started, and after an hour Rogoff was declared the winner. Wang Chen and

Lu Shanglei Lu Shanglei (; born 10 July 1995) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and 2014 World Junior Chess Champion. Career In 2010, Lu played on the Chinese team (alongside Yu Yangyi, Wang Chen, and Wang Jue) that won the 5th Vladimir Dvorkovich Cup, a j ...

both lost a game in which they had played no moves. They agreed to a draw without play at the 2009 Zhejiang Lishui Xingqiu Cup International Open Chess Tournament held in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, China. The chief arbiter declared both players to have lost the game. More rarely, a player might decide to protest by resigning a game rather than forfeiting. A game between Fischer and

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Panno was the first top world chess player born in South America. Panno won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future stron ...

, played at the

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the ...

1970, went: 1.c4 Black 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 In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

. 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. (At the time, an absence of sixty minutes resulted in a forfeit.) The shortest decisive tournament game that was decided because of the position on the board (i.e. not because of a forfeit or protest) is Z. Đorđević–M. Kovačević, Bela Crkva 1984. It lasted 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 Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

1998. (In a number of other games, White has played on after 3...Qa5+, occasionally drawing or even winning in this line.) The shortest game ever lost by a grandmaster because of the position on the board was by future world champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

, who resigned on move 6 against Alonso Zapata in 1988 (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Bf5?? 6.Qe2 winning a piece, since 6...Qe7 is answered by 7.Nd5 Qe6 8.Nxc7+).

Shortest draw

A game may be drawn by mutual agreement in any number of moves. Traditionally, it has been common for players to agree to a "

grandmaster draw A game of chess can end in a draw by agreement. A player may offer a draw at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. In some competitions, draws by agreement are restricted; for example draw offers may be subject to the d ...

" after playing about 10–15 moves of known opening theory and making no serious effort to win. This is usually done to preserve energy in a tournament, after a devastating loss in the previous round of the tournament, or in the final round when no prize money is at stake. There has been some debate over the ethics of the practice, and recently there has been a trend away from such games, with many tournaments adopting measures to discourage short draws. If the tournament officials (unlike those at Graz and Lishui) do not object, a game may even be agreed drawn without a single move being played. According to

ChessGames.com Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...

, in the 1968

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

–

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

tournament Dragoljub Janosevic and

Efim Geller Efim Petrovich Geller (russian: Ефим Петрович Геллер, uk, Юхим Петрович Геллер; 8 March 1925 – 17 November 1998) was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Champi ...

agreed to a draw without playing any moves.

Tony Miles Anthony John Miles (23 April 1955 – 12 November 2001) was an English chess player and the first Englishman to earn the Grandmaster title. Early and personal life Miles was an only child, born 23 April 1955 in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birming ...

and Stewart Reuben did the same thing in the last round of the

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

1975 tournament, "with the blessing of the controller", in order to assure themselves of first and second places respectively.

Shortest World Championship game

As mentioned above, Fischer (in 1972) and Kramnik (in 2006) each forfeited a world championship game without playing any moves. Other than those unplayed games, the shortest game in a world championship was the 21st match game in the

World Chess Championship 1963 At the World Chess Championship 1963, Tigran Petrosian narrowly qualified to challenge Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Chess Championship, and then won the match to become the ninth World Chess Champion. The cycle is particularly remembered for ...

between

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinnik ...

and

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...

. The players agreed to a draw after the 10th move by White (Petrosian). The shortest decisive, non-forfeited world championship game occurred between

and

Boris Gelfand Boris Gelfand ( he, בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; be, Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, Barys Abramavich Hel'fand; russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) ...

in game 8 of the

World Chess Championship 2012 The World Chess Championship 2012 was a chess match between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the 2011 Candidates Tournament. After sixteen games, including four rapid games, Anand r ...

. Gelfand

resigned Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...

after Anand's 17th move, 17.Qf2.

Shortest stalemate

The shortest known

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior ...

, composed by

Sam Loyd Samuel Loyd (January 30, 1841 – April 10, 1911), was an American chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematics, recreational mathematician. Loyd was born in Philadelphia but raised in New York City. As a chess com ...

, involves the sequence 1.e3 a5 2.Qh5 Ra6 3.Qxa5 h5 4.Qxc7 Rah6 5.h4 f6 6.Qxd7+ Kf7 7.Qxb7 Qd3 8.Qxb8 Qh7 9.Qxc8 Kg6 10.Qe6 (''diagram''). The shortest stalemate with all of the pieces on the board, composed by Charles H Wheeler, occurs after 1.d4 d6 2.Qd2 e5 3.a4 e4 4.Qf4 f5 5.h3 Be7 6.Qh2 Be6 7.Ra3 c5 8.Rg3 Qa5+ 9.Nd2 Bh4 10.f3 Bb3 11.d5 e3 12.c4 f4 (minor variations are possible). These games are nonsensical from the point of view of chess strategy, but both have occasionally been played in tournaments as a joke, as part of a prearranged draw. The shortest known route to a position where both players are stalemated, discovered by Enzo Minerva and published in the Italian newspaper ''

l'Unità ''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the ...

'' on August 14, 2007, is 1.c4 d5 2.Qb3 Bh3 3.gxh3 f5 4.Qxb7 Kf7 5.Qxa7 Kg6 6.f3 c5 7.Qxe7 Rxa2 8.Kf2 Rxb2 9.Qxg7+ Kh5 10.Qxg8 Rxb1 11.Rxb1 Kh4 12.Qxh8 h5 13.Qh6 Bxh6 14.Rxb8 Be3+ 15.dxe3 Qxb8 16.Kg2 Qf4 17.exf4 d4 18.Be3 dxe3. The shortest genuine stalemate in a serious game was played in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

1982, when the Italian master Mario Sibilio forced a stalemate on move 27 against grandmaster

Sergio Mariotti Sergio Mariotti (born 10 August 1946) is an Italian chess player. He is the first Italian to achieve the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in 1974. Career Born in Florence, he became the Italian junior champion in 1965 at Turin and ...

Fewest moves played in a tournament

In the Premier I group at the 2003 Capablanca Memorial tournament,

Péter Székely Péter Székely (1955–2003) was a Hungarian chess Grandmaster. In the 2003 Capablanca Memorial The Capablanca Memorial is a chess tournament that has been held annually in Cuba since 1962 in honor of José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera. At th ...

took just 130 moves (an average of 10 moves per game) to draw all 13 of his games.

Game play records

Latest first capture

In Rogoff– Williams,

World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Ritso ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

1969, the first capture (94.bxc5) occurred on White's 94th move. Filipowicz–Smederevac, Polanica Zdroj 1966, was drawn in 70 moves under the

, without any piece or pawn having been captured.

Latest first capture in a decisive game

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

, resigned. In the decisive game Yates– Znosko-Borovsky,

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

1927, the first capture occurred on Black's 40th move. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 Na5 9.Bc2 c5 10.d4 Qc7 11.h3 0-0 12.Nbd2 Bd7 13.Nf1 Nc6 14.d5 Nd8 15.g4 Ne8 16.Ng3 g6 17.Kh2 Ng7 18.Rg1 f6 19.Be3 Nf7 20.Rg2 Kh8 21.Qd2 Qc8 22.Rh1 Rg8 23.Rhg1 a5 24.Kh1 b4 25.c4 a4 26.Bd3 Qa6 27.Qe2 Raf8 28.Nd2 Qc8 29.f3 Ne8 30.Ndf1 Kg7 31.Bc1 h6 32.Ne3 Kh7 33.Rh2 Nh8 34.h4 Rf7 35.Nd1 Bf8 36.Nf2 Bg7 37.f4 Bf8 38.Qf3 Qd8 39.Nh3 Qe7 40.g5 (''diagram'') Bxh3 41.f5 hxg5 42.hxg5 Rgg7 43.Rxh3+ Kg8 44.fxg6 Rxg6 45.Nf5 Qd7 46.Rg2 fxg5 47.Rgh2 Bg7 48.Rxh8+ Bxh8 49.Qh5 Rff6 50.Qxh8+ Kf7 51.Rh7+ Ng7 52.Rxg7+ Rxg7 53.Qxg7+

Latest castling

The latest castling occurred on Black's 48th move in Neshewat-Garrison, Michigan 1994 and Somogyi-Black, New York 2002.

Theoretical novelties

The book ''1000 TN!! The Best Theoretical Novelties'' contains the games with the ten highest-ranked (TNs) that appeared in each of Volumes 11 through 110 of

Chess Informant Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a publishing company from Belgrade (Serbia, former Yugoslavia) that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Op ...

. The earliest such novelty occurred on White's fourth move in

Karpov Karpov (russian: Ка́рпов) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aleksandr Karpov, Soviet ace, double Hero of the Soviet Union * Anatoly Karpov (born 1951), Russian chess grandmaster, Undisputed World Chess Champion 1975� ...

– Miles, Bugojno 1978, namely 1.c4 b6 2.d4 e6 3.d5 Qh4 4.Nc3 The latest occurred on Black's 34th move (34...Kd5!) in Shulman–

Marin Marin (French) or Marín (Spanish "sailor") may refer to: People * Marin (name), including a list of persons with the given name or surname * MaRin, in-game name of professional South Korean ''League of Legends'' player Jang Gyeong-hwan (born 19 ...

, Reykjavík Open 2009. The only game to receive a perfect rating from ''Chess Informants panel of judges was Miles– Belyavsky, Tilburg 1986, which featured the novelty 18.f4 It received 90 points, 10 out of a possible 10 from each of the 9 judges.

National records

Most grandmasters

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has continued to hold the record for greatest number of grandmasters. In the November 2018 rating list, 229 of the 1645 grandmasters were from Russia.

Greatest concentration of resident grandmasters

In 2005,

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, with eight grandmasters ( Jón L. Árnason,

Jóhann Hjartarson Jóhann Hjartarson (born 8 February 1963) is an Icelandic chess grandmaster and lawyer. He is a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion. Since 1998, Johann has been the general counsel and secretary of the Ice ...

Margeir Pétursson Margeir Pétursson (born 15 February 1960) is an Icelandic banker and chess grandmaster. He founded MP Bank in 1999, and has owned Bank Lviv since 2006. He was Icelandic Chess Champion in 1986 and 1987, and Nordic Chess Champion in 1987. C ...

Friðrik Ólafsson Friðrik Ólafsson (born 26 January 1935) is an Icelandic chess grandmaster. He was president of FIDE from 1978 to 1982. He is a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion. Chess career Friðrik was born in Reykja ...

, Thröstur Thórhallsson, Helgi Grétarsson, Hannes Stefánsson, and

) had a higher percentage of resident grandmasters per capita than any other city worldwide; the city of 114,000 had, therefore, one grandmaster per 14,000 residents.

Most rated players

As of November 2018, Germany has the highest number of active FIDE-rated players with 11,813. Russia, by comparison, has 11,313.

Strongest team

The USSR team that participated in the 13th Olympiad (Munich 1958) had been claimed as the strongest team ever. It was composed of four world champions (

Vasily Smyslov Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to ...

Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player ...

and

), one world championship challenger (

David Bronstein David Ionovich Bronstein (russian: Дави́д Ио́нович Бронште́йн; February 19, 1924 – December 5, 2006) was a Soviet and Ukrainian chess player. Awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 1950, he narr ...

) and

Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...

, four times runner-up in the

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...

Tournament records

Perfect tournament scores

In top-class chess it is rare for a player to complete a tournament or match with a 100 percent score. Some notable examples are: *

Gustav Neumann Gustav Richard Ludwig Neumann (15 December 1838 – 16 February 1881) was a German chess master. Neumann was born in Gleiwitz in the Prussian Province of Silesia. In matches he lost to Louis Paulsen (+3 –5 =3) at Leipzig 1864, and defeate ...

at Berlin in 1865 (34/34) * William Pollock at Belfast 1886 (8/8) *

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champ ...

at New York in 1893 (13/13) * Henry Atkins at Amsterdam 1899 (15/15) *

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanc ...

at New York in 1913 (13/13, including one default) *

Dawid Janowski Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (25 May 1868 – 15 January 1927; often spelled ''David'') was a Polish-born French chess player. The Janowski variations of the Old Indian Defense and of the Queen's Gambit Declined are named after him. Biography B ...

at Paris in 1914 (9/9) *

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

at Moscow in 1919–20 (11/11) *

Boris Kostić Borislav Kostić (24 February 1887 – 3 November 1963) was a Yugoslav chess grandmaster and a popularizer of the game. Life and chess Borislav Kostic was born in Vršac, Kingdom of Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary. His father Di ...

at Hastings 1921–22 (7/7) *

at the US Championship of 1963/64 (11/11) *

Alexander Beliavsky Alexander Genrikhovich Beliavsky (, ua, Олександр Генріхович Бєлявський, sl, Aleksander Henrikovič Beljavski; also romanized ''Belyavsky''; born December 17, 1953) is a Soviet, Ukrainian and Slovenian chess pl ...

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

in 1978 (13/13) *

Sandro Mareco Sandro Fabio Mareco (born 13 May 1987) is an Argentine chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010. Mareco competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011 (losing to Ferenc Berkes in the first round), 2013 (losing to David Na ...

at Montevideo in 2017 (9/9)

William Lombardy William James Joseph Lombardy (December 4, 1937 – October 13, 2017) was an American chess grandmaster, chess writer, teacher, and former Catholic priest. He was one of the leading American chess players during the 1950s and 1960s, and a contem ...

is the only player ever to achieve a perfect score in the

, open to players under the age of 20 as of January 1 in the year of competition. He scored 11–0 a
Toronto 1957

Vera Menchik Vera Francevna Mencikova (russian: Вера Францевна Менчик, ''Vera Frantsevna Menchik''; cz, Věra Menčíková; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944), was a Russian-born Czechoslovak chess player who primarily resided in En ...

won four consecutive

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

tournaments with perfect scores, a total of 45 games (8–0 at Prague 1931, 14–0 at Folkestone 1933, 9–0 at Warsaw 1935, and 14–0 at Stockholm 1937). She only played 43 of the 45 games, since Harum, the Austrian contestant, was unable to reach Folkestone and thus forfeited all of her games in that double

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

event. Alekhine scored 9–0 on for France at the 3rd Chess Olympiad (

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, 1930), and

Dragoljub Čirić Dragoljub Miladin Čirić (12 November 1935 – 17 August 2014) was a Serbian-Yugoslavian chess grandmaster. Background Čirić was born in Novi Sad in 1935. He gained the International Master title in 1961 and became a Grandmaster in 1965. N ...

scored 8–0 as second reserve (the sixth player on his team) for Yugoslavia at the 17th Olympiad (

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, 1966), but each played only about half of the possible games. Robert Gwaze scored 9–0 on first board for

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

at the 35th Olympiad (

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

, 2002).

Valentina Gunina Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina (russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Гунина; born February 4, 1989, in Murmansk) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She has won thrice the Women's European Individual Chess Championship (2012, 2014, ...

won the Women's section of the 2010 Moscow Blitz tournament with a 17/17 score.His fifth samovar – Morozevich wins 64th Moscow Blitz
, "WGM Valentina Gunina with a truly astounding result", "an incredible 100% result, winning all seventeen games she played".

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...

scored 9/9 in the 2011 Inter-Provincial Chess Team Championship, with a performance rating of 3037, won the gold medal in men's blitz at the SEA Games 2011 at Indonesia with a score of 9/9 and a rating performance of 3183, and won the 2013 Calgary International Blitz Championship with a score of 9/9.

Consecutive tournament victories

The record for consecutive professional tournament victories is 15;

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

placed first or equal first in 15 consecutive tournaments from 1981 to 1990. The same page credits Kasparov with "a record for the most consecutive victories in super tournaments" at 10, without defining what a super tournament is.

Most tournament victories

As of December 2011,

John Curdo John Anthony Curdo (November 14, 1931 – September 30, 2022) was an American chess player from Auburn, Massachusetts, best known for winning the Massachusetts state championship 17 times between 1948 and 1985, as well as the US Senior Championsh ...

had won 865 tournaments.

Most wins in a national championship

As of 2017, Carlos Juárez has won the Guatemalan Chess Championship 27 times.

Most decisive Interzonal victory

The highest percentage score at an

was 82.5% (16½ points out of 20 games), scored by

Alexander Kotov Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov (Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Ко́тов; – 8 January 1981) was a Soviet chess grandmaster and author. He was a Soviet chess champion, a two-time world title Candidate, and a prolific write ...

at the 1952 Stockholm Interzonal. The largest margin of victory was achieved by

, who won the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal in 1970 with 18½ points out of 23 games, 3½ points ahead of second-place finishers

Bent Larsen Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second strongest non-Soviet player, behind Bobby Fischer, for much of the 19 ...

and

Most games won

Gustav Neumann won all 34 of his games at the aforementioned Berlin 1865 tournament.

Most games lost

Nicholas MacLeod holds the record for the most games lost in a single tournament: he lost 31 games at the Sixth American Chess Congress at New York 1889, while winning six and drawing one. MacLeod was only 19, and the tournament, a 20-player double-

, was one of the longest tournaments in chess history. The most games lost by a player who lost ''all'' of his games in a tournament was by

Colonel Moreau Colonel Charles Paul Narcisse Moreau (14 September 1837, Paris – 6 July 1916) was a French soldier and mathematician. He served in the artillery and as an officier of the French Legion of Honor. He introduced Moreau's necklace-counting function i ...

. At Monte Carlo 1903, Moreau lost all 26 of his games.

Lost all games on time

At the

Büsum Büsum () is a fishing and tourist town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the North Sea coast, approx. 18 km southwest of Heide. Büsum is also the administrative seat of the ''Amt'' ("collec ...

1969 tournament,

Friedrich Sämisch Friedrich Sämisch (20 September 1896 – 16 August 1975) was a German chess player and chess theorist. He was among the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Background Sämisch was a bookbinder ...

lost all 15 games by exceeding the

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...

. He lost all 13 of his games at the

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

1969 tournament the same way.

Most world champions in a tournament

Nottingham 1936 included five past, current, and future world champions: reigning champion

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

;

, who had lost the title to Euwe the prior year, and would regain it the following year; former champions

and

; and

, who would win the championship in 1948. This record was equaled by Moscow 1971 and the 1973

Soviet Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1921 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winners ...

, each of which included former champions

, and

;

, who was champion from 1969 to 1972; and future champion

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Ches ...

Largest tie for first

Thirteen players tied for first with 5–1 scores at the National Open held on March 17–19, 2000 in Las Vegas: grandmasters

Jaan Ehlvest Jaan Ehlvest (born 14 October 1962) is an Estonian-American chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 1987. Ehlvest was Estonian champion in 1986. Since 2006, he has represented the United States. He was ...

, Alexander Goldin,

Alexander Baburin Alexander Evgenyevich Baburin (, ''Aleksandr Yevgen'yevich Baburin''; born 19 February 1967) is a Russian-Irish grandmaster of chess. He was born in Gorky, and has been living in Dublin, Ireland since 1993. He is editor-in-chief of the e-mail d ...

Pavel Blatny Pavel (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel ...

Eduard Gufeld Eduard Yefimovich Gufeld (russian: Эдуа́рд Ефи́мович Гу́фельд; 19 March 1936 – 23 September 2002) was a USSR, Soviet International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess author. Chess career Gufeld began participating in che ...

Yuri Shulman Yuri Shulman ( be, Юрый Маркавіч Шульман, russian: Ю́рий Ма́ркович Шу́льман; born April 29, 1975 in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) is a Belarusian American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandm ...

Alex Yermolinsky Alex Yermolinsky (russian: Алексей Ермолинский, translit=Alexey Yermolinskiy; born April 11, 1958) is an American chess player. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, he is a two-time U.S. champion. Career Yermoli ...

Gregory Kaidanov Gregory Kaidanov (russian: Григорий Зиновьевич Кайда́нов, ; born 11 October 1959) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 2013. His peak rating is 2646 ...

Dmitry Gurevich Dmitry Gurevich (russian: Дмитрий Гуревич; born September 11, 1956) is a Russian-American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster. Born in Moscow, Gurevich emigrated to New York City in 1980 and earned the Grandmaste ...

Alexander Stripunsky Alexander Stripunsky (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Олександр Стріпунський) (Ukraine, born August 18, 1970) is a United States, US American chess, chess player. He has been a grandmaster (chess), grandmaster (GM) since 1998. ...

, and

Gregory Serper Gregory Serper (russian: Григорий Юрьевич Серпер, translit=Grigory Yurievich Serper; born September 14, 1969) is a chess grandmaster. He was born in Tashkent, in the former Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union ...

, and International Masters Rade Milovanovic and Levon Altounian.

Highest percentage of players below 50% in a tournament

At the Linares 2001 tournament, five of the six players (83.3%) finished with a minus score.

won with 7½/10, while

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates T ...

Peter Leko Peter Leko ( hu, Lékó Péter; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess player and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was draw ...

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

, and

tied for second to sixth places, each with 4½/10.

Highest percentage of draws in a tournament

At the 1999 Petrosian Memorial tournament, 42 of the 45 games (93.3%) were drawn. Five of the ten players drew all nine of their games.

Highest performance rating in a tournament

The highest known tournament performance rating is 3103, achieved by

Karen H. Grigoryan Karen H. Grigoryan ( hy, Կարեն Հ. Գրիգորյան; born 25 February 1995) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. Chess career He was awarded the Grandmaster title in May 2013 during the Presidential Board Meeting in Baku. He was the Armen ...

, when he scored a perfect 9/9 at the 2019 Cidade de Famalicão tournament.GM Karen Grigoryan shows highest elo performance in chess history
Armenian Chess Federation, August 3, 2019 The highest known performance rating at the top level is 3098 by

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

at the 2014

Sinquefield Cup The Sinquefield Cup is an annual, invitation-only chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Saint Louis Chess Club. Since 2015, the Sinquefield Cup has been a part o ...

Longest consideration for a move

Before the introduction of

chess clocks A chess clock consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn, and ...

, it was common for players to take more than an hour to decide on a move. Among the players who had a reputation for playing particularly slowly (taking over 2 hours for a move) are Alexander McDonnell and Elijah Williams, however, it was not normal practice to time a player's moves so claims about the slowness of a player in an untimed game must be considered unverified. In

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, Spain in 1980, the Brazilian International Master

Francisco Trois Francisco Trois (3 September 1946 – 16 September 2020) was a Brazilian chess International Master and International Arbiter (1986). He was born in Canoas, and won the South American Chess Championship in 1978, in Tramandai, in the state of Ri ...

spent 2 hours and 20 minutes over his 7th move, deciding which of two viable moves to make. After blitzing out another 21 moves in serious time trouble, he resigned. His opponent, Luis Santos asked him after the game, "How can you think for over two hours when there are only two possible moves? I don't understand." Trois replied, "Neither do I."

Match records

Perfect scores

Perfect scores were achieved in matches by: *

Howard Staunton Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Am ...

over

Daniel Harrwitz Daniel Harrwitz (22 February 1821 – 2 January 1884) was a German chess master. Harrwitz was born in Breslau (Wrocław) in the Prussian Province of Silesia. Harrwitz's correct birth and death dates (22 February 1821 and 2 January 1884 respectiv ...

in 1846 (7/7) *

Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and che ...

over

Joseph Henry Blackburne Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...

in 1876 (7/7) *Capablanca over Kostić in 1919 (5/5) *Fischer over

Mark Taimanov Mark Evgenievich Taimanov (russian: Марк Евгеньевич Тайманов; 7 February 1926 – 28 November 2016) was one of the leading Soviet and Russian chess players, among the world's top 20 players from 1946 to 1971. A prolific ch ...

in 1971 (6/6) (quarter-final

Candidates Match The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...

) *Fischer over

in 1971 (6/6) (semi-final

)

Highest percentage of draws in matches

At the

World Chess Championship 2018 The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and the challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by FIDE and its commercial pa ...

, all 12 classical games ended in draws (100%). Only in the tiebreaks, there were three decisive rapid games.

Playing records

Consecutive wins against masters

won 20 consecutive games, all in competitions at late stages of the

cycle. (Some commentators give this as 19, not counting Fischer's game against

, who resigned after Fischer's first move as a protest.) Fischer won his last seven games at the 1970

(including the one-move game against Panno), then swept

6–0 in the quarterfinals followed by

by the same score in the semifinals. In the Candidates Match final, Fischer beat former World Champion

in the first game before Petrosian snapped the streak by winning the second match game.

won his last 16 games at Vienna 1873, including a two-game playoff against

at the end. He played no serious chess until an 1876 match against Blackburne that Steinitz swept 7–0. After a long period of inactivity, Steinitz played at Vienna 1882, where he won his first two games before finally ending his winning streak with a draw. Steinitz's 25-game winning streak over nine years has never been equaled.

Longest unbeaten streak

The longest confirmed unbeaten streak at an elite level belongs to

, who achieved an unbeaten streak of 125 games in the classical time format. His streak started after a loss on July 31, 2018, in the Biel tournament against

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Shahriyar Hamid oghlu Mammadyarov ( az, Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is ranked No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 13 in the world. ...

, and ended on October 10, 2020, when he lost to

Jan-Krzysztof Duda Jan-Krzysztof Duda (; born 26 April 1998) is a Polish chess grandmaster. A prodigy, he achieved the grandmaster title in 2013 at the age of 15 years and 21 days. he is ranked No. 1 in Poland and No. 18 in the world. His personal best rating ...

in a game at the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. The streak consists of 42 wins and 83 draws. It includes three wins in the Norwegian Chess League against opponents rated more than 500 Elo points lower, which Carlsen prefers not to count. Carlsen's streak broke the previous record of 100 games by

Ding Liren Ding Liren (; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the highest rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachi ...

, who went unbeaten from August 2017 to November 2018. Ding in turn had taken the record from

, who managed 95 games unbeaten in 1973–74.

Bogdan Lalić Bogdan Lalic (born 8 March 1964) is a Croatian chess grandmaster. He has the record of an unbeaten streak of 155 games. He was born in Yugoslavia – Zagreb in 1964. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1985, and the Grandmast ...

's unbeaten streak of 155 games (against less elite players than those Carlsen faced) is confirmed to have taken place between 2010 and 2011, according to the FIDE ratings website. In

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less common ...

, Denny Marbourg achieved unbeaten streak of 169 games, according to the ICCF U.S.A. website.

Most world champions defeated

This includes games against players who were not yet or were no longer world champion at the time of the game.

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He ...

, and

are the only chess players to have defeated 9 undisputed world champions in classical games. * Keres defeated every world champion from Capablanca (3rd) to Fischer (11th):

. * Korchnoi defeated every world champion from Botvinnik (6th) to Kasparov (13th), and also Carlsen (16th): Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer,

. * Beliavsky has defeated every world champion from Smyslov (7th) to Carlsen (16th), except for Fischer: Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov,

, Carlsen. If disputed world champions are included, then

, Korchnoi, and Beliavsky share the record at 11. Kasparov has defeated 7 undisputed world champions (Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Kramnik, Anand) as well as 4 FIDE world champions (

Alexander Khalifman Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman (russian: Алекса́ндр Вале́рьевич Халифма́н; born 18 January 1966) is a Russian chess player and writer. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990, he was FIDE World Chess Ch ...

Ruslan Ponomariov Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov ( uk, Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в; born 11 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in ...

Rustam Kasimdzhanov Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998. In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhan ...

and

). Korchnoi defeated the 9 mentioned above, plus FIDE champions Ponomariov and Topalov. Beliavsky defeated the 9 mentioned above, plus FIDE champions Khalifman and Topalov. If draws are included, Korchnoi beat or drew with 11 undisputed world chess champions in a row in classical games (he had draws against Anand and Kramnik) and all 4 disputed world champions (draws against Khalifman and Kasimdzhanov) – that is, every one since Alekhine's death in 1946.

Rating records

(chess's international governing body) adopted

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

s in 1970. Players who peaked before this year therefore do not feature in rating records.

Highest rating

The highest rating ever achieved is 2882, by

on the May 2014 list and once again on the August 2019 list. : Carlsen also holds the highest unofficial "live rating" of 2889.2, achieved on April 21, 2014.

Largest rating lead

On the July 1972 FIDE rating list,

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

of 2785 was 125 points ahead of the second-highest rated player, then-reigning World Champion

(2660). Kasparov's biggest lead at his peak was 82 points in January 2000.The Week in Chess 270
,

The Week in Chess ''The Week in Chess'' (TWIC) is a chess news web site. It was founded in 1994 and is based in the United Kingdom. ''TWIC'' has been edited by Mark Crowther since its inception in 1994. It began as a weekly Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide d ...

, January 10, 2000. Retrieved on December 30, 2006. In both the January and July 1990 rating lists, Kasparov was rated 2800 while Karpov was the only player rated 2700+, with third place being at 2680 although the identity of the third-place player changed.

's biggest lead was 74 points in October 2013.

Jeff Sonas Jeff Sonas is a statistician, statistical chess analyst who invented the Chessmetrics system for rating chess players, which is intended as an improvement on the Elo rating system. He is the founder and proprietor of the Chessmetrics.com website, wh ...

Chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...

calculates that in April 1876

was the top-ranked player in the world, with a rating a record 199 points above that of Henry Bird, the second-ranked player.

Longest duration as number one

Garry Kasparov was the world's highest-rated player on FIDE's rating list for a record 255 months, a number that is well ahead of all other world number ones since the inception of the list. Before the list, Emanuel Lasker was the world's highest-rated player for 292 months between June 1890 and December 1926 according to Chessmetrics.

Age-related records

Youngest world champion

* Youngest:

; 22 years, 6 month and 27 days, title won 1985 * Youngest FIDE world champion:

; 18 years, 3 month and 13 days * Youngest

Women's World Chess Champion The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wh ...

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

; 16 years, 9 month and 27 days, title won 2010

Youngest grandmaster

The youngest player to be awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE is

Abhimanyu Mishra Abhimanyu Mishra (born February 5, 2009) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the grandmaster title on June 30, 2021, at the age of 12 years 4 months and 25 days, beating Sergey ...

. In 2021, he qualified for the title at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days. See

List of youngest grandmasters The term chess prodigy refers to a young child who possesses an aptitude for the game of chess that far exceeds what might be expected at their age. Their prodigious talent will often enable them to defeat experienced adult players and even title ...

for the history of this record.

Oldest grandmaster

Several players have been awarded honorary or retrospective grandmaster titles based on their past achievements. The oldest of these was

Enrico Paoli Enrico Paoli (January 13, 1908 – December 15, 2005) was an Italian International chess master. He was born in Trieste, Italy, and learned chess when he was nine years old. He was the winner of international tournaments in Vienna (1951) and Imp ...

, who was awarded the title in 1996 at the age of 88. Apart from retrospective awards, a number of players have achieved the title by winning the

World Senior Championship The World Senior Championship was a golf match held between the winners of the American PGA Seniors' Championship (now Senior PGA Championship) and the British PGA Seniors Championship. It was held from 1954 to 1978. It was a 36-hole match-play e ...

. The oldest player to gain the title in this way was

Yuri Shabanov Yuri Fedorovich Shabanov (russian: Юрий Фёдорович Шабанов, 11 November 1937 Khabarovsk – 30 March 2010, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian chess Grandmaster (2003), arbiter of the republican category (1997). Two-time world ...

, who won the 2003 event and was awarded the title at the age of 66.

Oldest combined age of players in a match

In 2014, GM

(b. 1931) played a two-game match against GM

Wolfgang Uhlmann Wolfgang Uhlmann (29 March 193524 August 2020) was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann played many of the top players of the time a ...

(b.1935). Korchnoi won both games. The combined age of the two players was 162 years, which is almost certainly a record for a standard time control match between Grandmasters. In rapid time control, GM

played a four-game rapid match against GM

(b.1926) in November 2015. Korchnoi won the match 2–1 with one draw. The combined ages of the players was 174. This was the first time since 1980 that Korchnoi had played in an official or friendly match with an opponent older than himself.

Youngest player to defeat a grandmaster

On July 28, 2012,

Awonder Liang Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) is an American chess prodigy. He is the third youngest American to qualify for the title of Grandmaster (after Abhimanyu Mishra and Samuel Sevian), at the age of 14. Liang was twice world champion in ...

, aged 9 years, 3 months, and 20 days, beat Grandmaster

Larry Kaufman Lawrence Charles Kaufman (born November 15, 1947) is an American chess and shōgi player. In chess, he was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE for winning the 2008 World Seniors Championship (which he later retroactively shared with Mihai ...

in the Washington International tournament.

Oldest player to defeat a grandmaster

In the aforementioned rapid match in November 2015 between Mark Taimanov and Viktor Korchnoi, Taimanov was approximately 89 years and 9 months old when he won one of the match games against Korchnoi. The oldest known player to beat a grandmaster in a tournament game at standard time controls is

Anthony Saidy Anthony Saidy (born May 16, 1937) is an International Master of chess, a retired physician and author. He competed eight times in the U.S. Chess Championship, with his highest placement being 4th. He won the 1960 Canadian Open Chess Championsh ...

. In Round 3 of the National Open Chess Championship in Las Vegas, played sometime between June 17 and 19, 2019, Saidy, aged 82 years and 1 month, beat grandmaster

Vladimir Belous Vladimir Belous (born July 29, 1993, in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russia) is a chess Grandmaster from Moscow, Russia. He got International Master (IM) title in 2011 and Grandmaster (GM) title in 2013. He was the winner of 25th Annual Chicago Open in ...

(age 25).

Simultaneous and blindfold records

Best and worst results in simultaneous exhibitions

In 1922,

, the recently crowned

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, played 103 opponents simultaneously in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. 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. The best result in a simultaneous exhibition solely against grandmasters is former World Champion

's performance against an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i team consisting of

Boris Alterman Boris Alterman ( he, בוריס אלתרמן, russian: Борис Альтерман; born May 4, 1970) is an Israeli chess Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer (2010), advisor of the Junior chess program. He started playing chess at the age of 7. ...

, Alexander Huzman,

Ilya Smirin Ilya (or Ilia) Smirin ( he, איליה יוליביץ' סמירין; russian: Илья Юльевич Смирин, Ilya Yulievich Smirin; born January 21, 1968) is a Byelorussian SSR-born and an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title of ...

, and

Emil Sutovsky Emil Sutovsky (born 19 September 1977) is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

in 1998. Adding to the difficulty Kasparov played Black in half the games; usually in exhibitions the exhibitor plays White on all boards. A second round was played 2 days later with colors reversed. Kasparov scored 7–1 against an all 2600+ rated team and considers it one of the peak performances of his career.

Paul Morphy Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and is often considered the unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was c ...

also gave an 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", scoring 3–2. He defeated

Jules Arnous de Rivière Jules Arnous de Rivière (4 May 1830, Nantes – 11 September 1905, Paris) was the strongest French chess player from the late 1850s through the late 1870s. He is best known today for playing many games with Paul Morphy when the American champio ...

and Henry Bird, drew with

Samuel Boden Samuel Standidge Boden (born 4 May 1826 in East Retford, Nottinghamshire; d. 13 January 1882 in Bedford Square, London) was an English professional chess master. The mating pattern " Boden's Mate" was named after the mate that occurred in one of ...

and

Johann Löwenthal Johann Jacob Löwenthal ( hu, Löwenthal János Jakab; 15 July 1810 – 24 July 1876) was a professional chess master. He was among the top six players of the 1850s. Biography Löwenthal was born in Budapest, the son of a Jewish merchant. He ...

, and lost only to

Thomas Wilson Barnes Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874) was an English chess master, one of the leading British masters of his time. Chess history Barnes was one of the leading British chess masters at the time of Paul Morphy's visit to the UK in 1858. Barnes had ...

. The worst result in a simultaneous exhibition given by a

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

occurred in 1951, when

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Robert Wade gave a simultaneous exhibition against 30 Russian schoolboys, aged 14 and under. After 7 hours of play, Wade had lost 20 games and drawn the remaining 10.

Most games in blindfold exhibitions

The record for the most games played in a blindfold simultaneous exhibition is 48, set by

Timur Gareyev Timur Gareyev (sometimes spelled ''Gareev''; born March 3, 1988) is an Uzbeki-American chess grandmaster. He was born in Tashkent to Tatar parents. Gareyev was a part of the University of Texas at Brownsville's chess team from August 2005 to Aug ...

in December 2016, when he played 48 opponents over 20 hours, scoring 35 wins, 7 draws and 6 losses.

Most players taking part in a multi-simul

20,500 players played simultaneously on December 24, 2010, in Ahmadabad, India. Then-World Champion

was a guest of honor for this event and participated in the simul.

Most simultaneous games

On February 8–9, 2011, Iranian grandmaster

Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami ( fa, احسان قائم‌مقامی ; born 11 August 1982) is an Iranian chess grandmaster (2000). He is the record holder of the Iranian Chess Championship with 13 titles. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he had an E ...

played for 25 hours against 604 players, winning 580 (97.35%) of the games, drawing 16, and losing 8.

Writing-related records

Longest-running chess column

Leonard Barden Leonard William Barden (born 20 August 1929, in Croydon, London) is an English chess master, writer, broadcaster, journalist, organizer and promoter. The son of a dustman, he was educated at Whitgift School, South Croydon, and Balliol Colleg ...

's daily chess column for the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' began in June 1956, and was published daily in the printed newspaper until July 30, 2010, a total run of 54 years and 1 month. It then continued online until January 31, 2020, for a total of 63 years, 7 months and 27 days without missing a day.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Concentrates on maximum tasks and records. * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Tim Krabbé's chess records page
* Edward Winter,
Chess Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Records In Chess History of chess

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...