Chess has been around for thousands of years. Even today, most people grow up playing at least a few rounds of chess with a parent or grandparent. It’s usually a very frustrating experience since it’s an unwritten rule that you don’t help your opponent too much and just outright crush them in their first few games of chess. Or that might’ve just been something my family does.
Anyway, let’s take a look at some amazing chess records, in case you’re looking to break one or two.
Longest Undefeated Streak – 100 Games
The longest streak of only winning or drawing games in top level chess belongs to Ding Liren. It’s an amazing run that lasted for over a year and spanned a few high level tournaments – including the world cup.
Youngest Chess Grandmaster – 12 Years and 7 Months
Becoming a chess grandmaster is the chess equivalent of whatever type of Jedi Yoda was. The youngest one to be granted the title of grand master was named Sergey Karjakin. Whether or not he was granted a seat on the chess council or not, we cannot confirm.
Highest ELO Recorded – 2882
In competitive games, your skill is measured by an ELO. This number changes after each match you do, and people with high ELO gain less points from beating opponents with a low ELO. Of only about a dozen players to reach an ELO above 2800, the highest belonged to Magnus Carlsen – his ELO was 2882. Even the world famous chess champion Kasparov only reached an ELO of 2851!
Longest Winning Streak – 20 Games
This record is in the hands of Bobby Fischer. People are arguing that he only has 19 wins in a row because one of the 20 people he beat actually forfeited the match. But don’t worry – even with only 19 wins in a row Bobby would still be solidly in the lead of most wins in a row. We should also mention that these wins were recorded in the elite levels of chess, so winning against your little brother 21 times in a row doesn’t count.
Most Simultaneous Games – 604
Considering how taxing a proper chess match can be on the brain, playing two of them simultaneously is basically chess suicide. Grand master Ehsan Ghaem Maghami decided he’d turn it up a notch though, and played 604 simultaneous games. But what’s even more impressive is that of those 604, he only lost 8 and drew 16. Yup – he won an insane 580 games.
Longest Reigning World Champion – 27 Years
Back in the late 1800s there wasn’t much competition in chess, so the second world champion ever – Emanuel Lasker – retained the title from 1894 until 1921. That impressive 27 year streak is still the longest period of time anyone’s been the world champion of chess.
Most Simultaneous Blindfold Games – 48
Blindfold chess is just ten kinds of crazy because you’re supposed to memorize the entire board by just visualizing the whole “rook to B5” thing. Timur Gareyev played 48 blindfolded games at the same time. So he has to memorize 48 chess boards and not mix them up. Some days I can hardly get my shoes on the correct feet, and this guy remembers 48 chess boards. Oh, and he won 35 games.
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