Most simultaneous chess games played-world
record set by Kiril Georgiev
SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Kiril Georgiev,
a chess
grandmaster from Bulgaria ,
played a total of 360 games
simultaneously (winning 284, drawing 70 and losing six) during
a marathon that lasted 14 hours and 8 minutes-setting the
world record for the Most
simultaneous chess games played
.
Photo: Bulgarian chess grandmaster Kiril
Georgiev
(C) plays a move while trying to break the world
record for the largest
number of simultaneous chess games
vs 360 players in Sofia.
photo AFP/Boryana Katsarova ( enlarge
photo
)
The record number of games and
the winning percentage
of 88 per cent allowed Kiril
Georgiev
to apply formally for entry into the Book
of World Records
.
His percentage total is reached by having
each win count as a point and each draw as a half point. That
means Georgiev scored 319 points out of a possible 360.
Kiril Georgiev
is a three time Bulgarian
national champion for men and a former world champion for
under 18. Until recently ha has been a participating coach
for the national men's team.
His coefficient by July 2006 was 2680, ranking
second in Bulgaria, after former champion Veselin Topalov,
and 36th in the world rank list.
...Somewhere around the middle of January,
Kiril Georgiev started intensively his preparation for the
world record. The ex-president of the Bulgarian Chess Federation Dr. Mikhail Iliev
had personally created the programme
for the famous GM.
Dr. Iliev is also the official medical face of
the Bulgarian national football team, national chess master,
and sponsor of one of the strongest female teams in Bulgaria.
As Kiril later revealed in an interview,
the programme included a lot of walking (at least five to
six hours per day), which is his favourable physical exercise
in general, and couple of saunas every week. Two other GMs
Atanas Kolev and Valentin Lukov had to help him in order to
break the record.
A unique chess labyrinth was built in Inter Expo
Center especially for the simultaneous exhibition. Its length
was approximately 500 meters.
A month before the start of the event the
organizers took a decision that every participant receives
as a present for his participation the Staunton set with which
he or she was playing, the special chess board, as well as
their personal badge and certificate for participation in
the world record event.
For every move the Bulgarian grandmaster
had to walk for about half a kilometer. It was no big wonder,
that after six hours of play he had made only eight (!) moves.
Kiril Georgiev is famous for his strong
character. After 14 hours of play it was already obvious that
he was breaking the record. However still 14 players kept
on fighting. Kiril’s helpers GMs Lukov and Kolev advised him
to offer draws. But the GM considered his positions won, and
proved it in a mere fourteen minutes!
After 14 hours and 8 minutes (according
to some sources 14 minutes) Georgiev won his last game, thus
achieving 284 victories, 70 draws and only 6 losses. His scoring
percentage was about 88%. The record was broken!
The previous world record for the Most
simultaneous chess games played
was set in 2005 by Susan Polgar
, the Hungarian-American four-time women's
world champion. Polgar played 326 games, winning 309, drawing
14 and losing only three.
With input from the Report of GM Dejan Bojkov
Wednesday,
February 25, 2009
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