14 Riveting World Records from the Riveting World of Chess
You’re 37 years old. You’ve studied and battled for a lifetime, and you’re at the top of your game — the top of the game. Then an eight-year-old shows up and mops the floor with you.
The Longest Game (For a While)
Several matches have gone on for many hundreds of moves, but most are battles of attrition that end in draws. In 1979, a game was won after 269 moves, with much of that being one guy’s rook and bishop chasing the other guy’s lone rook.
The Longest Game (Played by an Asshole)
That 1979 record was just broken in 2024, by the lamest guy in the biz. Peter Lalic has openly bragged about chasing down the longest game record for years, and finally achieved his dream — against a 12-year-old. Lalic either talked or tricked chess wunderkind (and, notably, child) Billy Fellowes into playing a 272-move game. The entire chess world hated that, and people have called for it to be declared a double-loss.
The First Shortest Game
It’s technically possible to lose in two moves, and chess historians have uncovered two official games where that happened. The first was in 1867, between two dudes in Dublin named Mason and Leeky.
The Cursed Three-Move Game
The shortest non-forfeit game between chessmasters happened in 1984 between Z. Đorđević and M. Kovačević. After three moves, one of them cried uncle. For decades, players who got caught in that same scenario, falling into that same three-move trap, assumed they’d been checkmated. Folks eventually figured out how to wriggle their way out of it, and have gone on to draw or occasionally win.
Best Record in Simultaneous Play
You know that thing where a guy will walk up and down rows of opponents making one move at a time? That’s called a simultaneous exhibition. In 1922, World Champion José Raúl Capablanca won 99.5 percent of his games against 103 opponents. That’s 102 wins and one draw.
The Worst Simultaneous Exhibition by a Master
This has to be in the top 10 most embarrassing records in any sport. In 1951, International Master Robert Wade strutted through a gaggle of 30 14-year-old Russian schoolchildren for seven straight hours. He lost 20 matches and tied 10.
The Worst Simultaneous Exhibition of All Time
In 1977, a New Jersey man set out to break a world record by playing 180 simultaneous games at a strip mall. Twenty people showed up, he lost 18 of his matches (including one to a 7-year-old), and his only wins came from a guy who left mid-match and his own mother. It feels like a Nathan Fielder bit.
Most Games in Blindfold Exhibitions
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have this bona-fide miracle: In 2016, Timur Gareyev played 48 opponents over 20 hours, all blindfolded. He came out with 35 wins, seven draws and six losses.
Longest (and Most Erratic) Hot Streak
Wilhelm Steinitz went on a tear in 1873, winning his last 16 games of the Vienna Chess Tournament. He then took a three-year hiatus, before crushing seven more victories in 1876. He then screwed around for another six years before going back to Vienna, where he won two more to cap his streak of wins against masters at 25. Bobby Fischer is the only one who’s even come close, with a 20-game streak in 1970.
Youngest Undisputed World Champion
It’s not Magnus Carlsen, and it’s not Bobby Fischer. Garry Kasparov won the World Chess Championship in 1985 at age 22.
The Longest Reign As Number One
Once Kasparov started winning, there was no stopping him — he was ranked number one in the world by the FIDE for over 21 years. But there may be one guy who has him beat: Before the FIDE, a dude named Emanuel Lasker was considered the world’s best from 1890 to 1926, an astonishing 36 years.
The Oldest Grandmasters
The title is sometimes given as a kind of lifetime achievement award. Ninety-six-year-old Andreas Dückstein was given the honor in 2024. But some geriatrics earn it with blood, sweat and tears: Yuri Shabanov became the oldest person to do it the hard way by winning the World Senior Championship at 66.
The Youngest Grandmaster
There have been six 12-year-old grandmasters. In 2021, Abhimanyu Mishra qualified at 12 years, 4 months and 25 days.
The Youngest Kid to Embarrass a Grandmaster
Just this year, 8-year-old Ashwath Kaushik took out a 37-year-old grandmaster at a tournament in Switzerland. The guy then ostensibly committed seppuku with a rook.