Most consecutive tournament wins

15 Kasparov - USSR ch. Frunze 1981 shared with Psakhis, Bugojno 1982, Moscow Interzonal 1982, Niksic 1983, Brussels 1986, Brussels SWIFT 1987 shared with Ljubojevic, Amsterdam 1988, Belfort World Cup 1988, USSR ch. Moscow 1988 shared with Karpov, Reykjavik World Cup 1988, Barcelona World Cup 1989 shared with Ljubojevic, Skellfetea World Cup 1989 shared with Karpov, Tilburg 1989, Belgrade 1989, Linares 1990

9 Karpov - Tilburg 1977, Bugojno 1978 (Cat.14) shared with Spassky, Montreal 1979 (Cat.15) shared with Tal, Waddinxveen 1979, Tilburg 1979 (Cat.15), Bad Kissingen 1980 (Cat.15), Bugojno 1980 (Cat.15), IBM Amsterdam 1980 (Cat.14), Tilburg 1980 (Cat.15)

8 Fischer - U.S. ch. 1966-7, Monte Carlo MON Mar.-Apr. 1967 1st ahead of Smyslov Geller and Larsen, Skopje-Krusevo CZE Aug. 1967 1st ahead of Geller and Matulovic, Netanya ISR June-July 1968, Vinkovci Sep. 1968, Rovinj Zagreb Apr.-May 1970 ahead of Smyslov Korchnoi and Petrosian, Buenos Aires 1970, Palma de Mallorca IZ Nov.-Dec. 1970

8 Larsen - Capablanca Memorial, Havana Aug.-Sep. 1967 ahead of Taimanov and Smyslov, Winnipeg Oct. 1967 =1st with Darga ahead of Keres and Spassky, Palma de Mallorca Nov.-Dec. 1967 ahead of Botvinnik and Smyslov, Sousse Interzonal Oct.-Nov.1967 ahead of Korchnoi, Geller and Gligoric, Monaco Apr.1968 ahead of Botvinnik and Smyslov, US Open 1968, Canadian Open 1968, Merrimac Grand Prix 1968

7 Alekhine - Kecskemet 1927, Bradley Beach 1929, San Remo 1930, Bled 1931, London 1932, Berne 1932, Pasadena 1932

7 Kasparov - Wijk aan Zee 1999, Linares 1999, Sarajevo 1999, Frankfurt 1999, Wijk aan Zee 2000, Linares 2000, Sarajevo 2000

7 Botvinnik - Absolute championship, Leningrad/Moscow 1941, Sverdlovsk 1943, USSR championship Moscow 1944, USSR ch. Moscow 1945, Groningen 1946, Chigorin Memorial Moscow 1947, World ch. The Hague/Moscow 1948

6 Tal - Dubna 1973(shared), Hastings 1973/4(shared with Timman, Szabo and Kuzmin), Lublin 1974, Halle 1974, Novi Sad 1974, USSR ch. Leningrad 1974(shared)

6 Karpov - Hannover 1983, Tilburg 1983, Oslo 1984, Philips & Drew London 1984, OHRA Amsterdam 1985

5 Spassky - Moscow Zonal 1964 (Cat. 15) 1st ahead of Korchnoi and Geller, Amsterdam Interzonal May-June 1964 =1st with Tal Larsen and Smyslov, Belgrade Sep.-Oct. 1964 1st ahead of Korchnoi Ivkov and Larsen, Sochi Aug.-Sep. 1965 =1st with Unzicker, Hastings Dec. 1965-Jan. 1966 =1st with Uhlmann

Longest unbeaten run of games

Apparently this record belongs to USCF player Bill Martz who went 104 games without losing, but I have found this hard to verify.

Better documented is Mikhail Tal's run of 93 games. He lost to Petrosian in round 15 of the USSR ch. in Oct. 1973 and then went until Oct. 1974 without a loss. Kirov stopped his streak in the 4th round of Novi Sad.

Tal had a similar run a little more than a year before. He went unbeaten in 86 games from July 1972 when he lost to Uusi in the tenth round at Viljandi until he lost to Balashov on board 3 at the USSR Team ch. Moscow, round 2 in April 1973 +47=39

Kramnik 82 games from Jan. 12 1999 Euro club ch. Belgrade until he lost 4th round to Adams at Dortmund 2000

Tal 80 games 1980-1

Capablanca 63 games February 10, 1916 New York loss to Chajes to March 21, 1924 New York loss to Reti +40=23

Most overwhelming match victories against strong masters

The loser in each case was among the top ten players in the world at the time of the match.

1876 Match, London Steinitz-Blackburne +7 =0 -0 100%

1971 July, Candidates semifinal, Dallas, Fischer-Larsen +6 100%

1971 May-June, Candidates quarterfinal, Vancouver, Fischer-Taimanov +6 100%

1910 Nov.-Dec. World ch. Berlin, Lasker-Janowsky +8 =3 86.4%

1852 London, Harrwitz-Williams +7=3

1909 Match Paris, Lasker-Janowsky +7 =2 -1 80%

1995 Feb. FIDE World ch. semifinal Kamsky-Salov +4 =3 78.6%

1907 Jan.-Apr. World ch. New York, Philadelphia, Memphis, Chicago and Baltimore, Lasker-Marshall +8 =7 76.7%

1851 London, Staunton-Jaenisch +7=1-2 75%

1896-7 Nov.-Jan. World ch. Moscow, Lasker-Steinitz +10 =5 -2 73.5%

For women, 1962 Sep.-Oct. World ch. Moscow, Gaprindashvili-Bykova +7=4 81.8%

Longest winning run

William Steinitz won 25 games in a row between 1873 and 1882. He won his last 14 at Vienna 1873, 2 against Henry Blackburne in the playoff, 7 against Blackburne in a match in London in 1876 and then his first two games at Vienna 1882. Mackenzie brought an end to the streak when Steinitz two pawns up allowed Mackenzie to escape to a draw by perpetual check.

The second longest run is Bobby Fischer's 20 game streak in 1970-1. He won his last 7 at Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970, won six straight in his quarterfinal candidates match against Mark Taimanov at Vancouver 1971, another six straight in the semifinal against Bent Larsen in Dallas, and then the 1st game of the Candidates final against Petrosian in Buenos Aires. Petrosian won the second game when Fischer came unglued in an extremely double-edged line of the Gruenfeld defence.

Highest Sonas Performance Ratings

Men

*Karpov 2899 - Linares 1994, 11/14 84.6%
Fischer 2887 - Candidates Semi-final vs. Larsen, Dallas 1971 +6 100%
Lasker 2882 - World ch. vs. Steinitz, Moscow 1896 12.5/17 73.5%
Kasparov 2881 - Tilburg 1989 12/14 85.7%
Lasker 2878 - London 1899 21.5/26 82.7%
Lasker 2876 - World ch. vs. Marshall, USA 1907 11.5/15 76.7%
Kramnik 2874 - BGN World ch. vs. Kasparov, London 2000 8.5/15 56.7%
Karpov 2873 - World ch. vs Kasparov, Moscow 1984-5, 25/48 52.1%
Fischer 2870 - Candidates Quarter-final vs. Taimanov, Vancouver 1971 +6 100%
Tal 2869 - Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade 1959 20/28 71.4%
(*Recently Grischuk brak this record in Europian CHamiopnships 2007)


Women

Judit Polgar 2778 - Madrid 1994
Judit Polgar 2760 - Wijk aan Zee 2003
Judit Polgar 2746 - Polgar-Piket match, Aruba 1995
Judit Polgar 2739 - Linares 1997
Sofia Polgar 2735 - Rome 1989
Judit Polgar 2733 - Sicilian, Buenos Aires 1994
Judit Polgar 2728 - Dos Hermanas 1993
Judit Polgar 2719 - Donner Memorial 1995
Judit Polgar 2717 - Hastings 1992
Judit Polgar 2715 - Dos Hermanas 1995

Susan Polgar and Maia Chiburdanidze are the next two to appear on the list somewhat further down. Both achieved ratings of 2677 at Aruba 1992 and Banja Luka 1985 respectively. (Source : Jeff Sonas's Chessmetrics Site May 2005).
For comparison, here are some of the highest Elo performance ratings for FIDE sponsored events since 1970.

1971 Candidates semi-final, Dallas, Fischer-Larsen +6 3060
1971 Candidates 1/4-final, Vancouver, Fischer-Taimanov +6 3020
2001 Europe v. Asia Rapid, Batumi, Kasparov 3017
1994 Linares, Karpov 11/13 84.6% 2942
2000 Rapid Frankfurt, Anand 2941
2002 Bled Olympiad, Kasparov 2933
1989 Tilburg, Kasparov 2913
1989 Belgrade, Kasparov 2907
2002 Essen, Zvjaginsev 2905
1998 Pamplona, Morozevich 2904
1997 Linares, Kasparov 2884
2000 Sarajevo, Kasparov 2881

Largest chess tournaments

The British Land UK Chess Challenge has around 70 000 British school kids playing across England in recent years.

The Supernationals III in Nashville 2005 had 5270 juniors competing.

The largest adult event would probably be the World Open in Philadelphia 1986 with 1506 players. Nick de Firmian came in first ahead of Yasser Seirawan, Jozsef Pinter, Gyula Sax, Margeir Petursson, and Ivan Farago, as well as the young Anand. In 2003, the World Open had a lot of players as well: 1462. The HB Global Chess Challange, Minneapolis, May 2005 had 1358 players (43 GMs). By comparison, there were 1135 players at Calvia Olympiad 2004, and Bled Olympiad 2002 only had 806 players.

The largest round robin tournament was probably New York 1869. There were 48 competitors who were supposed to face each other twice each. Not surprisingly not all of the games were finished. The winner was George H. Mackenzie. Another fairly large round robin was Carlsbad 1911 with 26 players.

The event with the most grandmasters would probably be one of the Olympiads. Calvia Olympiad 2004 had 250 grandmasters. Bled Olympiad 2002 only had 183 grandmasters. The European Club Cup in Rethymonon Greeece 2003 had 150 grandmasters. Aeroflot swiss, Moscow 2004 had 140 grandmasters.

Chess players records

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 Namamura, who earned the title at the age of 15 years, 2 months. The youngest female grandmaster is Koneru Humpy, who became a grandmaster at the age of 15 years, 1 month, and 27 days.

Players that became GMs before age 15: Sergey Karjakin, Parimarjan Negi, Magnus Carlsen, Bu Xiangzhi, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Leko, Yuriy Kuzubov, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Fabiano Caruana

Youngest FIDE master

Etienne Bacrot, born in 1983, became the youngest FIDE master a the age of 10.

Most tournaments won

Anatoly Karpov has won over 160 chess tournaments, more than anyone else in history.

Highest Elo rating

In the July 1999 and the January 2000 FIDE rating list, Garry Kasparov had an Elo rating of 2851. In July 2005, Judit Polgar had an Elo rating of 2735, the highest for any woman.

Most drawing Grandmaster

Ulf Andersson of Sweden has drawn 74% of his games against top-level opposition, winning 10%, and losing 16%.

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.

Tournament records

Largest chess tournament

In 1935-36, the USSR Trade Unions chess championship was held. It had 700,000 entrants, the largest of any chess tournament.

Largest Olympiad

The 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled in 2002 had 136 men’s teams and 92 women’s teams, the large Olympiad ever.

Largest ETCC

The largest European Team Chess Championship was in Crete, Greece. 39 countries sent their delegations

Most Grandmasters in one tournament

In 1989, the Belgrade Grandmaster’s Association had 98 grandmasters participating, the most grandmasters in one tournament.

Biggest simultaneous chess event

14000 is the number of players who had appeared in in Mexico City, in 2005.

Strongest chess tournament.

The 1996 Las Palmas tournament was a Category 21 tournament with the average rating of 2756, making it the strongest tournament ever. The event took place from December 9 through Decmber 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.

World Chess Championship records

Shortest world championship win

In 1872, Steinitz defeated Zukertort in 19 moves.

Most world championship games

Botvinnik played 157 world championship games. He won 36, lost 39, and drew 82.

Most world championship career wins

Lasker had 52 career wins in world championship play.

The longest world championship match

The longest world championship match was the 1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov match. It lasted 48 games and 159 days.

Best world championship record

Vera Menchik-Stevenson (1906-1944) was World Women’s Chess Champion from 1927 to 1944. She defended her title 6 times. In world championship play, she won 78 games, drew 4 games, and only lost once.

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.

Chess records

General Chess records

Longest game

Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989. It lasted for 269 moves and finished draw. Later on was introduced the fifty move rule and this record is unlikely to be broken. 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.

Shortest game

There are many games which fiished before they started with the result agreed beforehand. Considering a non short draws rule (as the Sofia rule) the shortest game ever played is the two moves Fool's mate. (1.g4 e5 2.f3?? Qh4#)

Latest first capture

Filipowicz and Smederevac (Polanica Zdroj 1966), lasted 70 moves without a single capture.

Longest series of checks

In 1995 in the Czech Republic, a game between Rebickova and Voracova ended with 74 checks by the black Queen.

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.

Greatest number of checks

In Wegner - Johnson, Gausdal 1991, there were 141 checks in the game. White had 100 checks and Black had 41 checks. The game lasted 200 moves.