This may interest Andrew Martin....

[Leonard Barden]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 59,00.html

The questiun is: were the irregularities alleged here in the Israeli and Iranian exhibitions absent in the previous world records set by Andrew Martin and Susan Polgar?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I've always believed that Susan Polgar's record playing simul. was dodgy. When you did some basic maths to work out the number of seconds per move, it just seemed far too fast to be true. I suspect many of her opponents were shoppers who happened to be in mall that day and who were forced to resign if they didn't have a move ready when she reached them.

Andrew Martin's record was very well documented, in fact I think I saw a list of all his opponents somewhere.

[andrew martin]

We had to work for six long months to get the 321 players ' of reasonable standard' for the display. The biggest concern with children was keeping them there until the games were completed, which of course could be up to 18 hrs. We had blitz tournaments, table-tennis,other sideshows in the hall taking place between moves!

All of Polgar, Morteza and Gershon's claims are extraordinary. If there were really 325 schoolchildren they must have been incredibly well-disciplined, as each round must take upwards of 45 minutes at the beginning of the display. Even a 15 move game is therefore lasting 12 hours.


http://chessworldrecord.co.uk/EN/pictures.html

[Christopher Kreuzer]

We had to work for six long months to get the 321 players ' of reasonable standard' for the display. The biggest concern with children was keeping them there until the games were completed, which of course could be up to 18 hrs. We had blitz tournaments, table-tennis,other sideshows in the hall taking place between moves!

All of Polgar, Morteza and Gershon's claims are extraordinary. If there were really 325 schoolchildren they must have been incredibly well-disciplined, as each round must take upwards of 45 minutes at the beginning of the display. Even a 15 move game is therefore lasting 12 hours.


http://chessworldrecord.co.uk/EN/pictures.html

What I found interesting in the accounts of Gershon's feat was the amount of stamina it took (he was lucky enough to have someone following him around tending to his needs), and his account of how he hit a difficult patch but got through that by resigning a few games and focusing on the rest. Andrew, if I may ask, did you encounter similar moments in your world record simul, and, if it is not being too crass, how are things like toilet breaks and food breaks handled, and in general how many breaks were allowed?

[Michael Jones]

What I found interesting in the accounts of Gershon's feat was the amount of stamina it took (he was lucky enough to have someone following him around tending to his needs), and his account of how he hit a difficult patch but got through that by resigning a few games and focusing on the rest. Andrew, if I may ask, did you encounter similar moments in your world record simul, and, if it is not being too crass, how are things like toilet breaks and food breaks handled, and in general how many breaks were allowed?

The Chessbase report on Kiril Georgiev's 360 board simul states that "According to the rules Georgiev had the right to take a 5-10 minute break on every hour of play.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5241

Comparing photos of Georgiev's and Gershon's simuls, it would appear that the latter's opponents included many more children than the former's, although whether they were complete beginners is hard to tell from the photos.

The same report mentions claims that Polgar's record had not been accepted by Guinness, and although I can't find a source for that, the statistics suggest her opponents were not too strong: she played 1131 games in total, +1112 =16 -3, just over 99%. I'm only an average-ish club player but I'd hope to score at least 1% against a GM, especially one who'd been playing continuously for the best part of 24 hours.

As far as attempts to break simul records are concerned, though, none can have failed quite as convincingly as this one mentioned by Wikipedia:

The absolute worst result in a simultaneous exhibition was two wins and 18 losses (10%) by Joe Hayden, aged 17, in August 1977. Hayden wanted to set an American record by playing 180 people simultaneously at a shopping center in Cardiff, New Jersey, but only 20 showed up to play. Hayden lost 18 of the games (including one to a seven-year-old). His two wins were scored against his mother and a player who tired of waiting and left in mid-game, thus forfeiting the game (Fox & James 1993, pp. 190–91).

[Richard James]

As far as attempts to break simul records are concerned, though, none can have failed quite as convincingly as this one mentioned by Wikipedia:

The absolute worst result in a simultaneous exhibition was two wins and 18 losses (10%) by Joe Hayden, aged 17, in August 1977. Hayden wanted to set an American record by playing 180 people simultaneously at a shopping center in Cardiff, New Jersey, but only 20 showed up to play. Hayden lost 18 of the games (including one to a seven-year-old). His two wins were scored against his mother and a player who tired of waiting and left in mid-game, thus forfeiting the game (Fox & James 1993, pp. 190–91).

Thanks for the Even More Complete Chess Addict plug, Michael. I've seen one or two other mentions in Wikipedia but hadn't noticed that one.

Perhaps I'll do a new edition at some point. You never know!

[Kevin Thurlow]

One reason Polgar's "record" was not accepted by Guinness was that you need independent people monitoring the event. They were not present, although you would think that her team would have known of the requirement...

Endurance events do allow a 5 minute break per hour.

[John Upham]

We had to work for six long months to get the 321 players ' of reasonable standard' for the display.

My first game of chess for around 20 years was this simultaneous display. I read about it in the local paper and went along. Where I sat down in the playing hall everyone around me were not only adults but club players of a reasonable to strong standard including players of then 170ECF (2004) standard and above. The pace that Andrew played at was very impressive and I was lucky enough to secure a draw. I saw no easy games around me. Andrew was totally exhausted at the end. It was a very impressive feat indeed.

[Roger de Coverly]

It's made the mainstream papers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rules.html

I think the suggestion is that Guinness required a minimum standard of 1200 (national Elo presumably) but the Israeli Federation had a minimum first rating for new players also of 1200.

[Michael Jones]

As far as attempts to break simul records are concerned, though, none can have failed quite as convincingly as this one mentioned by Wikipedia:

The absolute worst result in a simultaneous exhibition was two wins and 18 losses (10%) by Joe Hayden, aged 17, in August 1977. Hayden wanted to set an American record by playing 180 people simultaneously at a shopping center in Cardiff, New Jersey, but only 20 showed up to play. Hayden lost 18 of the games (including one to a seven-year-old). His two wins were scored against his mother and a player who tired of waiting and left in mid-game, thus forfeiting the game (Fox & James 1993, pp. 190–91).

Thanks for the Even More Complete Chess Addict plug, Michael. I've seen one or two other mentions in Wikipedia but hadn't noticed that one.

Perhaps I'll do a new edition at some point. You never know!

You're welcome - any book including a story like that deserves a plug!

I'm not entirely sure why the Guinness spokesman quoted in the Telegraph article claims that the simul record 'is not a professional category' - only a professional would be likely to score 80% against sufficiently strong opposition to qualify for it.