Hello, everyone!

I would like to start this blog with a question. Are you fully focused on what you are reading right now? Or are you multitasking while doing it? I don't intend to preach or contribute to the boring debate about the new generation's inability to concentrate. I just ask because it is relevant to today's topic.

In chess, players usually focus solely on one game. But there are exceptions. I am talking about the famous simultaneous exhibitions, where a stronger player challenges several opponents at the same time.

Today, I will tell you a little more about this entertaining discipline. It doesn't count towards ratings or bring huge prestige; in fact, it doesn't even give any official titles. Nevertheless, many great players were big fans of these events for reasons of publicity and chess promotion.

Together, we are going to explore the most famous simultaneous exhibitions in history. Some were very successful, while others were a disaster. Some set impressive records, while others were simply a Kiwi blogger challenging her friends.

Ready to embark on this adventure? Come with me! However, I recommend reading one chapter at a time, as trying to read them all simultaneously might confuse you. Back to Top

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Youngest

2. A Way Of Reconnection

3. A Disaster

4. Blindfold Record

5. Women's Record

6. World Record

7. My Own Simultaneous

8. Conclusion

1. Jutta Hempel - The Youngest

The first player I would like to mention has already appeared in my post 'Chess Prodigies Who Flopped - And Why'. One of the children listed there is Jutta Hempel, the little German star of the 1960s.

On 27 September 1966, the day of her sixth birthday, Jutta's father organized a simultaneous exhibition match against local club players in Flensburg, her hometown in northern Germany, to showcase her exceptional talent.

This made her the youngest player ever to perform at such an event.

And the most incredible thing is the result achieved: An impressive 9.5/12 score. After that, the little girl quickly became a media star, appearing in news reports from all over Europe, where she amazed people with her precociousness and cuteness.

But if you think she was a chess nerd who focused on learning and improving all day long, you are wrong. In fact, she was interested in something else entirely.

I was considered a child prodigy because I started playing chess at the age of three. This was followed by exhibition tournaments against ten or twelve opponents in simultaneous chess, public chess performances, playing blindfolded, etc.

I was more interested in the chocolate next to the board than in the game itself.

Her exhibitions were even broadcast live on television at the age of eight, attracting a national audience and putting her in the spotlight. This fame may have been too much for a child to handle, causing her to give up chess years later.

And you? What were you doing when you were six?

Well, I didn't even know how to play chess and was probably just proud that I could tie my shoelaces by myself! Meanwhile, Jutta Hempel was casually defeating the best players in her city, thinking about the chocolate she would eat to celebrate.

2. Miguel Najdorf - A Way Of Reconnection

The next one I would like to mention was an event that also set a world record at the time, although it was broken in 2016 (which will be covered in a future chapter).

On January 21, 1947, in São Paulo, Brazil, the renowned Polish-Argentinean chess master Miguel Najdorf played a simultaneous blindfold match against 45 opponents.

This exhibition took place during the city's anniversary celebrations and lasted 23 hours and 25 minutes. Imagine having to concentrate on many different games for almost an entire day without seeing them and still fighting drowsiness. That’s crazy!

The final score was even more impressive. He finished with 39 wins, 4 draws, and only 2 losses. For me, though, what makes this event really historic is its ultimate purpose.

Najdorf did it in the hope that the worldwide publicity would reach his family in Poland and alert them to his whereabouts. He had fled his home country after the outbreak of World War II. Also, remember that news at the time was not as easily accessible as it is today.

Sadly, however, the attempt was fruitless because his relatives had perished in the Holocaust and thus did not hear about his record-breaking performance. Nevertheless, his willingness to do this for such a noble personal cause is commendable.

But obviously, this was not the only time Najdorf played simultaneous matches blindfolded. Another famous event worth mentioning took place in Havana, Cuba, in 1962, when he played ten opponents, including Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, the leaders of the Cuban Revolution.

However, knowing that defeating authoritarian politicians might not be wise, he offered them both a draw, which they accepted. You can read more about Che Guevara's relationship with chess in the blog post by my friend @DocSimooo: Che(ss) Guevara - The Legend At The Chessboard.

3. Robert Wade - A Disaster

Usually, when we check the results of simultaneous matches hosted by masters, we see a high percentage of victories. I would say the vast majority score over 80%, and I am probably underestimating. Unfortunately, sometimes things take an unexpected turn for the worse.

Of course, one of the worst outcomes of such events must be mentioned here. The most painful part is that it was my fellow countryman, International Master Robert Wade, who starred in this historic event.

In 1951, he played against 30 Russian schoolboys, all of whom were 14 years old or younger. Rumor has it that some coaches and friends warned him against it because those were not random kids, but rather students of the Dvorets Pionerov in Moscow, the best chess school in the most powerful country at the time.

Simuls against Soviet teenagers were always challenging for foreigners. The Soviets would field their best possible team as a way to demonstrate the superiority of their chess education system. Even world champion Max Euwe had famously advised visiting chess masters to never play against Soviet "pioneers."

But Wade was determined and decided to give it a try anyway.

After seven hours of play, he lost 20 games and drew the remaining 10. This equates to a mere 5 points out of 30 games, an almost ridiculous score of 16.7%.

On the bright side, though, you probably would not know who Robert Wade was if not for that. We cannot deny that it gave him fame and put him in chess history. Any publicity is good publicity!

However, the absolute worst result in a simultaneous exhibition was Joe Hayden's 2 wins and 18 losses (10%) in August 1977. His two victories were scored against his mother and a player who got tired of waiting and left mid-game.

4. Timur Gareyev - Blindfold Record

As I said earlier, Najdorf's world record for the most simultaneous blindfolded games, set in 1947, has already been broken. Now, let's talk about the current record, which was set on December 4, 2016, by Timur Gareyev, an American GM born in Uzbekistan.

In this event, held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he played against 48 opponents without seeing any boards. The simul lasted 19 hours and 9 minutes and ended with a final score of 35 wins, 7 draws, and 6 losses, meaning a success rate of about 80.2%.

While researching this article, I also learned that Gareyev applied some specific methods to prepare for these games. His performance was backed by many strategies designed to ensure he would be able to perform it.

Firstly, he reportedly used a 'memory palace' technique to map each chessboard to a room or spatial location in his mind, enabling him to remember sequences of moves. Before the games, he also chatted with some opponents to identify their voice signatures. This allowed him to associate a particular board with someone's voice when they spoke.

Interestingly, Gareyev rode an exercise bike throughout the event as a way to maintain blood flow and alertness. He had already used this physical regimen in some previous exhibitions, too.

However, since we are talking about blindfold simultaneous exhibitions, I would also like to briefly mention Harry Nelson Pillsbury, who was one of the pioneers of this type of performance. He began hosting them in the late 19th century, with his record being twenty-two opponents in Moscow in 1902.

Although that doesn't sound like too many compared to 48, it was a pretty impressive feat for that time. Sadly, Pillsbury left us too early due to a syphilis infection in 1906, at the age of 33.

5. Susan Polgár - Women's Record

Stepping out of the blindfold scene again, we must now talk about the women’s world record for the most simultaneous games played. Naturally, such an achievement could only come from the greatest female chess family in history: the Polgár sisters.

However, this feat was not accomplished by the most famous sibling, Judit, but rather by the eldest, Susan Polgár. On August 1, 2005, she gave a massive simultaneous exhibition at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach, Florida, playing against 326 opponents.

Her final score was 309 wins, 14 draws, and only 3 losses, resulting in an astonishing win percentage of approximately 96.93%. This performance lasted about 16 hours and 30 minutes. Throughout the event, she reportedly walked 9.1 miles (approximately 14.6 kilometers in normal people’s measurement units) around the venue.

At the time, Susan broke two records with it: the most simultaneous games played by any individual (man or woman) and the highest percentage score in a simul with more than 50 players, although I could not double-check this information.

Some male players broke the "open" record not too long after that, but this exhibition is still recognized as the women's world record in terms of number of boards and wins.

And obviously, Susan was not the only one in the family to host this kind of event. Judit and Sofia Polgár have also participated in numerous simultaneous matches throughout their careers. One very famous occasion occurred not too long ago.

On March 4, 2024, Judit and Sofia held a simul in the Bundestag (the German parliament) in Berlin as part of the “Chess4Solidarity” initiative to honor the hostages taken from Israel to Gaza. They faced 40 challengers in the exhibition. However, the results were not published.

To read about the most brilliant female performance, stick with me until chapter 7.

6. Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami - World Record

Naturally, after reading about so many different records, you might be thinking, "Okay, Vanessa, but what is the ultimate one? How many people did the real record-breaker play against?" Don’t worry, it is time to find out, and I recommend holding on to your chair because the number is jaw-dropping.

From February 8 to 9, 2011, GM Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami organized a massive simultaneous exhibition at Shahid Beheshti University’s sports stadium in Tehran, Iran. The event lasted about 25 hours, and he played against (hold your breath) 604 opponents!

The Guinness World Records book considered this performance as the record of ‘Most simultaneous games of chess by an individual’. But for me, even more impressive than that are the results he achieved: 580 wins, 16 draws, and 8 losses, corresponding to a 97.35% success rate.

According to estimated calculations, Ghaem-Maghami walked around 55 km going from board to board during the simul. This is longer than a marathon, so it was not only his mind that had to be in pretty good shape.

To be able to sustain his focus and mental energy for such a long time, Ehsan was monitored by a physician, masseur, and dietitian, and followed a strict nutrition program. Some short breaks were also scheduled.

Also, because large simuls are logistically complex, independent verification is critical. This included scorecards, video surveillance, and witnesses. According to some media outlets, many cameras recorded the moves, and FIDE arbiters supervised throughout. Imagine if someone were to cheat in such a situation. That would be shameful and ruin everything.

Just in case you are wondering, the previous record had been held by Alik Gershon, an Israeli GM. In October 2010, he played 523 simultaneous games, winning 454, drawing 58, and losing 11. Pff, ridiculously easy... No, just kidding, that's mind-blowing too!

7. Vanessa Bristow - My Own Simultaneous

And of course, to conclude this article, I would like to share more about my own simul, which I hosted at my home in Auckland with three friends!

First, to give you some context, these were basically my two best friends and the boyfriend of one of them. The two girls, Sarah and Lisa, always knew that I could play chess, but they were never interested in learning.

Until the day Lisa started dating Aaron, a guy who... also couldn't play. Like me, however, they are big Lord of the Rings fans and bought me a themed chess set for my birthday last year.

When I received it, we joked that they would have to learn how to play, too, so that we could have fun with it together. To my utter surprise, a little before Christmas, they started watching videos, learning the basics, and had even bought a chess book. After hearing about it, we convinced Sarah to join them.

In January of this year, just a few days after the New Zealand Chess Congress ended, we decided to play this simultaneous match. It was me against them all, who had around two weeks of chess.

You can see how it went below.

As expected, I won all three games. Their ratings were probably below 900 at the time, so it was not that hard to share the attention between three boards making blunders.

Before writing this article, I was not sure if they were still playing. However, after asking around, I found out that Lisa and Aaron don't play online but still challenge each other sporadically with the set they bought for them in the beginning. Apparently, Sarah did not play a single game after losing to me.

I just hope I was not responsible for demotivating them.

8. Conclusion

Thank you very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed finding out more about the wonderful world of simultaneous chess matches. Personally, I have always been amazed by this kind of thing since I was a child, as it shows just how strong grandmasters and professional players are compared to ordinary people.

And you? Have you ever played against multiple opponents at the same time? If so, how many? And how well did you perform? If not, I recommend giving it a try, as it is great fun, and it activates areas of the brain that need some exercise. Just be careful not to end up like Bart Simpson!

Also, if you have ever participated in an event hosted by a famous player, please let me know in the comments section who it was, how it went, and, of course, the result. I would love to hear about your experience, and I dream that I will have the opportunity to take part one day, too.

That’s all for today, folks! We will meet again in 15 days for an article about another fantastic season of BlogChamps, the best blog competition on this website! I hope you will join me for that one.