Daniel Dardha Breaks World Record With 50-Board Clock Simul
Nineteen-year-old Belgian GM Daniel Dardha is reported to have set a new world record after playing a 50-board clock simul this month, pending official approval.
The young grandmaster scored 40 wins, drew seven games, and had only three losses in the event, which took place in the concert hall of Deinze, Belgium, on June 9. With a total score of 43.5/50 (87 percent), the young grandmaster surpassed the record set by GM Sipke Ernest in 2022, who played 47 games and scored 35 points (74 percent).
Dardha's record is yet to be approved by the Guinness Book of World Records, but the Belgian Chess Federation said they have filed all the necessary paperwork for the record to be registered.
GM Daniel Dardha sets a new world record attempt in Belgium! 🇧🇪
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) June 19, 2025
On June 9, Belgium’s No. 1, GM Daniel Dardha, took on 50 opponents in a clock simultaneous exhibition organized by Chess Club Karpov Deinze — a potential new world record! ⏱️ The average rating of his challengers… pic.twitter.com/9R3JWNbfcX
In contrast with a traditional simul, where players must wait their turn until the master arrives at the board, a clock simul allows all participants to make their move at their own pace, increasing the difficulty level. Each side had two hours on the clock, meaning Dardha had to split his time carefully across the 50 boards. His opponents had an average rating of around 1850.
"It was an extremely intense effort, both physically and mentally," Dardha told Belgium newspaper De Standaard after the achievement. “Walking in circles for hours between 50 different chessboards, where every second counts: that is very tiring.
Dardha is Belgium's most promising player ever, having become national champion as a 13-year-old in 2019. He was just 15 when he became a grandmaster in 2021, and currently has a 2645 FIDE rating, slightly down from his 2665 peak in March.
The 19-year-old felt confident of breaking the record an hour into the simul. "Things were going really well for me on most boards. I felt that I was really in the zone," he told the newspaper.
As noted by chess historian Edward Winter in an extensive article, simultanous exhibitions have long been a tradition in the chess world. with former world champions such as Jose Raul Capablanca and Miguel Najdorf playing against hundreds of opponents.
In modern times, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami faced 604 opponents during a simul in 2011, but Guinness notes on their website that 469 of those did not meet the qualifying criteria of having a rating of at least 1200, so the current record stands at 135.
If approved by Guinness, it would be the second record set this year. In April, Tunde Onakoya and NM Shawn Martinez completed the longest-ever chess marathon, playing for an astonishing 64 hours on New York's iconic Times Square.
