Chessville News - Susan Polgar's World Record Chess Challenge

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Susan Polgar's
World Record Chess Challenge

Fact Sheet

Location: The Gardens Mall, 3101 PGA Boulevard, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410

Date: Monday, August 1st - 2nd (a 24-hour period) Start Time: 10am

World Record Ratification Body: Guinness Book of World Records

World Record Attempt: Playing the greatest number of chess games simultaneously

Challenger: Grandmaster Susan Polgar

Challenger’s Qualifications:

Currently #1 ranked female chess player in the United States
4-time Women’s World Chess Champion – The only World Champion in history (male of female) to win the Chess Triple-Crown (World Rapid, Blitz and Classical Chess Championship)
5-time Chess Olympiad Champion (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze)
1st American woman ever to rank #1 in the world (January 2005)
1st ranked #1 in the world at age 15 – Top 3 in the world for more than 20 straight years
1st woman to become a Grandmaster (1991)
1st woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship (1986)

Opponents: Chess enthusiasts from all over Florida

Supporting Organizations: Susan Polgar Foundation, the Gardens Mall, Channing Corporation, Northern Palm Beaches Chamber of Commerce, Boca Raton Chess Club, Palm Beach County Sports Institute

Purpose of this event: Raise money for the Susan Polgar Foundation to promote chess, with all its social, educational and competitive benefits throughout the United States, for young people of all ages, especially girls.

How does it work? More than 350 Chess stations are set up in the Gardens Mall. Each chess station consists of a table and chair, a chess board and pieces. Each player is assigned to a station. Susan walks along the rows of tables. At each station she will observe her opponent move. Then she will respond with her move. Then she walks to the next station and repeats the process.

Susan should take 15-20 minutes to complete one full lap in the early stages, from 20-45 minutes during the mid-sections of the games, and 10-20 minutes towards the end as games are completed and stations start to empty out. Susan must win 80 percent of the games to be eligible for the world record.

How does Susan manage to play so many games like this? As Susan walks along the tables, rather than picture each game as a set of individual pieces, she is able to envision the whole as an image, and capture the positions of the pieces intuitively. This allows her to very quickly ascertain her situation in the game, and where her opponents’ weaknesses lie.

Information on the World Record as it stands:

Current Holder: International Chess Master Andrew Martin

Number of simultaneous games played: 321 (During this 16 hour 51 minute marathon, he walked over five miles and played over 7,000 moves in total.)

Location & Date of Current Record: Crowthorne, England, February 21st 2004