My Chess Life

COLIN EXPLAINS HIS SIMUL

From left to right: Tan Eng Seong, Lee Siew Fai (Seremban), Mr. Loh (Seremban),
International Master Jimmy Liew, Raymond Yap (CFO, SP Setia Berhad),
Collin Madhavan, Lim Teck Hoe (Asian Memory Record Holder),
American Master Larry Parr and PS Lim.

Here Colin explains his simul to me through email:

Explanation & Rules for 'The Most Consecutive Chess Games Played'.

As with any other simultaneous chess matches, there will be one player (chess master or expert) who will play against a number of opponents simultaneously. The Chess master/expert will play the White pieces on all boards unless the he decides to play with the Black pieces on selected or all the boards.

Unlike the record for the Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents, the record for the 'Most Consecutive Chess Games Played' will be done as follows:

A) The number of chessboards will be fixed. For example, 80 boards.

B) However, with this record, after a player has lost his/her game, he/she will have the option to start another game or give up the seat for another player to start a new game.

C) So for this record, the number of games start to increase though the chessboards are fixed at 80. That is the reason why the number of games will be higher than the number of players. Some players will play more than 1 game. For my recent match, 14 players played more than 1 game against me.

An good example is Susan Polgar’s match in 2005. She played 326 Simultaneous Chess Opponents (Record - Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents) while her record for 'Most Consecutive Chess Games Played' was 1,131!!

Question:

Why I like this kind of match?

Answer:

Because I think it is very fair to the participants. See below for a comparison between the 2 types of simul matches.

For Most Simultaneous Chess Opponents, some players who started the match against the master/expert, will still be there at the end of the match. In my match against 88 players in May 2008, the last player to finish against me (6.30pm) began playing against me at 9 am!!!

However for Most Consecutive Chess Games Played, the players can leave the moment their game is over. For example, in my recent match, the last player from the morning session left the hall at around 2.15pm, while players who joined the match at 1.30 pm, finished latest by 6.40pm.

Question:

Is it more difficult for the master with the record for Most Consecutive Chess Games Played?

Answer:

Yes, it is mainly because the master/expert is still on his feet playing chess for about hours or so. However, the participants who come in later in the match are fresh and rested. The master will tend to be less sharp than at the start of the match. Furthermore, most of the experts/masters playing in such matches DON’T EAT. Drinking some fruit juice and water is recommended.

For more pictures and info, visit Colin's website.