|
Inside Susan Polgar's World Records
Reported by Paul Truong
|
AMERICA’S #1 RANKED
FEMALE CHESS PLAYER
SETS FOUR NEW
WORLD RECORDS AT THE GARDENS MALL |
.jpg) |
Palm Beach Gardens,
Florida…In a marathon 16-and-a-half hours, Grandmaster Susan Polgar set not
one, but four new records, and unofficially set a Guinness World Record for
the most simultaneous matches.
More than 500 people
from around the world, ranging in ages from 4 - 95, turned out at The
Gardens Mall on Monday, August 1st 2005, for a chance to compete against the
first female celebrity icon of the chess world. The games began at
10:30 am and wrapped up at 3:00 am.
After 326 players
signed up, the organizers decided to stop the registration process not to
delay the Guinness World Record event. It was amazing to see rows and
rows of tables, chairs and chess sets throughout the mall from Sears to
Bloomingdale’s.
After the first
Guinness World Record attempt was on the way, more people still showed up
wanting to play. Rather than turning players away, the organizer consulted
with Susan and she consented to go for a second record of most consecutive
games played which was 1102 games by WGM Anna-Maria Botsari from Greece.
Susan ended up playing against 551 opponents and 1,131 games.
“I am very happy
that I chose The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens as the site to break the
Guinness World Chess Records,” said Grandmaster Susan Polgar. “The
turnout was incredible, much more than I could have imagined!”
“Grandmaster Susan
Polgar’s World Record Chess Challenge” was presented by Joel Channing,
Chairman of Channing Corporation, Director of the U.S. Chess Trust and
Member Elect of the U.S. Chess Federation, as well as Donald Schultz, Member
of the Executive Board and Past President of the U.S. Chess Federation.
Special guests
included vice mayor (and former mayor) Eric Jablin, countless officials from
Palm Beach Gardens, the Managing Director of the US Chess Trust Barbara
DeMaro and the Executive Director of the USCF Mr. Bill Hall.
Supporting
organizations for the World Record chess challenge include the Susan Polgar
Foundation, the U.S. Chess Trust, The Gardens Mall, Northern Palm Beaches
Chamber of Commerce, PGA Corridor Association, Boca Raton Chess Club, Palm
Beach County Sports Commission, The Palm Beach Post, Florida Coca-Cola
Bottling Co., Palm Beach Gardens Marriott and William T. Dwyer High School.
Joel Channing, Don
Schultz, Jon and Jeffrey Haskel were helping out until 3:30 AM. They were
the last to leave and they arrived at around 8 AM!! All of them were
basically on their feet the entire time!
It was a true
cooperation between the Channing Corporation, the US Chess Trust, the USCF,
the Boca Raton Chess Club, the Susan Polgar Foundation and all the local
Palm Beach Gardens folks.
New Records by
Grandmaster Susan Polgar:
1) 326 Simultaneous
Games Played
(309 wins, 14 draws, 3
losses = 96.93% in 16 hours and 30 minutes)
2) Most games won
309
3) Highest
percentage 96.93%
4) 1,131 Consecutive
Games Played against 554 opponents
(Overall 1,112 wins, 16
draws, 3 losses)
Fun Facts
- The event started
at 10:30am.
- Players from
Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Jamaica, Hungary, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and
Canada participated in the world record attempt.
- Susan Polgar
walked 9.1 miles from 10:30am – 3:00am, as follows:
3:45 PM - 6,816
steps taken - 4.3 miles
5:15 PM - 8,091 steps taken - 5.1 miles
6:45 PM - 8,879 steps taken - 5.6 miles
9:15 PM - 9,733 steps taken - 6.1 miles
12:00 AM - 11,421 steps taken - 7.2 miles
1:00 AM - 12,395 steps taken - 7.85 miles
2:00 AM - 13,220 steps taken - 8.4 miles
3:00 AM - 14,361 steps taken - 9.1 miles
- Susan Polgar only
took five 5-minute breaks throughout the 16.5 hour event.
- The three losses
were to the following players:
Joe Salzman 12:23am; Joshua M.
Downey 2:15am; Kenneth Bachman 2:55am
- The last official
game ended at 3:00am.
Previous Records:
1st previous record:
321 games (294 wins, 26 draws, 1 loss = 95.64%) by IM Andrew Martin
(England)
2nd previous record:
1102 games played consecutively by WGM Anna-Maria Botsari (Greece)
3rd previous record:
95.64% by IM Andrew Martin (England)
Polgar is a pioneer
in women’s chess, an ambassador to the game, and a role model to millions of
young women worldwide. She is the founder of the Susan Polgar
Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes chess to young people,
especially girls. Polgar started playing adult men in Hungarian chess
parlors when she was 4-and-a-half. At 17, she became the first woman
ever to qualify for the Men’s World Championship. Four years later, at
age 21, she became the world’s first female grandmaster, the World Chess
Federations’ designation for the top-ranked players.
Her previous
records include:
- 4-time Women’s
World Chess Champion
- The only World
Champion in history (male or female) to win the Chess Triple Crown 5-time
Olympic Champion with 10 overall medals, and has never been defeated in
Olympiad competition.
- Currently holds a
record 56 consecutive Olympiad game-scoring streak without a loss
Visit the
Susan Polgar
Foundation for more information and downloadable photos.
The Gardens Mall is
located one mile east of I-95 on PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens. For
more information about The Gardens Mall call 561/775-7750, or visit them
online at
thegardensmall.com. The Gardens Mall is managed by The Forbes
Company of Southfield, Michigan.
| Addendum:
The former record
holder, famous opening theoretician IM Andrew Martin (see
Bits and Pieces) has
raised some questions regarding the setting of these records by GM Polgar. |
 |
Martin writes in an
open letter:
I write to you
because I know you to be fair. I am interested in the statistics of
the recent Susan Polgar simul records in the light of my own experience as
the previous holder of this Guinness Record.
Our display took six
months of meticulous planning, day in, day out, to get 321 people in the
same place on the same day. We had to provide Guinness with photographic and
documented evidence to satisfy them that the opponents WERE OF A MINIMUM
REQUIRED STANDARD. Right up until the last minute, we could not be
sure that we had the number of players needed.
We sent Guinness
game scores and all ratings of the opponents ( if they had one). Roughly
50-75 were of club standard, including several junior internationals and
30-40 1800+ players.
I found this a
really grueling event and was only too glad when it finished.
Yet Polgar seems to
have taken this record to an entirely new level, but my question is.....how?
Let's take a look at
the stats.
1st record ( 3
records according to the press release) Most opponents/Most games
won/Highest percentage 326 opponents 309 wins 14 draws 3 losses 96.93%
2nd record Most
consecutive games 1131 games - 1112 wins 16 draws 3 losses the percentage is
astronomical. Total opponents 554
I just don't
understand this second record. How can one play so many games in such a
short time ? ( 16.5 hrs = 990 mins ) How long were these games-how many
moves ?
That's less than 1
min per game overall!
Somehow Polgar fits
in an extra 805 games - winning 803 (!!) and drawing only two, finding an
extra 228 opponents out of nowhere and fits it in seamlessly with the other
record. Amazing!
How do you persuade
so many people to sit there for so long waiting for the moves to be played ?
One round takes 30-40 mins minimum. Kids, OAP's, very weak players
just aren't capable of it! We had serious crowd control problems on
the day because we had a lot of kids.
Susan is a great
player so of course she is capable of a great result, but has the marketing
gone too far on this occasion? What credibility can we attach to these
figures? And should these records stand?
Yours, IM Andrew
Martin
Susan responds:
Hello David,
Malcolm, Jeremy and Frederic,
I received a few
e-mails this morning about the public letter from IM Andrew Martin. I would
like to take this opportunity to respond. I am also copying Mr. Joel
Channing (President of Channing Corporation / VP of Finance of the US Chess
Federation / organizer and sponsor of the World Record Simul), Mr. Don
Schultz (VP of the US Chess Federation / past President of the US Chess
Federation), Mrs. Barbara DeMaro (Managing Director of the US Chess Trust)
and Mr. Paul Azzurro (President of Chess on DVDs / one of the sponsors of
the World Record Simul).
I would like to say
that the World Record Simul was the hardest and most complicated thing to
organize and achieve. This was planned more 2 years ago, even before
Andrew's World Record. My team and I had discussions with New York (via Mr.
Ken Podziba [NY City Sports Commissioner] about Grand Central Station or
Central Park) and California (via Mr. Erik Anderson [founder of AF4C which
organizes the annual $250,000 US Championship] about Lego Land) and others
about hosting the World Record Simul before we decided to choose the Gardens
Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, one of the most prestigious upscale shopping
centers in the state of Florida.
Before a final
decision was made in regard to the location, we had a face to face meeting
with the organizers in Palm Beach Gardens which included the management of
Gardens Mall, representatives from the Palm Beach Sports Commission, the
North Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor’s office of Palm Beach
Gardens, the Palm Beach Post, the local chess organizers, chess clubs as
well as the Chief Organizers Mr. Joel Channing and Mr. Don Schultz. The
reason why we chose Palm Beach Gardens was they offered the biggest staff to
help organize every single little detail to make the event successful.
Even after the
decision was made, it still took more than 6 months to organize this
extremely difficult event. Mr. Joel Channing and Mr. Schultz had countless
meetings with the staff in Florida during the 6 months preparation phase.
They reached out to local government, sponsors, business owners,
corporations, schools, clubs, etc. My team also did things from NY to reach
out to additional people. Overall, more than 20 people worked on this
project for more than half a year and more than 50 people helped in various
capacities. As I mentioned earlier, this was the hardest and most
complicated event to put together.
For your
information, no one (especially me) had any intention of breaking any other
record beside the 321 games by IM Martin. That was hard enough in itself. I
will explain how the rest happened later in this letter. In addition, just
to ensure that the record can be broken, I hit the gym almost daily for a
year to prepare physically.
Even with all the
meticulous planning and preparation, we had to cancel the original date
which was planned in June 2005. It was too difficult and we could not make
it happen the first time. We could not get enough players to commit.
Everyone involved unanimously agreed to delay the event by 2 months to
August 1-2 to give us the best chance to succeed. Even with the extra two
months, we had to literally go through hell to make it happen. We even
considered canceling the event the second time because we did not think we
would hit the numbers. At the end, we decided to give it our best shot and
went for it on August 1, 2005.
| We
did have some luck a few days before the simul. I was in Palm Beach
Gardens a week early, to meet the media and record my new animated chess
DVD. The filming took place at the WPBF-TV (ABC) studio in Palm Beach
Gardens. While I was shooting, Mr. Paul Azzurro (President of Chess on
DVDs) and my business manager received a tour of the TV studio. That
was when they accidentally met one of the station's anchors Mr. John
Shainman. |
%20and%20Susan%202.jpg) |
When John heard
about the World Record Simul, he thought that the event was fascinating so
he decided to interview me immediately.
|
I was then
interviewed during the DVD filming lunch break...
 |
Various clips were
shown about 8-9 times on WPBF-TV (ABC) a few days before the simul took
place. This helped create a big buzz and got many more people to show up.
We also got
tremendous help from many big newspapers in Florida promoting the World
Record Event (Palm Beach Post, Sun-Sentinel, etc.). In addition, our
organizers made calls to as many people as they could to up to the last
minute. They contacted every single chess club in Florida and even some in
neighboring states. At the same time, I was contacting everyone I know in
Florida. My business manager sent out thousands of emails as well.
Even with all the
preparation and hard work, we were on pins and needles on the morning of the
simul. I personally arrived at 7 AM to mentally prepare. The
simul was supposed to be at 10 AM. At 9:30 AM, we only had about 250 players
checked in. At 9:45 AM, we had about 275 checked in. At 10 AM,
we had only about 305 people checked in. The simul was now officially
late. We only managed to check in about 315 people at 10:15 AM.
That is why we had to delay the event until approximately 10:30-10:35 AM to
get 326 players and the simul officially began with Mr. Eric Jablin, former
Mayor and current Vice-Mayor of Palm Beach Gardens. Multiple TV
stations were on hand along with a number of print reporters.
Approximately 45
minutes to an hour after the original 326 games have started, more and more
players were still arriving because of the newspaper and TV promotion.
As the number of extra people reached more than 50, the organizers came up
with the idea of allowing these people to join the simul for an outside shot
breaking the second record of consecutive games played. They came to
consult with me and I told them that I have no problem with it. Since
extra sets, boards and spaces were available, they immediately set things up
and we were on our way to attempt to set both records at once. After a
player lost, he/she had the option to start another game or give up the seat
for another player to start a new game. The official record certifiers
marked down each new game played and added it to the second total.
The biggest help I
actually got to successfully complete the simul came from the dazzling work
of the professional engineering / designing staff. They worked very
hard to come up with the most efficient method to set up the tables and
chairs to minimize the walking distance to speed things up. The worked
for a number of months to perfect the brilliant set up.
In addition, my team
came up with an ingenious system in placing all the strongest players in one
section knowing that their games would most likely last the longest.
The organizers had a list of all the pre-registered players with full names
and ratings if applicable. Each player had to wear their simul ID
numbers in the front and on the back of their commemorative T-Shirts at all
times. This plan saved additional hours to complete the rounds as the
weaker players were eliminated much faster. The plan worked out
perfectly. I estimated that it probably saved me at least a few hours
from the total time.
|
PT: This picture was
taken at 12:56 AM on August 2. This is the strongest section of
the simul. There were 48 players in this section. As you
can see, the person on the right (with black and white shirt) on the
bottom of the picture is the man who was the last to finish. The
man in the yellow shirt on the other end on the bottom of the picture
is Mr. Schultz. Two of the losses and some draws came from this
section. There were still many spectators at around 1 AM. |
 |
During the simul,
the official designated record certifiers were walking alongside with me the
entire time to record all detailed information. They never left my
side with the exception of a few rest room breaks. These dedicated
officials probably ended up walking more than I did. As I was walking,
I was wearing a pedometer to record the walking distance and steps taken.
Hundreds of pictures were taken before, during and at the conclusion of the
event.
Countless people
were video taping the event (since it was in the middle of a shopping mall)
including TV media. We are all disappointed that even though the
organizers invited the Guinness people to send a representative, no one
came. That is why the organizers decided to have additional record
certifiers to make sure each detail is precisely authenticated. I am
sure they would be more than happy to furnish the folks from Guinness with
any additional information as needed.
There is one fact I
would like to clarify. Each game did not take a minute to complete by
both sides but only by me. While I was walking, my opponents had
plenty of time to think. We did not allow any pass. Therefore, a
move must be made as I arrive at the board. Then I responded basically
instantly. My moves against the weaker players did not take more than
a second or two at most. If each game averages 30 moves or even less,
it would take about a minute or less to complete. After all, I gave
more than 1,000 exhibition simul games in the last year or two throughout
the United States and North America. Therefore, I had a lot of
practice in advance.
Since the event was
held in the middle of a very popular shopping center, we had no choice with
the crowd. Thousands of people saw the event. Unfortunately, we
made a minor mistake in holding the event during the school summer break.
Therefore, we had a lot less young people than expected and the majority of
the players were adults. That actually turned out to be a blessing in
disguise even though some of the players that stayed almost until the end
were children.
The mall was opened
throughout the night while it usually closes at 9 PM. The mall
management hired additional security personal to stay with us until the
conclusion of the simul. Restaurants located in the mall donated food
for the players and volunteers and Coca Cola donated the refreshments.
Many sponsors such
as Chess4Less, Excalibur Electronics, the World Chess Hall of Fame, American
Chess Equipments and the Susan Polgar Foundation donated goodies for the
players including the chess sets and commemorative boards. TV stands
were also set up throughout the entire playing area with different movies
playing to keep the children entertained. We had so many people
volunteering to help. It was an incredible team effort from so many
people for many months and everyone took pride in what they do.
I must say that
Andrew Martin played a major role in helping me break the records. He
was so gracious to offer his valuable advice in what and what not to do from
his own personal experience. Therefore, we made sure to work out all the
kinks before hand. Even though I physically worked out very hard,
because of Andrew’s warning, I worked even harder with my physical fitness.
I was exhausted at the end but I was in much better shape than expected due
to the extra physical preparation. Thank you Andrew!
|
 |
PT:
This picture was taken at 3:25 AM on August 2. This was the last group
and we were wrapping things up. There are 11 people in this picture,
plus me (taking the picture) and a couple people who did not want to
be in the picture. |
Thanks to the hard
work of Mr. Channing and Mr. Schultz on behalf of the United States Chess
Federation and the United States Chess Trust, members of the organizing
committee representing Gardens Mall, the city of Palm Beach Gardens and
Northern Palm Beach Sports Commission, etc., and countless other volunteers
spending hundreds if not thousands of combine hours to make this event
happen, we managed to pull it off. Playing chess was actually the
easiest part.
I hope that Andrew
will attempt to break this record as soon as possible. Then I will
attempt again to break his new record. Perhaps we can start a new
tradition for the benefit of chess. I think this will be beneficial to
both countries and chess in general.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
www.SusanPolgar.com
www.SusanPolgar.BlogSpot.com
www.SusanPolgarFoundation.org
www.PolgarChess.com
Paul Truong then
adds:
Susan has always
embraced the spectators. She said the crowd energized her and the
bigger the better. She did not want to eat. She basically had a
few energy bars. She does not drink, smoke or drink soda. Her
only request was to have fresh squeeze juice with no or very little ice.
There was a juice bar in the mall and we had people getting her juice when
she requested. The restroom was right there so there was hardly any
walking distance to it. And by the way, this was the first time Susan
has ever done a simul in sneakers. She usually wears heels when she
conducts a simul.
Hard work does pay off. That is the Polgar's motto throughout their
careers. The state of Florida, the city of Palm Beach Gardens and
its Mayor Office, the county of Palm Beach and its Sports Commission, the
United States Chess Federation, the United States Chess Trust, the
prestigious Gardens Mall, the highly successful Channing Corporation and a
number of well known chess personalities put their hearts and souls (for
more than 6 months) and reputation to make sure that every detail is
authenticated.
The engineers designed separate but efficient sections / quarters to make
it so much easier to handle and keep track of stats. In addition, it was
better mentally, psychologically and physically to see these sections /
quarters shrinking down as time passed. The organizers came up with the
idea of placing players based on their ratings / strength in these
sections / quarters. It happened to work out perfectly. In addition, the
boards were placed very close to each other as seen in various pictures to
save the walking distance. We paid attention to every little detail. All
these factors played a major role in reducing the total time. They even
made sure to place the set up right by the restroom to save time.
The overall strength of the original 326 were stronger than the people who
started the games later for the second record of consecutive games played.
We had players who flew in from various countries to participate. One big
family came as far as Turkey and they played until around 1:30 AM if I
remember correctly.
|
This is the picture of the
last official game of the simul. Susan was signing the board and score
sheet for her opponent. According to the clock inside my camera (Canon
EOS 20D), it shows 3:04 AM on August 2. The man in the black shirt is
Mr. Joel Channing, President of Channing Corporation, VP of Finance of
the US Chess Federation and board member of the US Chess Trust. He was
one of chief organizers of the event. He was also one of the official
records certifiers. As correctly stated by Susan earlier, one of the
records certifiers was with Susan at all times. |
 |
Mr. Channing
personally helped set up the boards and pieces the night before. He
was one the first people to show up the morning of the simul and was among
the last group to leave with Susan. There are two heads peaking out at
the other end of the table in the picture above. The one closer to
Susan is Mr. Don Schultz (VP of the USCF and past President). He is
still analyzing his game against Susan with a friend. As I stated, he
is a chess fanatic and he also stayed all the way until the end. Mr.
Schultz is one of the records certifiers as well.
The bottom line is this was an operation that took thousands of hours to
plan, prepare and execute by more than 50 volunteers from the state,
county, city, sponsors, national federation, national organization and so
on. It was an event that was done in public in front of thousands of
people in the middle of a very popular mall and it was certified by the
high ranking officials of the US Chess Federation, US Chess Trust and the
office of the Mayor of Palm Beach Gardens.
Susan did not keep any statistic while playing. Her job was to play
chess and fully concentrate the entire time while wearing the pedometer.
That was hard enough and I am sure you can agree with that. She
would have no idea of how many people or games were played while she was
playing. The statistics were kept by the official record keepers /
certifiers and they were the ones who submitted the information to
Guinness. They firmly stand behind their records and they will
furnish Guinness with the necessary documents.
Best regards, Paul
 
As
information becomes available from the Guinness folks themselves, Chessville
will update this page. |
%20and%20Susan%204.jpg)
