Best and Worst Results in Simultaneous Exhibitions
In 1922, José Raúl Capablanca, the recently crowned World Champion, played 103 opponents simultaneously in Cleveland. He completed the exhibition in seven hours, scoring 102 wins and one draw (99.5%), the best result ever in a simultaneous exhibition on over 75 boards. (Damsky 2005, p. 235) (Chernev 1974, p. 8)
The best result in a simultaneous exhibition solely against grandmasters is World Champion Garry Kasparov's performance against a West German team consisting of Vlastimil Hort, Eric Lobron, Matthias Wahls, and Gerald Hertneck at Baden-Baden in 1992. Unusually for simultaneous exhibitions, half of the players (Lobron and Hertneck) played White. Kasparov beat Lobron and Wahls, and drew the other two players, for a 3–1 victory. (Damsky 2005, pp. 247–49) Before the term "grandmaster" was in common usage or had an established meaning, Paul Morphy gave an arguably even more impressive exhibition. On April 26, 1859, at London's St. James Chess Club, Morphy played "five games simultaneously against a group of masters who could be described as among the top ten players of the day", scoring 3–2. He defeated Jules Arnous de Rivière and Henry Bird, drew Samuel Boden and Johann Löwenthal, and lost only to Thomas Wilson Barnes. (Soltis 2002, p. 103)
The worst result in a simultaneous exhibition given by a master occurred in 1951, when International Master Robert Wade gave a simultaneous exhibition against 30 Russian schoolboys, aged 14 and under. After 7 hours of play, Wade had lost 20 games and drew the remaining 10 (16.7%) (Kotov 1964, p. 66) (Chernev 1974, p. 110) (Fox & James 1993, pp. 170–71).
The absolute worst result in a simultaneous exhibition was two wins and 18 losses (10%) by Joe Hayden, aged 17, in August 1977. Hayden wanted to set an American record by playing 180 people simultaneously at a shopping center in Cardiff, NJ, but only 20 showed up to play. Hayden lost 18 of the games (including one to a seven-year-old). His two wins were scored against his mother and a player who got tired of waiting and left in mid-game, thus forfeiting the game (Fox & James 1993, pp. 190–91).
Read more about this topic: List Of World Records In Chess
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