The Indian record for playing the most number of opponents in a simultaneous exhibition was set by the very dynamic GM Abhijit Kunte when he played 155 opponents on 5th January 2014, thereby breaking the previously set record of playing 150 players by Dhyani Dave.
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GM Abhijit Kunte, 37, has participated many times in the Indian Chess Championship, winning two gold medals (1997, 2000) and four bronze medals (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005). Abhijit won the British Chess Championship at Edinburgh 2003, and two medals in the Commonwealth Chess Championship. He has represented India four times at Chess Olympiads (1998–2004), and won seven medals in the Asian Team Chess Championship. In 2007, he took the bronze medal at Cebu City's Asian Chess Championship and played in the Chess World Cup 2007 (Khanty-Mansiysk) where lost a knockout match to Vadim Zviagintsev). He won or shared first at Kolkata 1998, Blackpool 2003, Kolkata 2004, New Delhi 2005, Guelph 2005, Kitchener 2006 and Mumbai 2008. Abhijit Kunte was awarded the grandmaster title in 2000. |
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Kunte was at his sheer best in the record simul as he scored a whooping 149 points (145 wins, 8 draws and 2 losses) out of 155. That amounts to a meritorious score of almost 96%! Abhijit, who had the white pieces in all the games, played for eight and a half hours and as per the calculations he nearly walked twelve km in completing this simultaneous event!
The simultaneous was a real challenge for him as he faced 30 rated players. What was his strategy and how did he approach simul? I shall come to that later. But first let us know more about the event.
The heart and soul behind organizing this event was the Fide Instructor Praful Zaveri (above). He is the founder of Indian Chess School, a chess academy that is very popular in Mumbai. Almost all of the players participating in the simul were from his chess school. As he mentioned after the simul, his main intention was not breaking the Limca record – that was just ancillary. The main benefit was that the event gave his young students an opportunity to play against one of the best GMs of the nation.
When Kunte addressed the gathering before the simul began he pumped in life to the event by saying: "You are 155 and I am only one, but expect no mistakes from me! I am here to beat all of you!"
The thing which seperated this event from the other simultaneous exhibitions was the transparency with which it was conducted. First of all, all the games were recorded, with the name of each and every player participating in the event. Secondly there was live webcast of the entire 8.5 hours on the internet. You can watch the video here. The event was also broadcasted on the local TV network.
It is measures like this that brings credibility to such events, and there remains no doubt as regards to the correctness of the facts. Thus I think this event will be accepted by the Limca Book of Records and it will surely be remembered in the days to come.
The venue for the event was the MCF club in Borivali, Mumbai, which boasts huge tennis courts. The 155 boards were excellently placed to form a square along the boundaries. This meant that not only could the spectators got a great view of the games, but also the sponsors of the event (mainly SBI Life Insurance) got excellent publicity. The branding of the event was done excellently.
Also one of the interesting points about this arrangement was that the players could always see where the GM is when he is making his moves. That meant they could estimate the time before he would come to make his move and be ready for it. Good thinking by the organizers.
The event started round around 3 p.m. and ended at 11:30 in the night!
The quality of games was quite good. Though Abhijit Kunte played some excellent games and crushed many of his opponents, I think everyone is more excited to see the games in which the GM was beaten! Out of 155 games, Abhijit only lost two, and here are both of these encounters.
Om Borkar with his trainers
Tanuj Dayal was a little lucky, but beating a GM is always a huge achievement
Off the board its easy to miss this little Kabir Belgikar (above, rated 1381), but on the board he stamped his authority when he was completely winning against the GM. But he took a threefold repetition in the end. I think with right training and guidance, the day won't be far when he would be beating GMs in one on one encounter!
The kids of Indian Chess School with Abhijit Kunte...
... a photograph to cherish forever!
– Part two will follow soon –
