Ding defeated! Tiviakov celebrates!

by Macauley Peterson
11/11/2018 – Ding Liren lost in Shenzen today for the first time in over 15 months, ending his historic streak at 100 games. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the spoiler, and he now is the co-leader of the tournament along with Yu Yangi. Nikita Vitiugov also won on Sunday, sending Radoslaw Wojtaszek into the cellar. Records are meant to be broken, but the all-time undefeated streak claimed by Sergei Tiviakov is going to be a tough one to crack. He kindly provided all 110 games and a brief description in an attempt to set the record...of the record...straight! | Photo: qipai.org.cn

The Bishop's Opening and The Italian Game The Bishop's Opening and The Italian Game

Studying the content of this DVD and adding these openings to your repertoire will provide players with a very strong tool to fight 1...e5 - as the practice of the author clearly demonstrates.

More...

Streak ends ten games shy of all-time record

The Shenzen Masters doubled the number of decisive games today — and the two new wins came from two new players: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nikitia Vitiugov. Therefore, the tournament lead is now shared by Yu Yangyi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with 4.0/7 and three rounds remaining.

 

Vachier-Lagrave's win is particularly notable by virtue of the fact that it ended the undefeated streak of Ding Liren at an even 100 games.

Ding, playing black in an Italian game, launched his g-pawn early on, following the lead of Pavel Eljanov (amongst others) who tried the same against Anish Giri in Norway Chess 2016 (a game which Giri won). 

 

Play through the moves on the live diagram!

After 10.Bg3 Ba7 11.Na3, Ding was the first to play a new move with 11...Nh7. But the g-pawn went further: 12.Nd2 g4 and just a few moves later Ding was looking over-extended.

13.Nb5 Bb6 14.Bb3 a4 15.Bc2 h5 16.h4:

 

Ding should have settled for near equality in the endgame after 16...gxh3 17.Qxh5 Qg5, but instead he opened the centre when he could ill-afford to do so: 16...d5 17.d4!

A fraught middlegame struggle ensued, culminating in this nice double-desperado-queen sequence:

 

34.Bxc8 Rxc8 35.Qxa6! Qxd4! (bxa6 Ne6+, of course, leaves White a piece up) 36.Qf1 Qe4 37.Rd1 and White is better but there's no need to panic, yet. But Ding continued 37...c5?! (...b6 was more circumspect) 38.Rd6 Qe7? 39.Qa1! Now it's time to panic!

Vachier-Lagrave soon cashed in his attacked against Ding's king for a material advantage and went on to win without great difficulty.

MVL

MVL got to play 'Mordred' today, as he brought Ding Liren's epic undefeated streak to an end | Photo: qipai.org.cn

Tiviakov's 110 games remains the record

When Ding passed Mikhail Tal's mark of 95 games without a loss, which has often been referred to as the absolute record, Chinese officials threw him a party. We noted that Sergei Tiviakov has long claimed a 110-game record, and we have reported on it before. The two streaks are not directly comparable in terms of the calibre of opponent, and even Tiviakov himself admits that it would be an apples-to-oranges comparison. However, he was nevertheless pleased that — at least in terms of total classical games — his claim remains intact.

Upon our request, he also sent over a file of all 110 games for posterity, along with this note: 

As promised, attached I send you the file with 110 games played in a row without a loss.
In this period of time I have lost two rapid games against Ivanchuk (tiebreak in Merida on December 18).

These losses also should be in databases. But they are not counted. And they were already 3rd and 4th games on the same day. So I got extremely tired and lost. 

2004 to 2005 was a very good period for me. Not only I was not losing at all but also winning lots of tournaments (many of them with 8½ out of 9) — like Izmir, Gausdal etc.

At the end of 2005 my rating was 2700 (#20 in the world). Considering the rating inflation it is about 2750 now. And among my opponents were Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Radjabov, Dreev, Wojtaszek and many others.

Of course, it is impossible to compare the rating and the strength of the players then and now. Every time had its own heroes.

I am very annoyed that lot of people on Internet do not want to accept my record. There is even one person, who permanently deletes my editing of Wikipedia, restoring the record of Tal.

And now I am blocked, cannot edit Wikipedia page anymore :-(

I hope that the CB article will put everything on its place.

So, here are the games. If anyone knows of any reason why we shouldn't set the Wikipedia record straight, speak now, or forever hold your peace edits!

 

Tiviakov added that it was hard work that got him to 110. "During my career, I studied [the] best games of Petrosian three times — that's why me defending technique was so good!"

He even authored a video series about it!


The Art of Defence

The purpose of this DVD is to explain the viewer all main methods of defence: exchanging pieces, creating a fortress, eliminating dangerous enemy pieces, escaping the danger zone with the king, improving the position of the pieces.


All Shenzen Masters games

 

Links


Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

Pichy59 Pichy59 11/20/2018 06:50
I don't mind that GM Tiviakov played very weak players like Basas Gamazo rated 2062, Dierich J rated 2087, Schenk Papke rated 2102, but what bothers me is that he never played more than one 2700+ player in a row; whereas GM Ding Liren played in more than one occasion with more than 10 2705+ rated players in a row, simply check his last tournament when he lost to Super GM MVL in that tournament he played 10 games with players rated above 2709+. Now in your opinion do you believe that GM Tiviakov would had survived more than 6 consecutive players rated above 2700 after he played over 80 games with all the previous weak players that he played?
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/19/2018 03:34
@ Pichy59:

"If winning 19 or 20 consecutive GM and NOT versus a players that are rated lower than GM was easy it would had been broken long, long time ago, that is why Carksen reached 42 games streak without a loss but being the strongest player ever has NIT being able to win 20 games against GM, just winning game one after another NOT drawing some and winning a few"

I completely agree that winning 19 games in a row against world-class opposition like Fischer did is an extraordinary accomplishment; my point is only that, in my opinion, a 19-games winning streak isn't possible to compare with a 100-games unbeaten streak - if the two were completely comparable, and that it would be much easier to obtain a 100-games unbeaten streak than to win 19 games in a row, then it wouldn't be possible that Fischer never even succeeded in obtaining a 50 games unbeaten streak. In my opinion, this must necessarily mean that an unbeaten streak or a winning streak highlight different qualities from the players...
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/19/2018 11:44
If winning 19 or 20 consecutive GM and NOT versus a players that are rated lower than GM was easy it would had been broken long, long time ago, that is why Carksen reached 42 games streak without a loss but being the strongest player ever has NIT being able to win 20 games against GM, just winning game one after another NOT drawing some and winning a few
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/19/2018 05:56
@ Pidchy59:

In my opinion, Fischer's streak (19 consecutive wins) and Ding Liren's streak (a 100-games unbeaten streak) cannot be directly compared: the playing level is obviously higher in a winning streak as Fischer's streak, but Ding Liren's unbeaten streak is more than 5 times longer than Fischer's streak (...and it represents 15 months without losing, this while playing in average nearly 7 games each month; no mean feat! ...), so they don't have at all the same meaning; Fisher probably couldn't have such a long unbeaten streak (it seams that he never succeeded in obtaining even a 50-games unbeaten streak during his whole career), while Ding Liren probably couldn't either win 19 consecutive games.

This subject was already discussed on this page: https://en.chessbase.com/post/shenzen-masters-2018-round2; on this page, I already developed rather in details my viewpoint on this question, so I don't think it would be useful to rewrite all this again here!...
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/18/2018 09:19
@ Jacob woge: Quite true, but, precisely, this is why "chessgames.com" couldn't be a good source for Wikipedia, as it isn't really more reliable as Wikipedia itself; a good source for Wikipedia must necessarily be a source who is reliable by itself, directly. (And as I am not at all particularly "wikipedophilic" - nor "wikipedophobic" either, by the way... -, I am not saying this to defend Wikipedia; just because I think that this is objectively true...)
Jacob woge Jacob woge 11/18/2018 06:37
In my opinion, the 'unbroken streak' concept is of general interest only from grandmaster level. There are around 1600 GMs today, all of whom may come into consideration. Below that (<=IM) chess is often a hobby. GM is for life.

Some play/get invitations to closed tournaments, others thrive mainly in opens. If there was to be an additional demand on level of opposition, the latter would almost by definition be out of the race. You get opponents of all kinds of level in those events.

If opp's levels are to be considered, then so should draw rate. These two are closely linked. One player meets stiff competition with a draw rate of 70%, another less stiff with 50% draw rate. Should the not-losing streak advance you thru the chess echelons, or is a ton of draws permissible - costing rank and rating if any is high enough to begin with.

I think this is complicating a very simple matter - counting. It should be only the number of games that matters, and nothing else, apart from the player being a person of some interest. And that begins, in my opinion, at GM level.
Jacob woge Jacob woge 11/18/2018 10:14
Same goes for wikipedia.
fartpants fartpants 11/18/2018 03:30
Not a very useful link, sorry. chessgames is mostly user-generated and is by no means complete.
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/18/2018 01:36
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=14380&yearcomp=ge&year=1499 This is a list of GM Tall chess games
fartpants fartpants 11/18/2018 01:09
Never mind about wikipedia, it's in a perpetual state of flux and behind the scenes they are currently grappling with this very issue. It will take some work but ultimately it's not that difficult - document each player's winning streaks. Include tournaments, opponents, and result. Discount games that were not played under classical time controls.
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/17/2018 11:56
Here they finally give recognition to GM Ding Liren of breaking GM Tal record NOT
to GM Tiviakov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Tal
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/17/2018 10:45
@ fartpants: I think that, anyway, the perfect solution doesn't exist: even for the overall record, problems still exist: for example, you and I seem to agree that the games for an unbeaten streak must be "official" games, recognized by FIDE (this being the reason why some of Tiviakov's games shouldn't be taken into account for his streak).

But what can be done for games played BEFORE the creation of FIDE? For example, Capablanca obtained his streak before the creation of FIDE...

I think that, probably (...or, at least, possibly!...), the best solution would be to apply the chosen criteria (classical games and official - rated - games) for the periods for which they exist, and for previous periods, to keep streaks that are widely recognized as being significant (as, for example, precisely, Capablanca's streak).
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/17/2018 09:58
@ Pichy59:

Thanks for the link!

Would you have another link which would show Tal's rating at the end of his best unbeaten streak? Obviously, you know his ratings, but I don't know were to find reliable informations on his exact Elo level at this moment (since 2000, it is easy, as all the informations can be found on the FIDE website, but before, it isn't very simple).
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/17/2018 09:49
@ fartpants:

I agree that ratings aren't the perfect tool to separate these streaks, but, for the moment, I don't see any better way.

And I think that, in one way or another, it is important to distinguish the unbeaten streak record for the top-players: it is in fact the most significant record, as it highlights, more or less, the player which has been able to play top-level chess with the most regularity. (I wrote, before, that this highlights regularity and defense level, but, in fact, I think that "defense level" is included in "regularity": to be able to have very stable results, it is necessary to have a very high level in defense.)

It is, in my opinion, rather obvious that a 2000 player who would have a 150 games' unbeaten streak against, say, 1300 to 1800 opposition, wouldn't be better in any respect than a 2800+ player with a 100 games' streak. This while two 2800+ players are more or less comparable: Kramnik, Vachier-Lagrave, So, and Caruana, for example, which were all 2800+ players at one point, succeeded in obtaining long streaks, but shorter than Ding Liren's streak, and I think that, on the "regularity" aspect, this shows a certain superiority of Ding Liren (...which obviously does'nt mean that Ding Liren is better than them all in general; only on this quite limited aspect...). And I think that this is an interesting tool to compare players on this aspect.

I don't mean by that that the overall record has no interest: it IS a record, but I think it would really be a pity not to take into account in one way or another the record for the top-players category, as it is the only one that can highlight a real superiority of one player, compared to the others, on the "regularity aspect"...
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/17/2018 04:46
Some 25-30 years ago in the company of a few computer nerds, I suggested to equip fax machines with speech generators and speech recognition (both new at the time); that would be a real improvement. It was silent for a short while, till someone got the clue: "But that's a telephone!"...
It's the same with this record: wheigh in the level of the opponents, then when a new record is set, someone will say, "yeah, GM X had less games, but he also had far more wins, so his performance should be assessed higher", just until someone says, "One or two losses shouldn't matter either, the record should be about overall performance." Anyone here getting the clue?
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/17/2018 03:38
I believe that the inflation rate of FIDE rating compared to the 70's worth at least 50 rating points, and if you take Bobby Fischer highest rating and add 50 points you will come very close to what his actual rating would be nowadays. Anyway going back to the topic under discussion GM Tall highest rating ever was 2705, but that was back in 2005 , and when he got the streak of 95 games during that period from October 1983 to October 1974 he never reached 2700 FIDE.now if you add the ,50 points rating deficit due to latest inflation rate ,GM Tall achievement is worth more than GM Tiviakov by large, but not enough to compare it to what GM Ding Liren has recently Accomplished https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/crosswords/chess/21chess.html?_r=0
fartpants fartpants 11/17/2018 10:53
But then there's the issue of ratings, which didn't even exist before 1970, and there were no 2800+ players before Kasparov. Adding provisos and rating requirements opens all sorts of cans of worms.
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/17/2018 10:07
If rating is not taken into consideration, therefore any FM can participate in several scholastic chess tournaments and set the highest non loss record.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/17/2018 10:03
@ fartpants:

"Since when did this record have rating categories?"

Why wouldn't it? It isn't a record officialy validated by FIDE or any official organization, so, why would the general record "longest unbeaten streak" be legitimate and not, for example, the record "longest unbeaten streak for a 2800+ player"?

And, by the way, I think that the second record ("longest unbeaten streak for a 2800+ player") is more significant than the first ("longest unbeaten streak"), because the "longest unbeaten streak for a 2800+ player" means more or less that the player is the best ever as for regularity and defense level taken together, while the general record "longest unbeaten streak" doesn't mean as much: if a 2000 Elo player doesn't lose any games in local (but rated) competitions in a small town against 1200 to 1700 opposition, it hasn't the same impact that Ding Liren's record; yes, the 2000 player will have the record (as it isn't linked to rating or nothing else), but this isn't very meaningful. To end a 100-games streak with a 2800+ rating as Ding Liren does mean that the player who obtained this streak succeeded in two things at the same time: staying unbeaten for 100 games, AND playing at a 2800+ level. And, in my opinion, this is a very significant achievement...
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/17/2018 08:13
According to most highest rated players when talking about GM Ding Liren they refer to him as being one of the most tactital players besides GM Carlsen and difficult player to play against since GM Ding Liren very rarely leave you with any tactical shot and strategically he is one of the best as well.
fartpants fartpants 11/17/2018 08:06
Since when did this record have rating categories?
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/17/2018 06:44
@ Pichy59:

Quite interesting, but it would be very useful to give us your sources: For Tal, I don't know where to find his rating in the period of his unbeaten streak. And for Kramnik it would seem quite possible that his record for the 2700+ category had already been beaten before Ding Liren, as Wang Yue's streak is from 2008, a year in which he was above 2700 for the second half of the year (https://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=8601429), and as the end of Malakhov's streak was in 2017, a year in which he was above 2700 for the 7 first months of the year (https://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=4120787). (For Wang Yue's and Malakhov's streak, cf. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_chess#Consecutive_games_without_a_loss_in_classical_time_controls.)
Pichy59 Pichy59 11/17/2018 04:49
gM Tiviakov broke GM Tall record under the 3700 l since both were under 2700 when they broke their streakS. Now GM Did g Liren broke GM Kramnik record of players above 2700
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/16/2018 06:06
@ fartpants: For Lalic, it is quite simple, as his streak is post-2000: all the elements are on the FIDE website; I haven't the time to check for the moment, but - if no-one else has done it since - I will do it later.
fartpants fartpants 11/16/2018 06:59
USCF records are pretty good, and they contradict Henderson's claim re Psakhis. More details here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12531512

Records in publications like TWIC are pretty good for the last 15 years or so, and databases should at least give an indication what events are covered by Lalic's claim. I expect there will still be a few gaps however.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/16/2018 06:33
@ fartpants: After a rapid check on the FIDE site, it seems indeed that the ROC Nova College tournament wasn't rated.

For the moment, this would put Tiviakov's streak at 105 games. But only if there isn't any other problems elsewhere...

As for Lalic, absolutely no verifications seem to have been made, so everything could per se be possible...

I hope I will have time to check all this at one point; this would really be necessary...

As for Psakhis, it would be quite interesting, but, as for me, I give up, because no information can be find on the FIDE website for games played before 2000, and I have absolutely no ideas how to check anything about him. And, anyway, it isn't possible to know for sure if no-one obtained longer streaks that the ones we already know about; how could we know, for example, if there isn't, somewhere in the world, a 1900 or 2000 player who played, at one time, 150 consecutive games without losing any in some club competitions (which can perfectly well be rated)? The only mean to know is to have at least some indication from the players themselves; otherwise, it seems nearly impossible to know with complete certainty the longest streaks.
fartpants fartpants 11/16/2018 04:02
One of Tiviakov's tournaments, the ROC Nova College tournament in Haarlem, probably doesn't meet the FIDE standards for classical chess games. The time control is 90 minutes with 15 second increments for the entire game, with sessions lasting only 3.5 hours and 3 games scheduled for Saturday. Tiviakov wants to have his cake and eat it too, counting these non-classical time control games but discounting his losses in rapid games.

Also, there is a claim that Lev Psakhis played 120 games without a defeat on the US and Canadian open circuit between 1996 and 1998. Difficult one to verify, and Psakhis doesn't tend to brag about it.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/15/2018 09:09
"it would be also necessary to really check this in full" For Tiviakov, I did this partially (it takes some time), and I didn't find any abnormalities (including his tiebreak games, which don't count). But I would say: that's not something that should be done by readers, but by the writer or editor of this article, if not done already (but not published).
Mr. Macauley Peterson?
Otherwise, by any person who questions GM Tiviakov's (or GM Lalic's) accomplishment.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/15/2018 07:57
"That also gives an easy way to check it: the game results can be found on the FIDE site rating pages."

I know, but I hadn't enough time to do it for the moment, and it is rather a problem, because, in particular, Lalic's record doesn't seem to have been checked by anyone (and even for Tiviakov, we have more elements, but it would be also necessary to really check this in full).
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/15/2018 07:53
@ Frits Fritschy:

"I don't see why an amateur couldn't get the record; the only important thing is that it should be about rated games with 'normal' time controls. That also gives an easy way to check it: the game results can be found on the FIDE site rating pages.
Anyone is of course free to look at other records, like for rating groups."

Yes, globally, I agree... (I suppose that you mean "classical time controls" when you write "'normal' time controls"?)
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/15/2018 10:21
I don't see why an amateur couldn't get the record; the only important thing is that it should be about rated games with 'normal' time controls. That also gives an easy way to check it: the game results can be found on the FIDE site rating pages.
Anyone is of course free to look at other records, like for rating groups.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/14/2018 09:01
@ Frits Fritschy:

"The 'most consecutive games without a loss' record is at best a measure of how well someone performed amongst equals."

Agreed. But I think that it is also interesting to take records by Elo category: for example, the "longest unbeaten streak" for a 2800+ player means two things at the same time: that the player managed to be a top-level player, while staying unbeaten longer than any other top-player in history. So this permit to compare top-players between themselves, and I think that, because of this, it is interesting to proceed like this.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/14/2018 07:53
@ Valentin44:

1) As Frits Fritschy wrote, "Tiviakov didn't pick his opponents himself"; he participated in a series of competitions, and his opponents were the opponents which were given to him in these competitions, so, even if they were amateurs, I don't see any problem with this. (One more time, yes, Ding Liren's opponents were stronger, but, in my opinion, Ding Liren has the record for the 2800+ category, while Tiviakov has the record for the 2600+ category, so the two musn't be directly compared.)

2) "What is the definition of an pro chess player?" At one time, to participate to the Amateur World Championship, the condition to be considered as an amateur was to have a rating below 2000 Elo points (with some slight nuances, but this was the general idea). So it isn't obvious that a 2000+ player isn't a professional-level player; not a high-level professional, obviously, but still a professional.
Frits Fritschy Frits Fritschy 11/14/2018 02:38
Valentin,
As I wrote before, Tiviakov didn't pick his opponents himself; he got the lower-rated ones playing in (Dutch) team competition and open tournaments. That's where any sub-2700 player makes his money.
If you want to know who is the best player in a certain moment in time, look at the elo rating. The 'most consecutive games without a loss' record is at best a measure of how well someone performed amongst equals.
So yes, if a 10-12 year old doesn't lose 111 consecutive games with normal time control, he or she deservedly is the new record holder, as that is an outstanding performance.
Valentin44 Valentin44 11/14/2018 09:58
Tiviakov played gamazo, papke,den kelder,garbi, aldrovandi, gravel and many others in the range of 2060 - 2200 fide rating , players who do not hold any fide title, or hold the none title. So can we name these players amateurs ? What is the definition of an pro chess player? Holding an fide title? At least IM. So comparing playing with amateurs and playing the candidates is more than apple and oranges. We can count the school tournamens under 10 and under 12 to find a streak ?
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/13/2018 06:08
@ fartpants:

"Furthermore, Bogdan Lalic was never a 2600+ GM (...)" (my last post)

It seems that I am wrong about this; according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdan_Lali%C4%87), Lalic was 2600 at one point in 1997.

But the 110-games streak he cites was obtained from 2006 to 2007, and, according to himself (https://en.chessbase.com/post/new-in-chess-invincibility-list), he ended this streak with a 2519 rating, so this streak would, in my opinion, count for the 2500+ category.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/13/2018 05:55
@ fartpants:

"And what about Lalic, who also claims a 110 game unbeaten streak? Has anyone checked that?"

If anyone would do some researches about this, it would undoubtedly be very interesting.

For the moment, I don't think that I've seen any proof about this record, but it is also possible that I missed some...

Globally, I think that, until a record is sufficiently documented, it cannot be taken into account, so, for the moment, Tiviakov should be considered as the record-holder.

Furthermore, Bogdan Lalic was never a 2600+ GM, so I think that, even if he had succeeded in obtaining a 110-games streak, he should be considered as the record-holder for the 2500+ category, while Tiviakov would keep the record for the 2600+ category.
Petrarlsen Petrarlsen 11/13/2018 05:49
@ Valentin44:

- "Tiviakov claim is a lie. He lost to Ivanchuk in classical chess in Torre memorial in Yucatan, mexico."

Have you any proof about that? He said himself he lost two rapid games in this tournament, so what you must PROVE is that one of these games was played using a classical time control.

On the TWIC page mentionned by macauley, these two games appear to be tiebreak games and it would seem highly unlikely that tiebreak games would be played with a classical time control. Furthermore, on the tournament's page on chessgames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=44511), three commentators mention rapid tiebreaks, one of them (post "Apr-01-05 coffee monster") writing explicitly that the two tiebreak games between Ivanchuk and Tiviakov were rapid games.

So I am rather under the impression that it is you who is lying, to be able to (wrongly) criticize GM Tiviakov.

- "During his streak he has some wins against 2100, 2200 :))))))))). Very funy. And this guy comes here to tel us that it has a record superiour to Ding."

According to macauley, Tiviakov himself admitted that the two records aren't directly comparable ("The two streaks are not directly comparable in terms of the calibre of opponent, and even Tiviakov himself admits that it would be an apples-to-oranges comparison."), so I don't see about what you are complaining (besides that you WANT to complain about something, obviously...).

As for me, I consider that Ding Liren has the unbeaten streak's record for a 2800+ player, while Tiviakov has the unbeaten streak's record for a 2600+ player. And I DO think that this last record s is significant; to play 110 consecutive game without losing any isn't so easy, even when this streak include some players between 2000 and 2300, as for Tiviakov's streak.
macauley macauley 11/13/2018 02:54
@Valentin44 - According to TWIC and Tiviakov, this was one of the two rapid tiebreak games: http://theweekinchess.com/html/twic529.html#9
Valentin44 Valentin44 11/13/2018 01:28
Tiviakov claim is a lie. He lost to Ivanchuk in classical chess in Torre memorial in Yucatan, mexico. His streak is somewhee arround 60 games , i did not counted exactly.
He lost twice at this tournament against Ivanchuk .
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1326930
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1326928

In his carrier in classical chess he has lost 4, 11 draws no win and 11 draws to Ivanchuk.
In rapid /exibition he lost 1, draw 1 and no win.
He tries to tell that he lost 2 rapid in Yucatan, december 2018 while in all uis carrier he lost only one.
During his streak he has some wins against 2100, 2200 :))))))))). Very funy.
And this guy comes here to tel us that it has a record superiour to Ding.