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On International Chess Day, July 20, a monumental achievement was realized as over 350 events took place worldwide, both online and over the board, setting the record for the most chess games played in 24 hours.
While the initial goal was to surpass one million games, the total number played was an astounding 7,284,970.
A total of 109 chess federations participated, reporting their results globally. The federations with the highest number of games were Sri Lanka (9,848 games), India (9,397 games), and Kazakhstan (8,759 games). Sri Lanka and India also hosted the most registered tournaments for this competition, each with 78, followed by China with 45.
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To validate the record, specific conditions were required: all games, whether online or offline, had to be played within a 24-hour period and registered as part of the FIDE 100 Guinness World Records Attempt. Each player could participate in multiple games, but the minimum time control was set at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds, excluding bullet games.
Among the more than seven million games played, 75,132 (just over 1%) were over-the-board, with the rest played online across five platforms: Chess.com (including ChessKids), Lichess, FIDE Online Arena, SimpleChess, The Chess Alliance, and Zhisai.
Chess.com, including its ChessKid platform, contributed the largest number of eligible games, exceeding six million.
"This is a great success for FIDE and for chess, and I am very proud that we achieved this on the day we celebrated 100 years since the founding of our great organization," said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. Speaking on FIDE's YouTube Channel during a special six-hour live broadcast of International Chess Day celebrations, Dvorkovich described the events as a "celebration of the spirit of victory for chess."
"This is just the first century [of FIDE]. Many more centuries are ahead of us," he added. "We are happy to share this moment with millions worldwide, especially those who helped set the Guinness record. Many people will start playing chess from this day," Dvorkovich concluded.
The Guinness World Records attempt was a massive project, prepared over several months. International Arbiter Laurent Freyd, the key instigator and supervisor from FIDE's side, highlighted the event's uniqueness. Speaking from the 57th International Chess Festival in Biel, Switzerland, Freyd remarked, "As an arbiter, you manage some players at an event. Today, it's about managing 350 arbiters running events worldwide, with many players participating!"
The Guinness World Records receives about 65,000 applications annually, each vetted by experts. For the FIDE attempt, Carl Saville, the Guinness World Records Official Adjudicator and a chess fan was sent to Biel. Together with Lauren Freyd, he closely monitored the event's developments.
At the end of the day, Saville joined FIDE's live broadcast to announce: "After reviewing the documents and verifying the final guideline verification, I can confirm that FIDE has achieved a total of 5.4 million games played, setting a new record! FIDE – you are now, officially, amazing!"
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As he spoke, more results came in, and by the end of the 24-hour period, the total reached a stunning 7,284,970 chess games played globally—a record hard to set and likely even harder to surpass.
“This fantastic record is the result of a tremendous collaborative effort. We are grateful to all national federations, tournament organizers and chess enthusiasts involved,” said Andre Voegtlin, Chair of FIDE's Social Commission.
The six-hour FIDE YouTube broadcast featured prominent figures from the chess world and some of the current and former top Grandmasters, including Vidit Gujrathi, Levon Aronian, Nigel Short, former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and her husband Pavel Tregubov, former world champion Vishy Anand, and Emil Sutovsky.
One of the guests was Alireza Firouzja, the 21-year-old Iranian-born Grandmaster naturalized in France and regarded as one of the most promising young chess players.
"Chess took our childhood and everything with it, so it cannot be just a game. It's a game we all love, one you get addicted to and cannot stop playing," Firouzja said.
He also emphasized the importance of world records: "Since childhood, I've always looked at the records – becoming the youngest world champion, eyeing the rating records. Records stay in history, and they motivate you to reach and break them."
With the setting of this record, FIDE has also set a new and promising challenge that will benefit the game: any future records will depend on more chess games being played, thus putting a challenge to chess enthusiasts of the future to do more and aim higher.
