100%ers

[Stewart Reuben]

I know of no list of people who have scored 100% in tournaments for strong players.

Fischer of course in the US Closed with 11/11 and two matches of 6-0 against Taimanov and Larsen.
Emanuel Lasker I think in a 14 round event.
Yang Fan Zhou 9/9 in a norm tournament.
Nigel Short Joshua Tetley 1st British Rapidplay Championship 11/11.

To determine the official FIDE Tournament Performance Rating add 800 to the Ra, average of opponent's ratings.
800 is just a number chosen by FIDE so that TPR of 100%ers can be quoted. You can make just as good a case for 1000 or 2000. 50 is the equivalent ECF Grading Rule.

Grieveson, Grant offered a £10,000 prize for anybody scoring 11/11 in the British. Initially this was insured against at a cost of £250, but eventually they decided to take the risk as the odds being offered of 40/1 weren't good enough. Julian Hodgson holds the record with 10/11.

[Jonathan Bryant]

I believe I'm right in saying that Rubinstein once won the Major Open at the British with 11/11. Admittedly it seems less likely that he would play in it at all than he would get 100% if he did so.

Don't have the books to hand to check this, but perhaps somebody else could confirm?

[Richard James]

I believe I'm right in saying that Rubinstein once won the Major Open at the British with 11/11. Admittedly it seems less likely that he would play in it at all than he would get 10% if he did so.

Don't have the books to hand to check this, but perhaps somebody else could confirm?

Southport 1924.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/1924.html

[Jonathan Bryant]

Southport 1924.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/1924.html

Thanks Richard. It was one of those things that I was pretty sure was true but seemed too unlikely to be true nonetheless. (Post now edited to correct typo, btw)

[John McKenna]

I know of no list of people who have scored 100% in tournaments for strong players.

Fischer of course in the US Closed with 11/11 and two matches of 6-0 against Taimanov and Larsen.
Emanuel Lasker I think in a 14 round event.
Yang Fan Zhou 9/9 in a norm tournament.
Nigel Short Joshua Tetley 1st British Rapidplay Championship 11/11.
...

I believe I'm right in saying that Rubinstein once won the Major Open at the British with 11/11...

Don't have the books to hand to check this, but perhaps somebody else could confirm?

Southport 1924.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/1924.html

"The ‘Major Open’ tournament played concurrently (with the British Ch.) found Rubinstein outclassing a rather weak field, scoring 11 straight victories." (from the link above)

The "rather weak field" was - 2. Drewitt 8, 3. Moses 7.5, 4. Rhodes 7, 5. Muller 6, 6. Heath 5.5, 7. Duffield 5, 8-10. Sergeant, Thomas,A & Watts 4, 11. Schofield 3, 12. Wright 1

The year before Alekhine had been invited to the event at Southsea but he had dropped a half point.

Gustav Richard Ludwig Neumann (1838-1881) won all his 34 games in the Berlin 1865 tournament.

[Roger de Coverly]

There was a Russian GM, whose name I forget, who played in the Major Open in Torquay in 2002. Following a rather drastic defeat in round 1 in a Grand Prix anti-Sicilian , he showed respect towards his subsequent opponents and only finished tied first with 8.5.

The following year, having evidently decided that both the Grand Prix attack and his British opponents were rubbish and this time he knew how to deal with them, he scored 11/11 in the 2003 Major Open.

[John McKenna]

2001 Major Open - 1st IM (2400+) Alex Nosenko, Ukraine (9/11).
2002 Torquay - Russian GM (2500+) Evgeny Prokopchuk 1st= with A. Greet & M. Taylor all 8/11.
2003 Edinburgh - Prokopchuk 11/11!!
After a rating ceiling was imposed, I believe.

[Stewart Reuben]

John McKenna >After a rating ceiling was imposed, I believe.<

I think you mean Afterwards a rating ceiling was imposed.
What actually happened was that, in 2004, the Major Open became the World Major Championship restricted to players U2350. This was one of the celebratory events for our centenary. The 2350 ceiling was never removed. The U2350 World Championship has never been repeated. The use of the term 'Major' was objected to on the basis of the language suggesting it was more important than the World championship. We, of course, are used to the term 'major' for grading restricted events. I would have changed it to World Intermediate Championship for future years, but it didn't seem very popular.

I had remembered Prokopchuk 11/11 but not included it because there must be many examples in strength restricted events. The Rubinstein 11/11 is only memorable because it was Akiba. Had he not played and Drewitt scored 11/11, nobody would remember. The Major Open is highly exceptional nowadays as an 11 round rating restricted tournament.

Neumann scoring 34/34 in 1865 is remarkable. What sort of tournament was it? They won't have used clocks. He only reached the age of 43 by the way.

FIDE have deliberately reduced the attraction of long tournaments by making events of more than 13 games count as if they were of just 13 games. That seems to have reduced the length of various Indian Championships. I did tell the AICF that I thought the extreme length of their events was to the disadvantage of Indian players.

[Roger de Coverly]

The 2350 ceiling was never removed.

It was removed a few years ago for players not eligible for the British Championship. It's not there now.

http://englishchess.org.uk/BCC2014/wp-c ... -Chess.pdf

The only restriction is an exclusion of players above 2200 eligible for the British Championship.

If an IM or GM, WIM or WGM wanted to enter, they get free entry.

[Gordon Cadden]

The 4th. World Junior Championship was held at Toronto, Canada, 3-17 August, 1957. The winner was William Lombardy, with a score of 11/11
Lombardy was in competition with Robert Fischer at about this time. 100%ers are a rarity, as the tendency is to draw the last round.
We know about Fischer's achievement in the US Championship; do not believe that a similar score has been achieved in the British Championship.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Didn't Hennigan win a not-so-well attended- World/Youth/Cadet U-18 championship with 9/9 in the late 1980s?

[carstenpedersen]

Beliavsky got 13/13 in a tournament in Spain, from memory Alicante, sometime in the late 70's.

There is an anecdote in his games collection about how he at the time thought his success was due to the sound of the sea, which helped him to sleep well. Later he realised that although the sea helped him to sleep it did not help him winning.

[Matt Fletcher]

Wikipedia has a list that includes most of the performances noted above and a few others eg Alekhine, Moscow 1919-20

[Gordon Cadden]

Gustav Neumann is the undisputed champion with 34/34 at Berlin 1865. The Tournament must have lasted several weeks.

[John McKenna]

John McKenna >After a rating ceiling was imposed, I believe.<

I think you mean Afterwards a rating ceiling was imposed...

Neumann scoring 34/34 in 1865 is remarkable. What sort of tournament was it? They won't have used clocks. He only reached the age of 43 by the way...

Yes Stewart, I did mean 'afterwards' - after Prokopchuk's 11/11.

Regarding Neumann's 34/34 see below...

Gustav Neumann is the undisputed champion with 34/34 at Berlin 1865. The Tournament must have lasted several weeks.

In 1865, he (Gustav Neumann) won the tournament of the Berlin Chess Club with the result of +34,-0,=0. In the same year he won the West German Chess Congress in Elberfeld: he also won all the games.

Here is one from Elberfeld -

[Event "Elberfeld"] [Site "5th WSB Congress"] [Date "1865.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Neumann, Gustav"] [Black "Pinedo, J."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B20"] [Annotator "JvR"] [PlyCount "77"] [EventDate "1865.??.??"] {The fifth congress was organised by the active chess club of Elberfeld. This place became a part of Wuppertal later. Hoeing, Knorre, Neumann and Pinedo played in the main group.} 1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 e6 3. Nc3 d6 4. d3 Ne7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 g5 7. Bg3 a6 8. a4 Ng6 9. Nge2 Nc6 10. f4 Be7 11. O-O h5 12. f5 Nge5 13. Bxe5 Nxe5 14. Ng3 g4 15. Nge2 Bf6 16. Bb3 Nc6 17. fxe6 fxe6 18. Nf4 Nd4 19. Bc4 Rh6 20. Rb1 Be5 21. Nce2 Qg5 22. Nxd4 Bxd4+ 23. Kh1 Be3 24. Ne2 Bd7 25. Bb3 $2 Bc6 26. c4 $2 h4 {The Dutchman has a winning attack.} 27. a5 Ke7 28. Ba4 h3 29. g3 b5 30. axb6 Bb7 31. Nf4 Qe5 $2 32. Qxg4 Rg8 $1 33. Qf3 $1 (33. Qxg8 $2 Qxe4+ 34. dxe4 Bxe4+ 35. Rf3 Bxf3+ {and mate.}) 33... Bxf4 34. Qxf4 Qh5 35. b4 e5 36. Qf5 Qxf5 37. Rxf5 Ke6 38. bxc5 dxc5 39. Rbf1 {Neumann won the tournament.} 1-0