Gap between games by two players

[Matt Mackenzie]

The Najdorf-Denker gap is remarkable, if one can prove they never met in between. Denker was an honorary GM.

Denker was semi-retired from play for much of the interim period, so there is a good chance they didn't.

That 1996 meeting - the surviving members of the great Groningen tournament 50 years on - was Najdorf's final event.

[John Moore]

The Smyslov Memorial tournament in 1996 is a fruitful source for this topic. Martin Christoffel and Vassily Smyslov played in the original 1946 tournament and not again until the event 50 years later. It seems unlikely that they played in another event in the interim which did not make it to Megabase. The real issue from the point of view of the topic is that Christoffel wasn't a grandmaster and can't be said to be of GM strength.

Perhaps a better bet is Dan Yanofsky - Arnold Denker. MegaBase shows no games between 1946 and 1996. Here, however, we may fall foul of the point that Tim Harding made. It may be that they met in an American event that didn't make it to MegaBase. However, Yanofsky was not a professional player, so perhaps this is unlikely.

So, I reckon that 50 years is the new record.