English Chess Forum

Whilst browsing through my nephew's Guinness Book of Records 2015 today I found that the world record for setting up a chess set by 1 person is 41.87 seconds, and the world record for two people doing this is 41.24 seconds (so presumably the second person sat and watched the first person do it).

An online search shows that the record is now 34.20 seconds. Is that beatable?

Rules:

• 1. A commercially available chess set must be used.
  
  2. All the black and white chess pieces must be placed in a bowl and randomised.
  
  3. The bowl must be placed at least 300mm (11.81 inches) from the edge of the chess board.
  
  4. Only one hand must be used during the attempt.
  
  5. At the beginning of the attempt the hand must lay flat on the table.
  
  6. Once the start signal has been given the challenger can begin to arrange the chess set.
  
  7. Only one piece may be moved at a time.
  
  8. The white pieces must be arranged first. Then, once all the white pieces are in position, the challenger may begin to arrange the black pieces.
  
  9. Each side of the chess set arrangement must look like this: a. First row: Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook b. Second row: Eight pawns.
  
  10. Each piece must be placed within its designated square and cannot cross the line of that particular square.
  
  11. The attempt ends when the last piece has been correctly placed on the board.

That looks quite beatable but I doubt whether all the practice and effort is really worth it.

Well, not as worth it as this, but surely worth it nonetheless.

Maybe FIDE could adopt this as an alternative tie break method.

It would not be the silliest decision they've ever made.

The rules seem a bit restrictive. It would be better to simulate conditions found just before an evening league chess match where chess players are using both hands from boxes or pieces tipped out of a box. I suspect those 'records' are broken all the time there. Using both hands, on pieces tipped out at random in the middle of the board, and not having to do White first then Black, I reckon I could set up a set using both hands in under 20 seconds easily. The trick is picking up a handful of pieces and working out where they go as you pick them up, and also planning what pieces to pick up next. Hmm. Maybe exchanging tips on speed chess setting up is a bit too much for Boxing Day...

Would like to see a video of someone trying this!

I gave up (yes I did try) after on each attempt one of the pieces slipped out my hand and knocked over several other pieces. It is one of those world records that looks beatable but is more difficult than it looks (I also tried the Ferrero Rocher world record after seeing it on BGT but that is another one that looks beatable, but is more difficult than it looks.)

I am sure anyone who has being a chess captain and has had to set up a reconstructed board of a match in progress (like I once had to) has beaten this world record, but it remained unofficial!