Kasparov still has it!

Garry Kasparov gave a simul in Naples, Florida on April 7. 12 players could enter, and It cost 1,000 dollars to get into the simul. Kasparov also was offering a few one on one blitz games, which cost 5,000 a piece. All the proceedes went to charity. Kasparov played very well, winning every single game. Here is more information: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7139

He's still got his old rule too.

"Players must be true amateurs who have 1999 ELO points or fewer, no exceptions. No player who has ever held a rating of 2000 or more is permitted."

Kasparov is a great player, but some players were unrated and lost right out of the opening.

Kasparov won every game because all his opponents were amatuers. Nice of him to do charity work but the games are probably not very interesting.

Apparently one lost in only a few moves.

 Yeah, Garry has had that rule for years. I always thought it was an ego problem. If he only plays people below 2000---he's going to have a lot of wins. Fischer played all comers---experts, masters, IMs and Gms if they wanted a board and were willing to pay for it, Fischer let them play---and everybody wanted to play Bobby! His simuls were loaded with class players, experts, masters etc.

I recall some players who played Bobby in the US championship and lost would grab a board in his simuls. If you couldn't beat Fischer mano a mano then beating him in a simul was the next best thing! Of course they didnt beat him in the simul either

Amazing performance by old Gazza

From wikipedia:

"In 1924 at the Alamac Hotel of New York Alekhine played 26 simultaneous blindfold games against very strong opponents (Isaac Kashdan and Hermann Steiner among them), with the score of +16 -5 =5. This was probably the strongest of any blindfold exhibitions ever held."

Alekhine probably lost a day or two of his life in the agony of such competition. I'm not surprised that the best exhibitionists today aim much lower.

Kasparov used to play simuls against national teams of GMs.  In 1992, he beat four German GMs +2 =2.  In 1998, he beat four Israeli GMs +6 =2.  In 2001, he beat four Czech GMs +4 =3 -1.  I don't think any other player has ever played simuls against all GM teams like that.  In 2008, he played three players with ratings of over 2200 in simuls, so if he has a rating limit, it must be fairly new.

Kaspy was very impressive in those clock simuls.

My memory was jogged and I recalled an instance of Alekhine taking on several of what I presume are at least above average players in 1935 Barcelona.

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter65.html

edit: A later article notes "...the clock simultaneous exhibition took place, against opposition which included the ten best players in Barcelona."

I remember reading a FM's annotations to such a simul game against Fischer.  He related how he was easily outplayed despite Fischer spending very little time with each move.

What else to you excpect with a 500+ rating gap?  But it still gets a "wow" out of me.

These were probably the strongest simuls ever.  If I remember though he finished with a minus score once or twice, although you can hardly blame him.  Other results were embarrassingly strong in Kasparov's favor as you related in your post.  It's very impressive.

The rumours that Fischer beat everyone in Simuls, including Fm's, Gm's and Im's is ofcourse nothing but bollocks, Fischer lost alot of simul games, as everyone with a database or internet can find out. Not that this dimnishes Fischer's greatness though.

I don't see any GMs at all amongst the list of Fischer's simul opponents.  Perhaps someone could post the games here, so we can take a look.

 Don't hold your breath.

Not too long ago, someone claimed in the forum that Steinitz became world champion by beating Morphy in a match.  I asked them to post the games, but unfortunately, it turned out to be a hoax.  It's too bad really.  I keep hoping that someone here is going to come forward with never-before-seen games of great historical interest, and blow us all away.

 Rigamagician, read a history book---it is an old rule of his---its been around for a long time. And if its not to pad his statistics---whats it for?

Oh I came across this GM simul of Kasparov in 1985 Hamburg. He played Chandler, Wegner, Behrhorst, Grunberg, Wahls, Cordes, Hess sr., Reefschlaeger. Man oh man---what a murderous row of grandmasters that was! And Kasparov lost! 3 1/2---4 1/2---I've never heard of any of these guys. There is not a doubt in my mind that Fischer would have beat these bimbos blindfold.

He lost the first clock simul, which is why from there on he demanded games from the participiants beforehand, and he prepared as he would against a proper opponent.

Raul72, I understand that you idolise Fischer to the point where you can't have a reasonable discussion about anything, Fischer had quite a few simuls that hardly went his way, some where he scored around 50%, and this was against amateurs, no titled players such as Kasparovs matches aganst Olympic teams.

Note though, I'm not making an argument as to who's the GOAT.

With that said, THe 1985 hamburg clock simul was all against players roughly around 2.2-2.4k, with Chandler Murray over 2500. Notice that this was 25 years ago, quite alot of inflation has happened since.

 My God Tricklev, all your rationalizing to explaing Kasparov losses is making my head spin. Pull your head out Buddy---I dont idolize anyone. But I dont let jerks like you get away with stupid statements about Fischer.  Show me one simul of Fischers where it was close to 50-50.

And are you saying kasparov lost that simul in Hamburg 85' to untitled players. That really makes that exhibition a calamity and explains why he began demanding no player 2000 or over. After that change his winning percentage shot straight up.

And by the way , I never said Fischer won all his simul games. He lost a couple in every exhibition---but they were large simuls. If I remember correctly, he knew who the big hitters were and concentrated on them which allowed lesser lights to sneak a win here and there. Do us all a favor and clear your head before your next post.

How about his 1964 San Francisco simul? A simul he scored 4.5 out of 9, all against unknown unranked players.There are also quite a few simuls during his 1964 simul tour that didn't go so well.

Here's one of Fischers simul losses, hardly an impressive game.

Raul72, this isn't a matter of opinion, if you think Fischer won every simul game he played, just check or get any major database, most of which contains Fischers simul games.

Kramnik also won the German national team in a clock simul few years back. Don't remember the exact result but it's probably not too difficult to find.

The simuls against national team are of course entirely different thing than larger simuls against amateurs. I believe that Kasparov used to take also the simuls against amateurs very seriously (possibly more seriously than most other top GM's). I recall reading somewhere (might have been on chessbase) that once when learning that there was someone bit higher rated (maybe around 2200 - I don't remember exactly) among the opponents Kasparov required the chance to go and check his games from the database before proceeding with the simul.