On Saturday, July 20, 2024, chess players across the globe will converge to mark International Chess Day and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) with a monumental attempt to set a Guinness World Record (GWR). The aim is to surpass the record for the most chess games played in a single 24-hour period.
Participants are encouraged to join this historic event by engaging in at least one chess game on any registered platform or in an over-the-board tournament. The designated time frame for gameplay spans from 00:00 on July 20 to 00:00 CEST on July 21 (6:00 PM on July 19 to 6:00 PM ET on July 20, or 3:30 AM on July 20 to 3:30 AM on July 21 IST).
Games must adhere to specific time controls: a minimum of five minutes per game with no increment, or three minutes per game with a two-second increment. Additionally, each player must make a minimum of 15 moves for the game to qualify towards the record attempt.
Online chess games can be played on platforms such as Chess.com, Lichess, FIDE Online Arena, Simple Chess, and Chess Alliance, all of which are participating in this global initiative. Players must be registered users on these platforms (anonymous accounts are ineligible), and games played against computers will not be counted. Following the event, participating platforms will report the number of qualifying games played.
Over-the-board games also qualify for the record attempt under the same time controls as online games. Notably, some tournaments, like the one hosted by the Pacific Northwest Chess Center in Redmond, Washington, exceed these minimum requirements with a time control of 25 minutes per game plus a five-second increment.
While registration for online games is not mandatory, over-the-board games must take place within events sanctioned by national chess federations to be considered valid. For instance, the 2024 U.S. Junior, Girls’ Junior, and Senior Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, have been registered by U.S. Chess as participating events.
All over-the-board games must be supervised by a licensed FIDE arbiter, who will verify the number of games played and submit a tournament report file to FIDE for official record verification. More than 750 events across numerous countries, from Albania to Zambia, have been registered for this ambitious record-breaking attempt. Interested participants can find the list of registered over-the-board events here (select the OTB tab at the bottom of the page), with India alone hosting over 70 registered events.
This global celebration of chess aims not only to set a Guinness World Record but also to foster a sense of camaraderie and enthusiasm among chess enthusiasts worldwide on this historic International Chess Day.
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