A Game That Outlasted the Day (7)

When does a chess game stop being a chess game?

Longest games, repeated positions, and why records demand more than move counts

The idea of the “longest chess game” sounds simple and seductive: count the moves, compare the numbers, declare a winner. Yet the deeper one looks, the more fragile this logic becomes. Over the past six parts of this series, we have seen games that exceeded 200 moves while remaining theoretically drawn for dozens of moves, positions repeated three times in plain sight, and endgames where the 50-move rule could have been invoked again and again — but was not. These examples raise a fundamental question: if the rules already provide clear stopping points, at what moment does the pursuit of length stop being chess and turn into something else?

No game other than Nikolić–Arsović is represented in the Guinness Book of Records, and even that one is listed with reservations, which I discussed in Part 5 of my article. It is obvious that these reservations stem from the fact that the Guinness staff includes no chess experts; otherwise, they would have questioned this record on at least two grounds: a draw by threefold repetition on move 102, and a draw by the 50-move rule on move 161.

Let us fix this as a slogan — “The key requirement is the absence of doubt!” — and consider the remaining candidates. They can be called “candidates” only conditionally: nothing has prevented them over the years from submitting their own applications to Guinness, for instance after reviewing the Nikolić–Arsović game and realizing that it is a “colossus with feet of clay.” Of course, they can still do so now — on the basis of my series of publications.

1) Rozen–Efroimski, 233 moves, Israeli Championship 2021

From move 25 until move 231 — more than 200 moves! — the opponents played a roughly equal queen endgame. The move f2–f3 was the 75th move of the game. After 47 moves came 122.f3–f4. Another 47 moves later followed 169.f4–f5. And after another 49 moves came 218.g4–g5 — with any other (reasonable) move Black could have claimed a draw by the 50-move rule!

Do you remember Part 2 of my article? There I said that if I had advanced a pawn every forty moves or so, our game would have exceeded 300 moves. And if every 49 moves — it would have lasted 333 moves! 49 × 5 + 88 = 333 — one hundred moves longer than Rozen–Efroimski! In addition, on Black’s 164th move there was a threefold repetition — easy to recognize in a simple endgame, since all three repetitions occurred on “neighboring” moves: 159, 161, and 164.

2) Sanal–Can, 228 moves, European Championship 2012

This game between two Turkish players was in 2012, when the 75-move rule did not yet exist. As for the game itself: on move 200 Grandmaster Can could have epaulettely checkmated in one move with 200.Qh4–f6#. On White’s 217th move there was a threefold repetition — again easy to detect, since the repetitions occurred on moves 205, 213, and 217, and only five pieces remained on the board.

Unlike our 228-move game with Kirill, which was forcibly stopped by the arbiter under the 75-move rule in a position that was winning for me, the Turkish players’ 228-move game could have continued indefinitely in a dead-drawn position, had mate in one been avoided, threefold repetition not been claimed, and the 50-move rule not been invoked. Maybe this game was a reason to introduce the 75-move rule in 2014?

3) And finally, the absolute record holder — Fellowes–Lalić, 272 moves, 2024

The game between Billy Fellowes and Peter Lalić, played at the 2024 Kingston Invitational, set the official world record for the longest decisive over-the-board chess game in history. Lalić won as Black in 272 moves after the game was adjourned overnight due to a building curfew and resumed the next morning. Grandmaster Luke McShane even published an article about it in The Spectator.

Are you serious, grandmaster McShane? The moves of this game speaks for themselves — or rather, the diagrams do! In my view, had White resigned after Black’s 219th move, as is customary in decent chess society, this game could indeed have been a contender for one of the longest in history. Instead, the “fellow chessplayers” Fellowes and Lalić chose to turn their game into a farce in pursuit of the phantom 269-move record of “Nikolić–Arsović.”

To be honest, when I submitted my application to Guinness on Bobby Fischer’s birthday, I had no idea that I might qualify for an already existing category — “the longest game by number of moves.” In that case, my application would have been free. Instead, I had to invent a new category — and pay money for it…

Previous articles on the subject

1. A Game That Outlasted the Day
2. A Game That Outlasted the Day (2)
3. A Game That Outlasted the Day (3)
4. A Game That Outlasted the Day (4)
5. A Game That Outlasted the Day (5)
6. A Game That Outlasted the Day (6)