Israeli chess champ takes world record from Iran with 19-hour match

London, Oct 22 (ANI): An Israeli chess grandmaster has taken the world record for concurrent chess games from Iran after a marathon 19-hour match against 523 players.

Alik Gershon won 86 per cent of the games he played against amateurs in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.

He won 454, lost 11 and drew the other 58.

He needed to win at least 80 per cent to seal the record, which previously stood at 500 simultaneous games.

"It's a very sweet feeling," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"It's something which we prepared for a very long time; we couldn't have failed. I am very, very happy that I made it," he said.

Training for the event, which was sponsored by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency and the Israeli Chess Federation, was purely physical and included a lot of jogging and swimming, said the former Israeli champion.

"There are a lot of kilometres to walk and you have to stay focused," he said, noting that his Iranian rival, Morteza Mahjoob, walked 25 miles to secure his record.

Mahjoob set his record in August 2009 in a feat, which took him 18 hours, and with less than five seconds for each move.

"Hopefully all our wars against Iran will be on the chess board.

"For such wars, I am prepared," added Gershon. (ANI)