Garry Kasparov (left) and David Lucky
The longest continuous chess game between masters in the history of the United States was between David Lucky and Todd Bardwick and took place in the 4th Round of the 1995 Colorado Open beginning at 5:00 p.m. on September 3, 1995 and ended early the next morning at 5:00 a.m. on September 4. It was 143 moves and lasted 12 hours and resulted in a 50 – move drawn Rook and Knight vs. Rook ending. Another unique aspect of this game is that David waited until move 43 (!) to develop his f1 knight. That may the longest a player of his strength has ever waited to do this!
The World Record for longest continuous game between masters was between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on February 17, 1989 which lasted 269 moves and took 20 hours and 15 minutes!
A month before this game, in mid August of 1995, David had placed second in the U. S. Open where he had a performance rating of around 2600! See David’s major tournament accomplishments at the bottom of this page.
To clear up any confusion about David’s name in articles written about him, it is useful to note that at the time of the game, he went by David Gliksman and he later changed his name to David Lucky (Gliksman means Lucky in German).
Position before 93.Rxe6+, capturing the last pawn and starting the 50-move rule draw count.
For a writeup on the game see, “A Long Days Journey into Knight (and a Long Knight’s Journey into Day)”
Click here to see the game as a click through.
Click here for a more in depth study of Rook and Knight vs. Rook endings.
For an extensive list of Chess Records by Bill Wall, click here.
David and Todd – 22 years later
David Lucky has earned the Fide Master, Senior Master, National Master, and Life Master chess titles.
He is the World record holder for most consecutive classical tournament game wins- 42 wins without a draw or a loss and the World record holder for most consecutive tournament games wins, combining classical, and blitz tournament games – 72 wins without a draw or loss. – both Achieved in 2017.
He also won the
First Place Brilliancy Prize Winner -1992 American Open – Plesset Game
First Place Brilliancy Prize Winner – 1993 American Open – Baluran Game
Second Place Brilliancy Prize Winner – 1994 American Open – Igor Ivanov
“My Joyous Battles with Chess Villains“, is David’s book with over 100 of his games against many of country’s and world’s best players. For information, click here.
David’s major tournament accomplishments include…
- 1995 U.S. Open – 2nd place
- 2000 British Columbia Open Championship, Vancouver – Clear 1st place
- 1993 American Open 10 Minute Championship – Clear 1st place
- 1994 United States Game in 60-minute Championship – Tied for 1st place
- 1994 Colorado State Chess Champion
- Southern Nevada and Nevada State Champion (2011, 2012, 2013)
- 1997 Western State Championship – Tied for 1st place with 5 GMs
- Idaho State Closed Champion – Clear 1st place (2015, 2016, 2017)
- Western Idaho Open Champion – Clear 1st place (2014, 2016)
- Idaho Open and Blitz Champion – Clear 1st place (2015, 2016)
- 2014 Dominican Republic International Tournament – Third Place
- 1981 played First Board on the Cal State Fullerton University chess team, which won first place in National College chess championship, which was called the PanAm chess championship. That made the Cal State Fullerton chess team, the official National Chess Championship team.
David has victories against these Grandmasters:
Nick Defirmian, Walter Browne, Yuri Shabanov (played in Moscow 2002), Michael Wilder, Benjamin Finegold, Awonder Liang, Pavel Blatny, Ian Rogers
David has draws against these Grandmasters:
Larry Christiansen (3), Walter Browne (3), Maxim Dlugy, Eduard Gufeld , Arthur Bisguire, William Lombardy, John Fedorowitz, Rosendo Balinas, Ildar Ibragimov, Nikola Mitkov, Ludwig Hammer
David has victories against these International Masters:
Cyrus Lakdawala (2), Vince McCambridge (2), Georgi Orlov, Igor Ivanov, Johnathan Schroer, Vitaly Zaltsman, John Watson, Edward Formanek, Greg Shahade, Daniel Rensch, Calvin Blocker, Kamran Shirazi, Jessie Krai
David has draws against these International Masters:
Jack Peters (4), Cyrus Lakdawala (3), Michael Mulyar (3), Igor Ivanov (2), Walter Shipman (2), Aleksandar Wohl, Lev Altounian, Nikolay Adrianov, Andranik Matikozyan, Alvaro Fernandez, David Vigorito, Mark Ginsberg, Darwin Yang, Kesav Viswanadha, Johnathan Yedidia