Closing in on the record

My friend and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik is closing in on the Olympiad unbeaten streak. He may face Shirov (Russia vs. Spain) in the final round. Both teams are medal contenders. He is at 55 games games now and his streak has a chance to improve to 56 by Sunday.

Here are the top 3 players in the Men’s (Open) and Women’s Olympiad who played the most games (up to the Dresden Olympiad – Minimum 15 games) without a single loss:

Men’s (Open) Olympiad

Title – Name – Country – Total points scored – Total games played – Wins – Draws – Losses – Percentage

GM Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 32½ points 47 games (**) 18-29-0 69.1% [37 points in 55 games / 19 wins, 37 draws, 0 loss]
GM Acs, Peter HUN 13½ points 19 games 8-11-0 71.1%
IM Minić, Dragoljub YUG 14½ points 18 games 11-7-0 80.6%

Women’s Olympiad

GM Polgar, Susan (*) HUN – USA 43½ points 56 games 31-25-0 77.7%
WGM Kushnir, Alla USSR – ISR 23 points 25 games 21-4-0 92.0%
WIM Zvorykina, Kira USSR 17½ points 20 games 15-5-0 87.5%

(*) 56 consecutive games over 4 Olympiad, all on board 1 without ever sitting out on a single match
(**) Kramnik played 8 games in Khanty-Mansiysk (4.5 points / 8). Therefore, his unbeaten Olympiad streak is now at 55 games.