Simultaneous exhibition
A simultaneous exhibition is an event in which one strong player plays many opponents at once, moving from board to board while each opponent has time to think between visits.
Also called: simul
In a simultaneous exhibition, often called a simul, a single strong player walks around a ring of boards and plays a game against each guest. The guests sit and wait. When the master arrives at a board, the guest makes a reply, the master responds quickly and moves to the next board. There is no clock for each game, so the master's time is the limit, and the whole event usually lasts a couple of hours.
The master may play every board as White, which makes the opening plan easier to repeat. Guests have a real advantage in thinking time, since they can study their position for the minutes it takes the master to complete the circle. A good strategy is to keep the position solid and look for a tactic at the right moment.
Simuls are common at schools, clubs and festivals, and they are a friendly way for a beginner to play someone much stronger. Results are usually a large win for the master, with a few draws and occasional wins for guests. Afterwards, many masters review interesting positions with the group.
It sits close to Blindfold chess. Blindfold chess is played without seeing the board or the pieces, so each player must hold the whole position in memory and name every move aloud or through notation.
Compare it with Time odds. Time odds is a handicap in which one player is given less time on the clock than the other, so a stronger player can face a weaker one in a more balanced game.
Time controls change what a player should practice, and the improvement plans by rating band show how the habits behind "Simultaneous exhibition" differ across rating ranges.
Related terms
Blindfold chess is played without seeing the board or the pieces, so each player must hold the whole position in memory and name every move aloud or through notation.
Time odds is a handicap in which one player is given less time on the clock than the other, so a stronger player can face a weaker one in a more balanced game.
In a Swiss-system tournament the number of rounds is announced in advance, nobody is knocked out, and every round pairs players who have scored about the same so far, never matching the same two players twice.
Visualization is the ability to hold a chess position in your mind and picture how it changes after a series of moves, without moving the pieces on the board.
A chess clock is a pair of linked timers of which only one runs at a time; after each move a player presses their side to stop their own time and start the opponent's.
A time control is the rule that sets how much thinking time each player gets in a game, and whether extra time is added per move, which decides what kind of chess is being played.
Guides that go further
See whether a base time and increment counts as bullet, blitz, rapid or classical.
Average chess rating and a good chess rating
What share of active Lichess players are rated above 800, 1200, 1500, 1800 or 2000, by time control.
What a rating measures, how FIDE, Lichess, US Chess and chess.com compute theirs, and why the numbers differ.
Want to spot this in your own games?
A first lesson starts with your games: George reviews them and builds a study plan around what he finds.