In a normal setting, 20 against one would be unfair.
Daniel Ludwig, an 18-year-old senior chess master, walked around the inside of the rectangle that seated his 20 opponents of all ages.
The competition, which chess players call a "simul," took place in the rotunda of UF's New Engineering Building Wednesday following a lecture he gave in the Reitz Union.
During his talk, he explained the solutions to difficult chess puzzles to a group of about 40 people. There were "oohs," "ahs" and gasps from chess aficionados in the audience.
"This is why I play chess. Besides all the winning and losing, it's art, and I like to create it," Ludwig said, referring to a particularly elegant chess solution.
Ludwig won the 2006 U.S. Masters Championship, and he said he's No. 2 in the nation for his age group.
He's been in a simul with two other players against 150 opponents at once, and he estimates he can play about five opponents in what they call blind simuls, where the player calls out the moves and can see the board only in his or her mind.
"He lives and breathes chess," said John Harris, associate professor in electrical and computer engineering at UF and sponsor for the Gator Chess Club.
Harris had two elementary school age children, a son, Noah, and daughter, Maya, in the competition. Maya is the North Florida Regional Scholastic chess champion for the kindergarten age group and was the only female player in the game.
She was one of the few players to make Ludwig pause during the opening rounds.
He said he considered going to UF, among other schools, but right now he just wants to play chess for maybe a year or two.
However, he will soon be No. 1 for his age group in a few months if another teenager with whom he's neck-and-neck "would hurry up and turn 19."
