Anand breaks his own simultaneous record at Mainz

winning 39 games and drew one.

The 40 players visibly try their best for three hours and a half to outwit the best player they might ever have played against and will ever play against, but to no avail. And this are experienced, top club players with average rating that could have reached of perhaps 2000+. And now they were asking this questions: why does it take the simul player only seconds to find better moves than his opponents? Why is his fairly automatic play, necessary to play on 40 boards at the same time, still superior to the creative efforts of the individual player?

photograph courtesy of chessbase.com