What a run!

 The new Australian Chess Federation Ratings for September 2020 came out this week, although understandably, there were very few games actually rated on the Standard List. So much so that the most active player seemed to have played 18 games, while the vast majority of players played 0 games. 

One of those players was IM Stephen Solomon, who wondered if this was the first rating period that he had played 0 games since 1971! This means he has gone 49 years playing at least one rated game during each rating period. Of course this claim might be hard to verify, which is probably why Stephen raised the question himself. The earliest published games of Solomon I have in Chessbase occur in 1979, in the World Under 16 Championships. In that event he played (and lost to) Nigel Short, but did score the following win over future GM Josef Klinger.

Klinger,Josef - Solomon,Stephen J [C02]
World ol U16 qual Gr4 01st Viborg (1), 14.10.1979

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Be2 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nge7 8. Nc3 Nf5 9. Na4 Qa5+ 10. Bd2 Bb4 11. Nc3 Nfxd4 12. Nxd4 Nxd4 13. a3 Nxe2 14. Qxe2 Bd7 15. Qg4 Bxc3 16. Bxc3 Qa4 17. Qxg7 Qe4+ 18. Kf1 O-O-O 19. Re1 Qd3+ 20. Kg1 Rhg8 21. Qxf7 Rdf8 22. Qh5 Rxg2+ 0-1