I have had 3 chain failures in the last 25,000 km...

Two were on my mountain bike... one was with a new SRAM chain where the master link blew apart, the second was with a new Taya chain (I was testing it) that came apart under extreme load. During this time I noted numerous failures on SRAM chains (master links) and even wrote them to say that I suspected that there was an issue with a certain batch of chains.

When this issue with the SRAM chains happened I abandoned using their master links for a time and just pinned them and had no problems.

I had one chain failure on my fixed gear after I bent yet another chain ring and am sure the lateral stress blew the chain apart... the chain was also at the end of it's useful life. After that I also started using steel chain rings as alloy rings weren't handling the torque I was laying down on climbs.

In many cases I have assembled chains the old fashioned way by pinning them together and at other times have used the provided master links and had no issues regardless of whether I was using KMC or SRAM chain.

I have never liked Shimano chain.