Blindfold chess

Blindfold chess (also known as sans voir) is a form of chess play

wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do
not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of
the positions of the pieces. Moves are communicated via a
recognized chess notation.

Blindfold chess was considered miraculous for centuries, but now

there is greater recognition of people who can keep track of more Philidor playing blindfold chess
than one simultaneous blindfolded game.[1] In simultaneous
blindfold play, an intermediary usually relays the moves between
the players.

Contents
Early history
20th century history
21st century 24-hour blindfold chess records
Health concerns
Psychology
Modern status
See also
References
External links

Early history
Blindfold chess was first played quite early on in the history of chess, with perhaps the first game being
played by Sa'id bin Jubair (665–714) in the Middle East. In Europe, playing chess blindfolded became
popular as a means of handicapping a chess master when facing a weaker opponent, or of simply
displaying one's superior abilities.

H. J. R. Murray in his book A History of Chess recorded another type of unseen chess: two Central Asian
horsemen riding side by side playing chess by calling chess moves to each other without using a board or
pieces.[2]

The first known blindfold event in Europe took place in Florence in 1266.[1] In 1783 the great French
player André Danican Philidor demonstrated his ability to play up to three blindfold games simultaneously
with great success, with newspapers highlighting his achievement, having taught himself to visualize the
board while in bed at night when he had trouble sleeping.
Paul Morphy held in 1858 a blindfold exhibition against the eight
strongest players in Paris with the stunning result of six wins and
two draws. Other early masters of blindfold chess were Louis
Paulsen, Joseph Henry Blackburne (he played up to 16
simultaneous blindfold games) and the first world champion
Wilhelm Steinitz, who in 1867 played six simultaneous blindfold
games in Dundee, winning three and drawing three. It was seen by
these masters as a good source of income.

As time went by the records for blindfold exhibitions increased. In

1900 Harry Nelson Pillsbury played 20 games simultaneously in Morphy playing blindfold chess
Philadelphia; not long after attempting the unusual feat of playing
15 chess and 15 checkers games simultaneously (the record for
blindfold checkers being 28 simultaneous games). The Czechoslovak player Richard Réti and Russian
World Champion Alexander Alekhine were the next to significantly further the record.

20th century history

In 1924 at the Alamac Hotel of New York, Alekhine played 26 simultaneous blindfold games against very
strong opponents (Isaac Kashdan and Hermann Steiner among them), with the score of 16 wins, 5 losses,
and 5 draws. This was probably the strongest of any blindfold exhibitions ever held. The next year in
February in Paris he faced 28 teams of four players each, with the impressive result of 22 wins, 3 losses,
and 3 draws. In the same year, Réti bettered this record by playing 29 players simultaneously in São Paulo,
and commented on his poor memory after leaving his briefcase behind after the event.

On July 16, 1934 in Chicago, Alekhine set the new world record by playing 32 blindfold games,[3] with 19
wins, four losses, and nine draws. Edward Lasker was the referee for this event.

The generally acknowledged world record that stood for the rest of the 20th century was set by George
Koltanowski on 20 September 1937, in Edinburgh, who played 34 chess games simultaneously while
blindfolded. He won 24 games and lost 10, over a period of 13 hours. The record was included in the
Guinness Book of Records.[1] Later, both Miguel Najdorf and János Flesch claimed to have broken that
record, but their efforts were not properly monitored the way that Koltanowski's was. Najdorf's first record
in Rosario, Argentina was against 40 opponents (+36 =1 -3)[4] and was organised in an effort to gain
sufficient publicity to communicate to his family that he was still alive, as he had remained in Argentina
after travelling from his native Poland to compete in the 1939 Chess Olympiad, during which German
Invasion of Poland occurred. He increased this record to 45 opponents in São Paulo in 1947, with the result
of 39 wins, four draws and two losses.[5] The Guinness Book of Records does not acknowledge Najdorf's
record, because he allegedly had access to the scoresheets, and there were multiple opponents per board.[1]
Koltanowski claimed that he could have managed 100 games under those conditions.[6] However,
Najdorf's record is considered legitimate by other sources.[7] Hungarian Janos Flesch claimed to have
bettered this record in Budapest in 1960, playing 52 opponents with 31 wins, 3 draws, and 18 losses.
However, this record attempt was somewhat sullied by the fact that Flesch was permitted to verbally
recount the scores of the games in progress. It also took place over a remarkably short period of time,
around five hours, and included many short games.[6]

One other notable blindfold record was set in 1960 by Koltanowski in San Francisco, when he played 56
consecutive blindfold games at a rate of 10 seconds a move. The exhibition lasted 9 hours with the result of
50 wins and 6 losses.[8] His specialty was conducting a blindfold Knight's Tour on boards of up to 192
squares.
21st century 24-hour blindfold chess records
A new European record was set in November 2010 by German Marc Lang in Sontheim, Germany, playing
35 opponents with 19 wins, 13 draws, and 3 losses over a period of 23 hours.[9]

Lang improved the world record a year later in November 2011 once again in Sontheim by playing 46
opponents simultaneously and blindfolded, with 25 wins, 19 draws and just 2 losses.[9][10]

On Dec 3, 2016, Timur Gareyev played 48 opponents with a mask before his eyes and sitting on an
exercise bike, resulting in 35 wins, 7 draws, and 6 losses.[11]

Health concerns
While blindfold chess has been recommended in moderation by many sources as a method of increasing
one's playing strength, simultaneous blindfold exhibitions were officially banned in 1930 in the USSR as
they were deemed to be a health hazard.[1][12] Mikhail Botvinnik also warned against it.[1] Blindfold
players have reported that it is more tiring than regular play, even if faster time controls are used.[1]

Psychology
Given that it seems to require extraordinary visuo-spatial abilities and memory, this form of chess has led to
considerable research in psychology, starting with the research of Alfred Binet in 1893, continuing with the
work of chess grandmaster and psychoanalyst Reuben Fine in 1965, and culminating in the late 20th
century with several scientific articles describing experiments on the psychology of blindfold chess.[13] In
general, this research shows that what is crucial for blindfold chess are both the knowledge that chess
players have acquired and their ability to carry out visuo-spatial operations in the mind's eye.

Modern status
Today there are Blindfold Chess Tournaments held throughout the year, with the highest profile event
previously being the Melody Amber Tournament, held in Monte Carlo until 2011. Of the modern day
players, Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Alexei Shirov and Alexander Morozevich have proven
themselves to be particularly strong at blindfold chess, being alternating winners of the Amber Tournaments
between 1996 and 2007. Levon Aronian won Amber 3 times since then and won the blindfold event at the
2012 SportAccord World Mind Games.

In 2009 the book Blindfold Chess, History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records and
Important Games, by Eliot Hearst and John Knott was published. It was winner of the Fred Cramer Award
for the Best Chess Book of 2009, sponsored by the U.S. Chess Federation, the Chess Journalists of
America, and the U.S. Chess Trust.

See also
Kriegspiel (chess)

References
1. "The Elite Meet in Monte Carlo" (http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=857).
ChessBase. 2003-03-15. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
 2. A History of Chess
3. The World of Chess, by Anthony Saidy and Norman Lessing, 1974, p. 22. This source gives
the date as only "1933" and no indication of the number of games won/drawn/lost.
4. "Perlas Ajedrecísticas - Christian Sánchez" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080717182654/h
ttp://www.geocities.com/chvsanchez/ajedrez/perlas/index.html). web.archive.org. July 17,
2008.
5. "Chess Notes by Edward Winter" (https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter30.html).
www.chesshistory.com.
6. Lawton, Geoff (2003). Tony Miles:It's Only Me. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8809-3.
7. Hearst, Eliot & Knott, John (2009). Blindfold Chess: history, psychology, techniques,
champions, world records and important games. McFarland & Company.
8. Hooper, David & Whyld, Kenneth (1996). Oxford Companion To Chess. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.
9. http://www.blindsimultan.de
10. "- Marc Lang catches the eye by breaking world blindfold record" (https://chessdailynews.co
m/marc-lang-catches-the-eye-by-breaking-world-blindfold-record/). December 31, 2011.
11. "Timur Gareyev breaks blindfold record" (https://en.chessbase.com/post/timur-gareyev-world
-record-blindfold-attempt). 5 December 2016.
12. Wall, Bill (September 10, 2010). "Sight Unseen - The History of Blindfold Chess" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20120329111856/http://www.jerrywalldesigns.com/WhiteKnightSep10.pd
f) (PDF). White Knight Chess Magazine. pp. 8–10. Archived from the original (http://www.jerr
ywalldesigns.com/WhiteKnightSep10.pdf) (PDF) on 2012-03-29.
13. Campitelli, Guillermo; Gobet, Fernand (January 2005). "The mind's eye in blindfold chess"
(https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/819/1/Gobet_Campitelli_Minds%20eye.pdf) (PDF).
European Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 17 (1): 23–45.
doi:10.1080/09541440340000349 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F09541440340000349).
S2CID 11918089 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:11918089). Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20170813164849/https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/819/1/Gobet_C
ampitelli_Minds%20eye.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2019-02-15.

External links
"Play blindfold chess with Alexa" (https://www.amazon.com/Laynr-blindfold-chess/dp/B0859
QF8YL)
"Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and
Important Games" (http://www.blindfoldchess.net) a new book by Eliot Hearst and John
Knott
"Blindfold Chess" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050408235445/http://www.chessclub.com/
resources/articles/article11_7.html) by Danny Kopec
"George Koltanowski" (https://theweekinchess.com/html/twic274.html#5)
Canadian blindfold chess timeline (http://members.shaw.ca/berry5868/blind.htm)
"Mnemonics approach" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060823011200/http://www.nakedscie
nce.com/memory/blindfold%20chess.htm)
"Play blindfold chess online against computer" (http://www.apronus.com/chess/computer.ht
m) (tick checkbox 'blindfold chess')

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