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October 18, 2005

"Now I see," said the blind man....

...so he picked up the hammer and saw! :-)

One of the most fascinating things about chess is playing blindfold or without sight of the board. And it doesn't require much thought to play without sight of the board, except a decent memory.

In 1937, George Koltanowski, a Belgian who emigrated to the USA in 1940, set the blindfold record by playing 34 opponents in Edinburgh, Scotland, winning 20, losing none, and drawing 14 games! Not bad, right?

This topped Alexander Alekhine's 32, but was later broken by the great Argentine Miguel Najdorf at Sao Paulo, in 1947, who played 45 games (+39, -2, =4). Then Janos Flesch of Hungary broke this mark by playing 52 in 1960 (+31, =3, -18). Flesch's mark was tainted by reports that he was allowed to verbally recount the scores of games played. In any case, later in 1960 Koltanowski regained the record by playing 56 opponents (+50, =0, -6) in one sitting.

Blindfold chess, in moderation, has been recommended by many sources as a method for improving a player's analytical powers. In the former Soviet Union simultaneous blindfold chess exhibitions were banned, as they were decreed bad for your health. Perhaps there are some foundations for this belief in that two of the greatest blindfold performers through the first half of the last century, Pillsbury and Alekhine, died rather young (Pillsbury at 31, Alekhine at 54) and supposedly they suffered great headaches after these "seances" (although it is well-documented that Pillsbury died from Syphilis contracted in Moscow).

TO PLAY blindfold chess you need to do only two things: commit the entire board of 64 squares to memory, and practicing by going through a game without sight of the board in your head.

I actually remember the first time I played against someone who was blind — I thought it was going to be feat because I had the advantage of sight. Boy, was I wrong! He called off the moves to me and then I did the same. As we were going back and forth, and sitting comfortable in my chair, I realized I was losing! I couldn't believe it. After I resigned he went over the game (from memory) and he showed me where I had gone wrong. I learned a good lesson real fast.

Any strong chess player will tell you that you can "see" more of the board and position without actualy looking at the squares and pieces. Yes, it's a little ironic. But after much practice you begin to realize that it's all about patterns, or the specific arrangement of the pieces, and mental visualization. If you're good at crossword puzzles or word games like scrabble you can play blindfold chess with ease.

In order to play blindfold chess start by memorizing pawn moves then knight, king, rook, queen and bishop -- in that particular order. Leave the bishop last because it is the hardest piece to "move" in your head.

As White the dark square bishop in its original position, covers the c1 - a3 diagonal; the light square bishop covers the f1 - h3 diagonal.

The pawn moves are the easiest because they move in a straight line, up, or capture either to the right or left.

The knight is also an easy piece to remember because they attack one square a time, and it's also good to remember that a knight never lands on the same color square. The knight alternates between light and dark squares in L-shape maneuvers.

The king is equally easy to move because they can only move one square at a time. If the monarch stands in the middle of the board his sphere of influence covers only eight squares.

Next comes the rook. The rook can be a bit tricky because it covers lots of light and dark squares — vertically or horizontally.

The queen is just as tricky like the bishop. Because the queen combines the power of rook and bishop, you have to adjust your mind to be sure you're moving in the right direction when making moves mentally.

Try it. You'll realize that your IQ and chess rating will skyrocket overnight, and after much practice you'll also realize that you'll "see" more of the board when you play against your dad.

Blindfold chess is just that cool!

Posted by rene on October 18, 2005 11:21 AM

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