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Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games PDF

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Blindfold Chess Blindfold Chess History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games E H and LIOT EARST J K OHN NOTT McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London Frontispiece: Veselin Topalov and Judith Polgar are actually blindfolded at the start of their six-game computerized blindfold match at Bilbao, Spain, in December 2006. Topalov won the match 3∂–2∂. After the first few moves they removed their blindfolds and used individual computers, as at the Amber tourneys (courtesy New in Chess). LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Hearst, Eliot, ¡932– Blindfold chess : history, psychology, techniques, champions, world records, and important games / Eliot Hearst and John Knott. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0-7864-3444-2 (library binding: 50# alkaline paper) ¡. Blindfold chess—History. 2. Chess. 3. Chess players. I. Knott, John, ¡940– . II. Title. GV¡3¡8.H43 2009 794.¡'7—dc22 20080033624 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Eliot Hearst and John Knott. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Edited by Robert Franklin Designed by Robert Franklin and Susan Ham Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To our respective children, despite the fact that none of these nine loved ones ever tried to play blindfold chess This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 7 PART I. THE HISTORY OF BLINDFOLD CHESS 1. Even Before Philidor 15 2. François-André Philidor 21 3. Between Philidor and the Late 1800s 25 Early Post-Philidor Blindfold Players 25; Louis Paulsen 29; Paul Morphy 34; Joseph Henry Blackburne 39; Johannes Zukertort 43; Other Late 1800s Blindfold Players 47 4. The First Part of the Twentieth Century 50 Introduction 50; Harry Pillsbury 54; Vladimir Ostrogsky 59; Richard Réti (with a bow to Boris KostiW) 62; Gyula Breyer 72; Alexander Alekhine 73; George Koltanowski 83; Miguel Najdorf 91; János Flesch 99; Reuben Fine 110 5. The Last Fifty Years 115 Introduction 115; Francisco J. Pérez, Kenneth Rogoff, Leo Williams, Vlastimil Hort, Anthony Miles, Jacob Øst Hansen, Hans Jung, Ole Boegh Larsen, and Garry Kasparov 116–127; Other Players of Note (Val Zemitis, Ortvin Sarapu, Larry Christiansen, Sergio Mariotti, Dimitrije Bjelica, Jacques Mieses, Frank J. Marshall, Samuel Reshevsky et al.) 127–135 6. Women and Blindfold Chess 136 7. Major Recent Tournaments and Matches 139 Introduction 139; The Amber Tournaments 141; The Future 146 vii viii Table of Contents PART II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BLINDFOLD CHESS 8. Research on General Chess Skill 151 Cleveland (large units of thought and “position sense”) 151; Djakow, Petrowski, and Rudik (masters’ memories superior only in chess?) 152; Baumgarten (chess prodigy Reshevsky) 153; De Groot (recognition of patterns) 154; Simon et al. (“chunks” in short- and long-term memory) 155; Some Problems with the Simon Group’s Approach 158; Alternatives to the Simon Group’s Approach 162; Imagery, Verbal Knowledge, “Cartoons” 166 9. Psychological Studies and Commentaries on Blindfold Chess 179 Binet 179; Bergson 184; Fine 185; Ericsson et al. 186; Saariluoma 187; Chabris and Hearst 189 10. The Techniques of Blindfold Champions 191 11. The Supposed Health Hazards 200 PART III. BLINDFOLD CHESS GAMES World Record–Setting Simultaneous Exhibitions 207 Other Significant Games 313 Afterword 391 Appendix A. “World Record” Blindfold Simultaneous Exhibitions Since 1782 395 Appendix B. Proposed Rules for Serious Simultaneous Blindfold Displays 407 Bibliography 409 Games Index (to game numbers) 415 Traditional Openings Index (to game numbers) 422 ECO Openings Index (to game numbers) 424 Illustrations Index (to page numbers) 426 General Index (to page numbers) 427 Preface and Acknowledgments THEABILITYTOPLAYCHESSWITHOUTSIGHTof the chessboard or pieces is a notable achieve- ment of human memory and imaging. It becomes even more impressive when the player conducts 10 or more such “blindfold” games simultaneously against opponents who do have real chessboards and pieces in front of them. When Philidor played two blindfold games at once in the eighteenth century, eyewitnesses were asked to swear affidavits attesting to this remarkable accomplishment. After such a performance in London in 1782, The Worldcalled it “a phenomenon in the history of man” and added that the feat “should be hoarded among the best examples of human memory, till memory shall be no more.” But 150 years later, Alexander Alekhine successfully played 32 blindfold games simultaneously, and newspapers described the performance as surely reaching “the limit of the possibilities of the human mind and human memory in this field; beyond this limit there can be nothing but chaos, and madness begins.” However, Alekhine’s record has been broken more than once since then. Despite the lack of restraint in these journalistic evaluations and predictions, such exploits have certainly created great interest among chess players as well as others who become aware of them—like Alfred Binet, the great psychologist who wrote a book on simul- taneous blindfold chess more than 100 years ago, to which we will often refer. But no book has ever been published that tries to analyze in detail the history and psychological sig- nificance of blindfold chess and that supplies a very large number of the most important, newsworthy, and interesting games played without sight of the board (some flawless gems and others not). Our hope is to fill these gaps in the chess literature. Besides those goals, we also describe the well-publicized tournaments held annually since 1993 in Monaco between grandmasters who are bothplaying blindfolded. This double- blind type of event is more common now than are attempts by one person to play many games simultaneously against opponents with sight of their board and pieces. And no book has really stressed the virtues of learning to play blindfolded, in terms of its practical advan- tages for the improving chess player. Almost anyone who is a fairly strong amateur can eas- ily learn to play at least one or two games without sight of the board. Blindfold chess whiz George Koltanowski believed that practice at developing such an ability improves one’s regular game more than does studying books, and Grandmaster Lev Alburt stated that “visualization” is the key to success in regular chess. Susan Polgar, a women’s 1

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