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

446 Pages·2008·4.63 MB·English

by  Eliot Hearst

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