Blindfold chess Totally Explained

Everything about Blindfold Chess totally explained

Blindfold chess is a way to play chess, whereby play is conducted without the players having sight of the positions of the pieces, or any physical contact with them. Moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation. Considered miraculous for centuries, it's now accepted that any strong player today can play at least one game blindfolded. In simultaneous blindfold play, an intermediary usually relays the moves between the players.

Before chess

The first written commentary to a predecessor of blindfold chess appears in Buddha's mild rebuke to monks. ť "Monks were--as some ascetics--addicted to such idle pursuits such as eight row or ten row chess, chess in the air (mental chess), hopscotch, spillikins, dicing, ball games, guessing letters, hand pictures, guessing thoughts, mimicking deformities, playing with toy ploughs; the ascetic Gotama refrains from such idle pursuits".

Of course, chess as we know it wasn't invented until several centuries later.

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. The first known blindfold event in Europe took place in Florence in 1266. and was organised in an effort to gain sufficient publicity to communicate to his family that he was still alive, as he'd remained in Argentina after travelling from his native Poland to compete in the 1939 Chess Olympiad. He increased this record to 45 opponents in São Paulo in 1947, with the result of 39 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. However, he'd access to the scoresheets, and there were multiple opponents per board.
The last increase in the record was claimed by the Hungarian Janos Flesch in Budapest in 1960, playing 52 opponents and winning 31 games, with 3 draws and 18 losses. However, this record attempt has been 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.
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. Koltanowski's specialty was conducting a Blindfold Knight's Tour on boards of up to 192 squares.

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. Mikhail Botvinnik also warned against it. Blindfold players have reported that it's more tiring than regular play, even if faster time controls are used.

Modern status

Today there are Blindfold Chess Tournaments held throughout the year, with the highest profile event being the Melody Amber Tournament, held in Monte Carlo. This event is partly funded by the billionaire Correspondence Chess Champion Joop van Oosterom and attracts many of the world's chess elite to compete in unique circumstances. 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 2006.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Blindfold Chess'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://blindfold_chess.totallyexplained.com">Blindfold chess Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.