Blind simultaneous chess

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Blind simultaneous chess is a variant of simultaneous chess or blind chess . A combination of the two forms of play is also possible.

description

A blind simultaneous player plays against several other chess players at the same time without being able to see the boards. So he's playing blind. The moves of the seeing simultaneous opponents are announced to the simultaneous player.

In public performances, the blind player is usually a much stronger chess player than his simultaneous opponent.

The Saracen Buzzecca played two games blind and one seeing at the same time against strong opponents in the Florentine Pallazo del Popolo in 1266 , of which he won two and drew one . Only in the 18th century was Buzzecca surpassed by François-André Danican Philidor , who played blind against three opponents at the same time, which was considered sensational at the time.

In the 19th century, the American Paul Morphy played eight such games at the same time. Even Louis Paulsen (15 opponents in 1859), Joseph Henry Blackburne and Johannes Zukertort (16 opponents in 1876) were famous for their ideas. In the 20th century the number continued to grow:

Harry Nelson Pillsbury (22 opponents in 1902), Gyula Breyer (25 opponents in 1921), Richard Réti (29 opponents in 1925), Alexander Alekhine (32 opponents in 1933) and George Koltanowski (34 opponents in 1937) distinguished themselves as outstanding blind simultaneous players . Miguel Najdorf first played against 40 opponents in 1943 and was able to increase this record to 45 opponents in São Paulo in 1947 . Najdorf won 39 games, lost two and played four draws.

The Hungarian János Flesch claimed to have even played blind against 62 players in 1970. But this was not generally recognized, especially since the games of this event were not published. Already on October 16, 1960, Flesch was playing blind simultaneity against 52 opponents in Budapest (31 wins, 3 losses, 18 draws). This performance has been recognized as a world record in large parts of the chess literature. The authors of the current monograph on the subject - Eliot Hearst and John Knott - do not, however, list Flesch as record holders. Among other things, they point out that only five of the 52 game records are available from this event. In addition, eyewitnesses reported that many of Flesch's simultaneous opponents left the event prematurely, and that these games were then credited to Flesch as victories. The research results of Hearst and Knott are considered authoritative by the chess historian Edward Winter .

Marc Lang, Sontheim 2011

The German FIDE champion Marc Lang presented on 26./27. November 2011 in Sontheim an der Brenz on a new world record by playing against 46 opponents, against whom he reached 34.5 points (25 wins, 19 draws, 2 defeats). For 1040 moves, he had to remember where the 1472 figures were initially positioned in the 2944 fields. He had previously played on November 21, 2009 in Ditzingen against 23 opponents (9 wins, 2 losses, 12 draws) and on 27/28. November 2010 in Sontheim - under the view of an empty chess board on a screen - increased to 35 games (19 wins, 13 draws, 3 defeats).

With this kind of world records, the playing strength of the opponents is at a relatively low level, for example Marc Lang played against opponents with an average of just over 1500 DWZ ; the strength of Najdorf's opponents was even lower. A draw before move 15 is frowned upon, so Lang's draw games were longer.

Other well-known blind simultaneous players in Germany were Friedrich Sämisch , the two-time cup winner Sigmund Wolk , who competed against up to 15 opponents in southern Germany in the 1950s, and grandmaster Vlastimil Hort , who played against up to 20 opponents in the 1980s.

Also impressive are the presentations of blind simultaneous games against comparatively strong simultaneous opponents. Harry Nelson Pillsbury competed in Hanover in 1902 against participants in the main tournament at the 13th Congress of the German Chess Federation and achieved 8.5 points from 21 games (3 wins, 7 losses, 11 draws). Garri Kasparow played on June 7, 1985 in Hamburg a performance against ten strong opponents under a time control of one and a half hours per 40 moves, with an additional half an hour for the blind player to compensate for the time lost when the train was transmitted by messengers. Kasparov won 8 games, 2 ended in a draw.

In 1982 Robert Huebner played blind against six players from the Hamburger SK from the 1st German Chess League . He won four games and drew two. Furthermore, in 1997 Hübner played blind against six players from the SF Cologne team from the 2nd Bundesliga . He won five games in this fight, only one game ended in a draw. Two years later, on September 25, 1999, he won five games in Berlin against the team from the second division SC Kreuzberg , three of which ended in a draw.

For the blind simultaneous player it is crucial that the individual games take a different course as early as possible so that he can tell them apart. Nevertheless, such an event means an enormous intellectual effort. Miguel Najdorf said he was unable to sleep for nights after attempting a record against 45 opponents and almost went mad. Because of possible health problems, blind simul games had been banned in the Soviet Union since 1930. Marc Lang, on the other hand, reported that he had no problems after setting his European record. He had "slept two or three hours and then [...] had a completely normal day".

literature

  • Fernand Gobet, Alex de Voogt, Jean Retschitzki: Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games . Hove, Psychology Press 2004, ISBN 1-84169-336-7 .
  • Eliot Hearst, John Knott: Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games. McFarland, Jefferson 2008, ISBN 978-0786434442 .
  • Michael Negele: Master of Darkness. The legendary chess career of George (s) Koltanowski (1903-2000). In: KARL , 2, 2005, pp. 14-19, Karl-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, ISSN  1438-9673 .
  • Harry Schack: The other side. Robert Hübner's blind simultaneous performance from the point of view of Thomas Schian, who was one of the grandmaster's opponents at the time. In: KARL , 2, 2005, p. 25, Karl-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, ISSN  1438-9673 .
  • Ludwig Steinkohl: Blind chess phenomenon. Walter Rau, Düsseldorf 1992, ISBN 3-7919-0448-5 .

Web links

Commons : Marc Lang  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G.Ferlito & V. Williams: "Chess in Italian secular literature between 1275-1575" - Giovanni Villani (English)
  2. ↑ Eliot Hearst, John Knott: Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games, p. 95.
  3. ^ Harry Golombek: The Encyclopedia of Chess , London 1977, p. 33.
  4. ↑ Manfred van Fondern (Ed.): Lexicon for Chess Friends , Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1980, p. 44f.
  5. ^ Wladyslaw Litmanowicz, Jerzy Gizycki: Szachy od A do Z. 1 , Warsaw 1986, p. 265.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Steinkohl: Phenomenon Blindschach , Düsseldorf 1992, p. 144.
  7. ↑ Otto Borik, Joachim Petzold et al: Meyers Schachlexikon , Mannheim 1993, p. 38.
  8. ↑ Isaak and Wladimir Linder: Chess. Das Lexikon , Berlin 1996, p. 46.
  9. ↑ Michael Ehn , Hugo Kastner: Alles über Schach , Hannover 2010, p. 109.
  10. ↑ Eliot Hearst, John Knott: Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games, pp. 102f.
  11. ↑ Blindfold simultaneous records , Chess notes 4811
  12. ↑ http://www.blindsimultan.de/index.php/facts-zum-weltrekord
  13. ^ "Chess the Impossible" - world record in blind chess, November 27, 2011 in Sontheim an der Brenz
  14. ↑ Hartmut Metz: “When will this finally end?” Blindfolded, Marc Lang mated his seeing opponents in rows and achieved a world record: he only lost twice in 46 games. In: taz , November 29, 2011.
  15. ↑ Blind simultaneous record after 11 hours ( memento from February 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Schachbund.de, accessed on November 25, 2009
  16. ^ Frank Zeller: Marc Lang media hype ( Memento from May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 16, 2011
  17. ↑ Ludwig Steinkohl, Blindschach phenomenon , p. 158.
  18. ↑ Wolfram Runkel: Ten against a phantom , Die Zeit , edition 27/1985
  19. ↑ See Harald Fietz: Blinder Durchblick. Robert Hübner demonstrated his extra class in blind chess.
  20. ^ Raj Tischbierek : A fairy tale for adults . In: Schach 01/2012, pp. 4–13.