Blindfold Chess

A chess player plays chess at the same time (simultaneous) against many other chess players but has no sight of the chess boards. He can't look at the chess positions as he is blindfolded and he is being told the moves by another person. This forces the player to keep an accurate mental image of each chess position on all boards at the same time.

The blindfolded player is usually a chess grandmaster and his opponents are local amateur chess players from chess clubs. Today any strong chess player can at least play one game blindfolded.

Buzzecca played 1266 blindfold chess against 2 strong players in Florentine.
In the 18th century François-André Danican Philidor played blindfold against three players.
In the 19th century the american chess genius Paul Morphy played 8 blindfold games at the same time.
Others followed like Louis Paulsen, Joseph Henry Blackburne and Johannes Zukertort.

In the 20th century the number of games increased. Harry Nelson Pillsbury (20 games), Richard Réti, Gyula Breyer, Alexander Aljechin (26 games) and Miguel Najdorf (40 games) gave blindfold exhibitions.

The highest number of blindfold games were played 1961 by George Koltanowski who played blindfolded 56 chess players at the same time . He won 50 games and 6 were drawn, but his opponents were beginners.

János Flesch gave a blindfold exhibition on 17. October 1960 in Budapest. He played 52 opponents. (31 wins, 3 losses, 18 draws). 1930 blindfold exhibitions were considered as harmful for mental health and were officially banned in the USSR.

It is known that after the blindfold exhibition, the chess positions of all games still rest in the grandmasters mind for some hours or even days. This is quite uncomfortable. It is sensible to refrain from playing too many blindfold games to avoid mental disorders as this requires tremendous visualization abilities which put a lot of strain on the mind.

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