| Oct-17-15 | | TheFocus: From a simultaneous blindfold exhibition in Guadalajara, Mexico on September 29, 1932. Alekhine's scored +10=3-2.
See <Unidentified newspaper cutting in the Archives of B. Reilly 1933>. |
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Jan-29-25
 | | Honza Cervenka: 43.axb5+ Kb6 44.Rb7+ Kc5 45.Ne4# could follow. |
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| Jan-29-25 | | green ink: The prettiest ending would have been 42. - Ra8 43. Ra7+ Rxa7 44. Nb8# |
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Jan-29-25
 | | Teyss: A simul is impressive, a blindfold game is impressive, a blindfold simul is another planet. When I have the opportunity to have an engame with the Bishop pair vs Rook, I always take it; when it's two Knights vs Rook, I never do. That's because I'm not Alekhine. |
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Jan-29-25
 | | perfidious: <Teyss>, I went in for a blindfold simul once, at Montpelier, Vermont in June 1994, facing a mere six opponents. James Falzarano, quite a competent player himself, relayed the moves. In his post as an employee for the local newspaper during the 1990s, Jim may have had it written up, but I neither know nor care about that. |
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| Jan-29-25 | | stone free or die: How'd you do <perf>? |
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| Jan-29-25 | | thulium: Both are delightful endings.
My father, E N Marks, played Alekhine in a simultaneous game hosted by the Liverpool Central Chess Club in 1938.
Thinking he was doing well, he was amazed when his defence suddenly collapsed in the face of attack from all directions that Dad had not seen coming. Dad always wondered how Alekhine did it but, sadly, didn´t keep the game. If anyone can trace it, would be much obliged for a copy. |
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| Jan-29-25 | | stone free or die: <thulium> let's see if some biographer makes a rare find, but it's not likely. Unless a local paper, or local chess club, published the entire contest, which is already very unlikely, simul losses are almost never published. If your father had won or draw, then there might be an outside chance. It's all the more unlikely to have been recorded if the player himself didn't do so. |
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| Jan-29-25 | | areknames: I love this game and the pun, what a tour de force from both of Alekhine's knights! <perf>, six opponents? That's impressive, what strength were they? |
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Jan-29-25
| | perfidious: <zed>, I scored +3-2=1, one of the losses being to a player ~1950 whom I somehow never met in a classical game, but did face in one or two of the club blitz events. |
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| Jan-29-25 | | thulium: Many thanks for your reply, sfod.
I´ve tried the Liverpool Central Chess Club (LCCC) but it´s now defunct, as well as searches on the Internet. No dice. Aside from the personal interest, Dad had earned a university blue as well as the club´s brilliancy prize that year. So I was curious, as he was, to see how Alekhine pulled his trick off. He did record the game but, untypically angry with himself and embarrassed, screwed it up and threw it in the waste-basket! - to his life-long regret. |
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Jan-30-25
| | Teyss: Hi perfidious,
Six blindfold games, that's awesome. Good score too, well done. I cannot imagine trying to figure out what to do after something like "Board 5, Bishop takes on e5." I tried to practice my visualisation skills by just reading scores and visualising how the board evolves but I always miss something. Sigh. |
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| Jan-30-25 | | areknames: <Teyss> I remember playing a serious blindfold game only once. It was against an opponent of roughly equal strength, I was White in a 4 pawn Alekhine defence, we reached a fairly complicated position but agreed to a draw after 20-25 moves or so. I suspect my adversary was just as exhausted as I was. To play more than one game simultaneously, let alone six? No way. |
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| Jan-30-25 | | areknames: There aren't enough compartments in my mind for that ;) |
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Jan-31-25
| | Teyss: Hi areknames,
Funny anecdote. BTW probably the only way to play a double blindfold (i.e. both players not seeing the board, as opposed to one) is to have a third party checking the moves on a board, else it might result in:
"Knight takes on f7, check."
"But I captured your Knight five moves ago."
Or in something like this: https://maxxwolf.tripod.com/woody.h... |
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Jan-31-25
| | perfidious: <Teyss>, have you ever heard of Kriegspiel? Only time I ever tried that was with my teammates while sitting in the lobby of Beau-Rivage Geneve, in October 1977. |
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Jan-31-25
 | | moronovich: Hi <perfidious> ! May be we have seen each other (though chances are not that high) cause I was also in Geneva 77, August, to follow some of the match between Spassky and Portisch !? Situated at hotel "Mediterranné", just across the mainrailway station. |
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Jan-31-25
| | perfidious: <moronovich>, in August, I was here in the States, just after a trip to play the New Hampshire Open in Manchester, with one to Portland, Maine for an event there just before. At Labour Day, it was back to Manchester for the New England Open. The journey to Switzerland came six weeks after that. |
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Jan-31-25
| | moronovich: I see <pefidious> So kind of close, but no cigar. |
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Jan-31-25
| | Teyss: Hi perfidious,
Heard of it but never played. The only odd variants I tried are 960, Knightmare (which unbelievably has a Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knigh...) and drunken Chess (that's how we called it): every time you take an opponent's piece, you drink a shot. So as you material balance improves, you're less fit to calculate. It's really worth sacking Pawns here. Medical advice: no more than two games in a row. Also a bit of Antichess which is slightly more interesting than it first seems (capture is mandatory but you can choose which), yet not enough to try more than a few games. |
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Jun-17-25
 | | WTHarvey: Ends on a 'White mates in 3.'
click for larger view43.axb5+ ♔b6 44.♖b7+ |
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Kibitzing
sac: 13.Rxd7