| Mar-26-06 | | fgh: All I can say: Wow! |
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| Mar-26-06 | | like a GM: How much brain capacity do you have to have to play like that at blind? Marvel! And I'm not just talking about this game but about Moro's achievements at blind in general. |
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| Mar-26-06 | | Per: Yeah, I would dream to play a game like that - with my eyes open! |
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| Mar-26-06 | | Jim Bartle: I don't know whether this counts as "brain capacity" or not, but I would guess that in blindfold you have to have enormous powers of concentration, the ability to focus on the game and to shut out all outside thoughts. Then again, I've heard stories of players who play blindfold while reciting math tables or whatever at the same time, so who knows? |
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| Mar-26-06 | | zephir: Maybe Moro has some mystic powers |
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| Mar-26-06 | | pawn to QB4: Give it a try, guys: you might be pleasantly surpised. Harry Golombek thought that "to play a single game blindfold moderately well is within the capacity of every strong player", and I don't think he meant masters. I myself tend to lose memory of the position around move 20 unless it's an endgame, but up to that point my game's little more inept than usual - sort of, if you remember where the pieces are you might as well move 'em to good squares as bad ones. A friend of mine who's rated about 2100 and blind plays a lot of off-hand games without bothering with his braille set and my impression is that, with the practice he's had, he's very nearly as tough an opponent.
Hell of a game this one was though! |
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| Mar-27-06 | | cade: Quite a picturesque position with the 2 passed Pawns on the e-file being blocked 1 stop from coronation. |
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| Dec-02-11 | | sicilianhugefun: I couldn't play like this even with my eyes staring directly at the board.. |
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| Dec-02-11 | | tonsillolith: I am rated between 1800 and 1900 USCF, and developed the ability to play blindfolded by just practicing. It took me less than ten games before I could visualize the board fairly well for at least 25 moves into the game. My vision gets fuzzier as the game goes on. I thought playing blindfold would help strengthen my "inner vision". Practicing single blind games regularly was a good way for me to be able to play longer games blind, but then after a while I also decided to see whether I could play multiple games at the same time. I was able to get up to three games simultaneously without too much trouble. Mind you all games were against a single opponent with sight of the board, but a very weak player. Sometimes my friend and I will play a game of chess on a board while at the same time playing a game mentally, calling the moves back and forth to each other. Now that's a challenge! If anyone has interest in learning to play blind, I would certainly recommend trying. I think you won't find it as difficult as you expect, especially if you are familiar with following chess games by notation. For example, if you know white knights usually start on f3, then move to e5 or d4, and that black's pawn in the Dutch is on f5, and if you can make a pretty good guess as to the color of any square chosen at random, then you will be able to supplement your visual memory with semantic knowledge of squares. In addition, you can supplement visual memory with auditory memory. If I forget where my opponent's queen is, I will search back in memory for him saying "queen to ____", and then I focus mentally on repositioning the queen solidly on that square. I certainly think that playing blindfold chess helped my ability to calculate certain types of variations. And I definitely think that Dual n-Back helped me as well. |
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| Dec-02-11 | | TheFocus: I think almost everyone has a latent ability for blindfold chess. How many times have you been playing and decided to stroll around the hall? And then suddenly, you think, "Hey, wait! If I play Bc5, he has to move ...Re8 to cover the Knight at e7, but then I can move my other Bishop to c6 and win the Exchange." You rush back to the board and see that you are right, chalking up a win. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 33...Rxd2