Blindfold Chess - the book

[Hans Jung]

Chessbase has a review on Blindfold Chess today (the book by Elliot Hearst and John Knott) by Edward Winter (the most respected chess historian out there).
It is the definitive book on blindfold chess in the world and there has never been a book like it. The publishers are McFarlane and they make magnificent books. I cant wait to get my hands on it. The link was posted by Pete McKillop in a thread just below.

[Larry Bevand]

Hi Hans,

I am ordering it today...give us 2 weeks.

You can order it on-line at Strategy Games:

www.strategygames.ca

Larry

[Kerry Liles]

Originally Posted by Hans Jung

Chessbase has a review on Blindfold Chess today (the book by Elliot Hearst and John Knott) by Edward Winter (the most respected chess historian out there).
It is the definitive book on blindfold chess in the world and there has never been a book like it. The publishers are McFarlane and they make magnificent books. I cant wait to get my hands on it. The link was posted by Pete McKillop in a thread just below.

Can also order from CFC for $81.19

I'm just saying... I haven't looked to see what Larry's price is/will be

[Larry Bevand]

Originally Posted by Kerry Liles

Can also order from CFC for $81.19.

I'm just saying... I haven't looked to see what Larry's price is/will be

Ummm...maybe you should have checked our price first Kerry....

http://chesstalk.com/boutique/store/

[Kerry Liles]

Originally Posted by Larry Bevand

Ummm...maybe you should have checked our price first Kerry....

http://chesstalk.com/boutique/store/

Yes, obviously I should have checked both. Perhaps the difference represents a "donation" to the CFC? Still, that is a pretty whopping difference (on a pretty pricey book all the same).

My hat is off to you Larry for making sure you remain competitive...

[Ken Craft]

And to think the CMA could have been the official supplier to the CFC....

[Zeljko Kitich]

Let me guess, all the pages are blank?

[Art Hamilton]

Originally Posted by Zeljko Kitich

Let me guess, all the pages are blank?

LOL! Too funny!

[Hans Jung]

Well I spent the weekend immersed in Blindfold Chess - the book and I must say that it is even a better read than I had hoped for. The coauthors spent over 30yrs exhaustively researching detail and have created the most complete book of Blindfold Chess that exists and of equal importance a book that will be well received by a world wide readership. Before this publication knowledge of blindfold chess was only available via obscure publications, odd corners of websites and discussion groups but now there is easy access. Blindfold Chess (the book) is filled with testimonials from many famous grandmasters, many interesting anecdotes, and details supplied by hundreds of expert witnesses and also a strong belief that any tournament player who can see ahead in doing chess move calculations in a normal tournament game could and should attempt to play blindfold chess. It is actually good for your tournament chess! It was also interesting to note that current youth stars and great grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen have done blindfold simultaneous exhibitions, are extremely good at it, and are interested in doing more exhibitions.
Also from a Canadian perspective Jonathan Berry's webpage on Canadian blindfold chess receives a good plug and is mentioned more than once. Jonathan is nicely introduced and quoted and one of his games is published. Leo Williams receives a good introduction, is quoted, and has also one of his games published. I was happy to see my strategic location in the book! As one of 20 players in chess history to successfully attempt a 20 or more player blindfold simultaneous exhibition I am between Tony Miles (a foremost chess artist and strong grandmaster) and Garry Kasparov (the calculating genius) epauletted by the blindfold adventures of two Danish masters. I am also one of only six survivors of those 20 players and the youngest! Lots of entertaining reading and lots of interesting knowledge between the covers!

[Larry Bevand]

Originally Posted by Hans Jung

Well I spent the weekend immersed in Blindfold Chess - the book and I must say that it is even a better read than I had hoped for. The coauthors spent over 30yrs exhaustively researching detail and have created the most complete book of Blindfold Chess that exists and of equal importance a book that will be well received by a world wide readership. Before this publication knowledge of blindfold chess was only available via obscure publications, odd corners of websites and discussion groups but now there is easy access. Blindfold Chess (the book) is filled with testimonials from many famous grandmasters, many interesting anecdotes, and details supplied by hundreds of expert witnesses and also a strong belief that any tournament player who can see ahead in doing chess move calculations in a normal tournament game could and should attempt to play blindfold chess. It is actually good for your tournament chess! It was also interesting to note that current youth stars and great grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen have done blindfold simultaneous exhibitions, are extremely good at it, and are interested in doing more exhibitions.
Also from a Canadian perspective Jonathan Berry's webpage on Canadian blindfold chess receives a good plug and is mentioned more than once. Jonathan is nicely introduced and quoted and one of his games is published. Leo Williams receives a good introduction, is quoted, and has also one of his games published. I was happy to see my strategic location in the book! As one of 20 players in chess history to successfully attempt a 20 or more player blindfold simultaneous exhibition I am between Tony Miles (a foremost chess artist and strong grandmaster) and Garry Kasparov (the calculating genius) epauletted by the blindfold adventures of two Danish masters. I am also one of only six survivors of those 20 players and the youngest! Lots of entertaining reading and lots of interesting knowledge between the covers!

This book is ready to ship from Strategy Games tomorrow afternoon. Our price is $74.99 plus GST...the lowest price in Canada!!

http://www.strategygames.ca

[Hans Jung]

Last week as a birthday present (something special) I taught a student of mine to play blindfold chess. He just turned 12, has a CFC rating of 1200, and a Chess and Math rating just under 1000. He really enjoyed the experience.
He was White. I told him to play an opening that he was very familiar with and liked, and I also played the defence he wanted (Black side of an exchange Ruy Lopez). 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bd6 6.Bg5?! f6 7.Be3 Ne7 8.00 00 Here i got him to do a position check. I asked first for the placing of all the pawns for White, then all of White's pieces, then Black pawns and Black pieces. (need to add we were playing with only a board in front of us - green and white squares with algebraic notation.) - standard CFC stuff. He got the position correct but forgot the bishop on d6. He then corrected himself when I gave him a questioning look after asking if he had named all Black's pieces. 9.Nc3 Bg4 10.h3 Be6 11.Qd2 c5 12.b3 b5
13.a3 Nc6 Here I asked him to do another position check. This time it was correct. 14.g4 Nd4 15.Nh2 g5 16.Kg2 Kg7 17.f3 h5 18.Rh1 Rh8 Another position check. He forgot the pawn on f3 but otherwise correct. 19.Rag1 hxg4 20.hxg4 c4 21.b4 c6 22.Ra1 a5 23.Ne2 Nxe2 Another position check. 24.Qxe2 axb4 25.axb4 Rxa1 26.Rxa1 Bxb4 Here he blundered with 27.d4 and after exd4 he resigned. He was surprised at how many moves he did (for a first time try) and he really enjoyed the experience. He will definitely play blindfold chess again.

[Hans Jung]

Ken Rogoff! What a life story! In the book Blindfold Chess his life story reads like the ultimate success story! Why has no one published a book on this guy? (from the chess angle) He is the youngest ever to do a 20+ board blindfold display in the world. (at age 15) He was also the fastest (less than 5 hours - incredibly impressive!!!!) Why didnt he attempt 33 boards (break North American record) or 35 boards (break Koltanowskis record) or 53 boards (break world record) sounds like he was fully capable - a simple guess is the number of opponents available - he was doing the exhibition at the Rochester N.Y. club and that was the max number of members available. The story gets better. Ken Rogoff was not only brilliant but unusually independent (and confident?) At age 14 he was already a master and New York Open champion. At age 16 he dropped out of high school and moved to Europe where he made a living playing in tournaments and exhibitions!! He studied at Yale and in the summers got the IM and GM titles!! Graduate school followed at M.I.T. and he became a top name in economics and held the post of chief economist at the International Monetary Fund!! He later was a professor at Princeton and professor at Harvard!! GM Rogoff was just across the lake from Toronto and played in several Canadian tournaments from the late 60's thru the early 70's. Top Canadian players seemed to do well against him (including Lawrence Day). I guess I just missed seeing him in action as my tournament career started in 1973. I do recall some of his games from early Chess Canadas and Chess Chats. Does anybody else have any further reminiscences?

[Jonathan Berry]

I remember Ken Rogoff from the 1973 Canadian Open in Ottawa. He seemed like a nice guy. I did not play him. He has a lot less hair now.

He was rumoured to have memorized all the lines in MCO, 10th edition, with page numbers, line numbers, and note numbers (where appropriate). That was a 514 + xvi -page large-format book.

[Gordon Taylor]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Berry

He was rumoured to have memorized all the lines in MCO, 10th edition, with page numbers, line numbers, and note numbers (where appropriate). That was a 514 + xvi -page large-format book.

MCO 10th edition ! Now that brings back memories. Certainly one of the best editions, with Larry Evans doing the lion's share of the work. Walter Korn was the co-author and had a firm grip on the copyright. Beware of editions written just by Korn! The 10th came out in 1965, was reprinted in 1968, and I bought my copy in some little bookstore in Saskatoon in 1969 for just $9.25 (I know this because I have the book lying in my lap as I write this). At the time I felt I had discovered the Holy Grail ! In those days I could go play a night of speed chess and coming home I would open up this book and find out what the theory really said (I had a really good memory in those days long ago). The only drawback was that the damn thing was written in descriptive notation.

[Hans Jung]

Originally Posted by Gordon Taylor

MCO 10th edition ! Now that brings back memories. Certainly one of the best editions, with Larry Evans doing the lion's share of the work. Walter Korn was the co-author and had a firm grip on the copyright. Beware of editions written just by Korn! The 10th came out in 1965, was reprinted in 1968, and I bought my copy in some little bookstore in Saskatoon in 1969 for just $9.25 (I know this because I have the book lying in my lap as I write this). At the time I felt I had discovered the Holy Grail ! In those days I could go play a night of speed chess and coming home I would open up this book and find out what the theory really said (I had a really good memory in those days long ago). The only drawback was that the damn thing was written in descriptive notation.

A similar experience was my first book Chess Openings: Theory and Practice by I.A. Horowitz. I remember going into Bob Edwards chess store in London Ontario in 1973 and oggling all the books. It was the first one I bought. What has this got to do with blindfold chess? Well - I remember playing out the idea variations (as opposed to the practical variations) in my mind on bus trips because they were so exciting and then checking them in the light of day on a chess set when I got home or the club or school. I sure poored over that book and it was well thumbed over and eventually the spine broke. Years later I bought a used copy in good shape - and it was less than the price of the original!

[Hans Jung]

At: http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ru...ded/#more-7892 Ruslan Ponomariov (ex world champ) gives an exhibition of 8 blindfold games simultaneous - apparently his first ever. Its in Spain, there are lots of pictures and complete game scores (on viewers). Also at the bottom is a discussion forum with about 35 posts.

[Larry Bevand]

Originally Posted by Hans Jung

At: http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/ru...ded/#more-7892 Ruslan Ponomariov (ex world champ) gives an exhibition of 8 blindfold games simultaneous - apparently his first ever. Its in Spain, there are lots of pictures and complete game scores (on viewers). Also at the bottom is a discussion forum with about 35 posts.

Hi Hans,

You are doing a great job of promoting this excellent book...we are out of stock again...but we have a significant order coming in on Feb 18, 2009. The folks at McFarland even told me that we were one of their biggest customers for this title The book comes in and out so fast...I haven't had a chance to take a look at what happens between the covers!

Sheesh

Again for those who have not been keeping up to speed...the book is being sold at our online site www.strategygames.ca and our 3 shops at the LOWEST PRICE IN CANADA...uhuh...compare and you will see

http://www.strategygames.ca


Larry

[Hans Jung]

Hi Larry, Love to hear it. I am glad many viewers have decided to check it out. Its a good read. (thats not just my opinion but comments passed on by friends who are currently reading it)

[Hans Jung]

Thats not just the opinion of Pono - comments also by Svidler and Moro. I think current generation of strong Russian grandmasters have been trained to analyse blindfold to enhance calculation and judgement. I like blindfold chess because to me it is more creative (I "see" positions in a new way) and a good blindfold game gets me excited. However you have to play at your level. I have played IM's O'Donnell, Teplitsky, and Nickoloff in one on one exhibitions and been crushed (which was expected) and thats not fun.

[Hans Jung]

One thing I overlooked in my comments so far on the book Blindfold Chess is a comment on the amount of important research the authors initiated on the amazing blindfold record breaking exhibitions of Grandmaster Najdorf. Because of their investigations the complete gamescores of the 45 board exhibition were found a few years ago and now the complete details of that exhibition are recorded in this book. It becomes clear what a tremendous feat this was.
The 1947 - 45 board exhibition was held in the same place as the 29 board world record exhibition by Richard Reti in 1925 in Sao Paulo Brazil. Three doctors were observing GM Najdorf constantly and the event went from 8pm one evening to 730pm the next evening. Thousands of people came to watch even tho it was one of the hottest days of the year. GM Najdorf was very gracious - suggesting a player take back a blunder, some players were moving pieces and put back the wrong position and GM Najdorf would announce the correct positions and allow those games to continue. GM Najdorf ate nothing and only drank liquids! His final score was incredible - 39 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses. GM Najdorf was the only one in chess history to do two 40+ board simul exhibitions! and now his feats in blindfold chess are known to the world. The vague and inaccurate details of these exhibitions (even Garry Kasparov in My Great Predecessors gets the dates wrong) have now been thoroughly researched and correct details supplied which makes for very interesting reading. Certainly this is a highlight of Najdorf's wonderful and lengthy career and should be one of the topics discussed in an interesting book about the great man.