My Blindfold Chess History.

My name is Timur Gareyev

I played my first blindfold match in April 2012 vs. 4 people. The challenge seemed nearly impossible. As I got out of the opening on all four boards I started noticing the ease of seeing the positions evolve. Fairly soon I beat all of my 1000 level opponents in a landslide. From there on I gradually raised the number all the way up to 33 games played in St. Louis in May, 2013 and a couple partial attempts of 35 played in Austin and even 50 games in Kansas. I currently do not claim to have set any particular records. I do have the ambition to break the ultimate blindfold chess world record in the next 3 years.

Miguel Najdorf played 45 games blindfolded simultaneously back in 1947 over 65 years ago. He is still considered the current Guinness record-holder. The most recent attempt came from Marc Lung of Germany who played 46 games. Marc did not quite score as many wins. The current Guinness system rates the blindfold matches by the number of wins. Najdorf got 39 victories vs. Lung’s 25. The criterion is definitely valid. Lung including many blindfold chess masters of the past practiced quick draws upon entering the middlegame. This definitely makes the task easier.

The ultimate winning attempt would require at least 80% wins. That looks like 40 wins out of 50 games should seal the deal. My attempt in St. Louis resulted in 29 wins which is over 87% of victories. The average rating was 1360 including 4 unrated players. I completed the match in less than 11 hours. Now this was not a flawless attempt with various errors made throughout the match. Based on the format the match would not qualify for the record. Even if the number of boards and respective wins were higher, other important criteria must be satisfied.

Namely, the larger events I have played started in stages. The exhibition in St. Louis for example had the first group of about 18 players start and play for about an hour before the next 8 players came in. The final seven players came in after a couple hours of the match starting. Thus the match would not qualify to be “simultaneous”. On top of things, the initial part of going through the opening is most demanding of all. I attempted 50 games blindfolded for the first few moves at Karpov Chess Academy in Kansas. As the temperature was rising up to 90 degrees, my brain was literally getting fried trying to keep and recollect the first moves of each game. Sadly, the heroic effort was happening all inside my mind, hardly impressive on the board, and invisible to the spectator.

Media has done incredible job displaying my blindfold feats. The most distinctive of them all being the 10-inmate blindfold simul organized at Chicago Cook County Jail. It was certainly a unique experience to fly into Chicago the morning after Halloween to all of a sudden face prisoners tackling you over a chess board. As I spent a few minutes greeting the participants and getting comfortable in the environment, (hopefully not too comfortable) the intimidation subsided. The rest was easy as I clenched my quickest victory over any 10-player group in a blindfold match.

Throughout the past two years I must have played more than 50 blindfold exhibition matches and over 3000 blindfold games. Those would include matches in coffee shops, demos, and online simuls. I have also played numerous games blindfolded online. Many of the practice duels were 3-minute and even blindfold bullet games. I have acquired large experience and faced numerous non-chess challenges throughout my journey. When it comes to blindfold chess, the environment is the king.

I am grateful to the organizers who welcomed me and my “blindfold show” to their clubs. Most of the people who helped me create the event supported me 100% and never wanted a dime for themselves. I enjoy the process tremendously. The experience is extremely rewarding considering you get to see all the participants at the end as you take off the blindfold. Most players and spectators are left totally blown away as to how I get to visualize and execute with so much ease and completion.

When it comes to playing blindfold matches, my key consideration is the participant and spectator experience before my own personal ambition. Running the simul in stages for example was not necessarily done in order to make my life easier. Playing 27 chess kids and youth players in Hawaii, I had to gauge my audience’s attention span accordingly. Yes, the initial stage is the most challenging and thus makes the participants wait for my first few moves for a couple hours at a time. That may be appropriate for the world record attempt, but not for demo/ recreational exhibition matches. As I completed the Hawaii simul none of the players had to attend for longer than 3-5hours even though the whole match lasted about 9 hours.

In my recent practice I have found 4-10 game matches most ideal. The year of my record-setting attempt I’ll be visiting chess clubs around the country alike Koltanowski did in Scotland and Ireland. My last attempt took place at National Open in Vegas. The tournament featured many excellent smaller side events. I was happy to contribute with my unique proposition facing 6 participants blindfolded. The games went smooth as players caught on with the tempo and rules of the match. I had an easy time “seeing it all” and putting pressure. Eventually as a domino effect all of the games finished at the same time in my favor on the final couple moves.