Blindfold Chess: The Book, the History, and Some Tips and Resources for How to Play it.

This month on Chess Books Recaptured, guest co-host Jerry Wells and I do a deep dive on the topic of Blindfold Chess. Jerry is an Arkansas-based school teacher, chess coach, and dedicated adult improver who has emphasized blindfold chess in his study regimen. The first half of the show is devoted to discussing the definitive work on blindfold chess, called Blindfold Chess, History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games. The book is by NM Eliot Hearst and John Knott, and it was clearly a labor of love from two passionate chess enthusiasts. Following our conversation about this detailed historical tome, Jerry and I summarize and share many other resources you all can check out if you are interested in improving your own blindfold and visualization skills. We’ve got lots of detailed links and show notes for this one, so please read on to find them along with timestamps. ( There are even more show notes at: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/8/29/book-recap-talking-blindfold-chess-with-guest-co-host-jerry-wells ) 0:00- We begin by learning a bit about the background of our guest co-host, Jerry Wells, and about why he was interested in the book Blindfold Chess, History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games, by Eliot Hearst and John Knott, and why he has worked on his own blindfold game. 13:00- We read the opening paragraphs of the book and dive into its contents.  31:00-  A recurring question in the book is whether or not performing many blindfold simuls can drive you insane? What did the authors 35:30- We discuss a few of the other notable players mentioned in the book. 40:00- We answer a Patreon mailbag question about the ranking of  George Koltanowski in the pantheon of blindfold players throughout chess history. 48:30- We discuss part 2 of the book, which synthesizes a lot of the research available regarding how chess players learn, and whether they have superior memories, etc. 56:30- We share a few of our favorite quotes from the book. 1:05:00 What blindfold-playing tips are shared within the book?  1:11:00- We synthesize a lot of Blindfold Tips from other chess resources.  Here are the resources we discuss:  Improve Your Chess Now by GM Jonathan Tisdall https://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Chess-Now-Tisdall/dp/1857441567/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=improve+your+chess+now&qid=1598752597&s=books&sr=1-3 Noir Chess- http://www.noirchess.com/ Chessvis- https://www.chessvis.com/ IM Danny Rensch’s- Achieving Full Board Awareness and Nivana videos- https://www.chess.com/video/player/achieving-full-board-awareness https://www.chess.com/video/player/achieving-full-board-nirvana Chess Steps Thinking Ahead Volume 2-  https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Chess-Thinking-Chess-Steps-Stappenmethode/dp/9077275991 Visualize 1 on Chessable by Benedictine- https://www.chessable.com/visualise-1/course/25695/ ChessFox Visualwize- https://chessfox.com/discover-visualwize/ NM Elliott Neff’s Step by Step Blindfold Tips- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4U336yifjg NM Elliott Neff on Perpetual Chess- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-94-uscf-master-and-author-elliott-neff/id1185023674?i=1000420893461 Blindfold Chess Podcast-  https://open.spotify.com/show/28ktA1QA3CDeVlsmqyBNjU?si=-xR-VwdQSE2p3ostg_B60g 1:28:00- Thanks so much to Jerry Wells for suggesting this great topic and preparing so much. You can follow him twitter here: https://twitter.com/jerrywaynewells And thanks to his suggestion of another donation to Books Through Bars: http://booksthroughbars.org/ 1:31:00- Blindfold Puzzle Time!   (from Chess steps thinking ahead)- 1. E4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 Nc6 5. ? Answer in link  https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=i/SeZIPEV+zgh1vQyYxcsHPf4zRuWjC/BEK3DPMwAJMLK3ZaqBz4oIh/i6Lj2FcH Mate in 2 from Chess Steps vol. 3) White: pawn on a5, queen on h1, King on c5 Black: King on a7, White to move and mate in 2 Puzzle here- https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=i/SeZIPEV+zgh1vQyYxcsPBGfWNYaw1qv8rv75i7wdqAgWRjQ5ZJJsHKak3PbZpn Solution here-  https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=i/SeZIPEV+zgh1vQyYxcsAPaHMPl3f4XVKuYmauWUmXuob4BDxSjxMtMPOQGmvN7 Pillsbury- BVD Dixon, 1900, Blindfold Simul- e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bc5 5. O-O O-O 6. Nxe5 Qe7 7. Nxc6 dxc6 Bd3 Qe5 9. h3 Bxh3 10. gxh3  What move did Pillsbury “overlook” on move 10 for Black?  Game link with conclusion here…  https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=c57YHXax2Ne7ie/drf4LwuRfIo9w1v+xHVLGC+AXsXkMMdtS+IPivvhL+brTDBwn Thanks for listening everyone! If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate Illustration in video rendering is from Harper's Weekly, November 1858, of Paul Morphy playing eight simultaneous games blindfold. It was published in Fred Wilson's book "A Picture History of Chess". https://www.fredwilsonchess.com/