Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Blindfold King

Published: Thu, 12/08/16

Newsletter Issue Blindfold King

Tactics Time

Blindfold King

Tell a non-player you can play a game of chess blindfolded, and you are instantly classified as some sort of mad genius. ~ Albert Silver


T

his position comes from the game Thomas Brownscombe vs Grandmaster Timur Gareyev, played December 3, 2016 at the Blindfold World Record event held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the position on the right it is Black to move.

Answer below.

   Congratulations to Grandmaster Timur Gareyev who just broke the world record for the most blindfold chess games played simultaneously!

   Albert Silver writes:

   "On 4th of December Timur Gareyev played against 48 opponents in a blindfold simul that lasted nearly 20 hours to set the world record in simultaneous blindfold chess. Miguel Najdorf's record of 45 opponents was broken by Mark Lang after 64 years in 2011 by playing 46 people. Timur went two steps ahead and challenged 48! He ended the simul with a staggering 35 wins."

   I got to meet and play against Timur back in November 2013, when he was training for this event. I wrote about in my newsletter, "Just when I think I can't possibly get any dumber", which you can read here: http://archive.aweber.com/tacticstime/MZOQz/h/Just_when_I_think_I_couldn_t.htm

   Timur came to Denver, and gave a 15 board blindfold simul. He beat everyone except me and Gunnar Andersen, who both got draws.

   That day was memorable because earlier in the day I lost a G/30 rated game to Devon Wall (Life Master Brian Wall's son) who was only rated 1053 at the time, so it was around a 900 point upset.

   After I lost that game, Brian, who was the organizer of the tournament, announced there would be an upset prize (which his son would obviously win). This led to an online joke/meme "#FunnyBusiness", used by me and Shirley Herman anytime a TD does something that is questionable.

   It was really cool getting to play Timur, and I have been a big fan ever since. I think it is really awesome that he achieved his goal of breaking the world record!

Some interesting articles about the event:

USCF article by Jay Stallings: https://new.uschess.org/news/blindfold-king-breaks-world-record/
Chessbase article by Albert Silver http://chessbase.in/news/timur-gareyev-world-record/
Chess.com article by Peter Doggers https://www.chess.com/news/view/timur-gareyev-plays-blindfold-on-48-boards-5729

Social Media:

Blindfold King facebook page https://www.facebook.com/blindfoldchessking/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/timur_gareyev

Congrats again to Timur!

Here is the complete game:

[Event "Blindfold World Record"]
[Site "Las Vegas, NV"]
[Date "2016.12.03"]
[Round "1.4"]
[White "Brownscombe, Thomas"]
[Black "Gareyev, Timur"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C78"]
[WhiteElo "2200"]
[BlackElo "2618"]
[PlyCount "36"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Bc5 6. Re1 Ng4 7. Re2 O-O 8. c3
d5 9. exd5 e4 10. dxc6 exf3 11. gxf3 Nxh2 12. Re5 Qf6 13. Rxc5 Nxf3+ 14. Kg2
Bh3+ 15. Kxh3 Qh4+ 16. Kg2 Qg4+ 17. Kf1 Nh2+ 18. Ke1 Rfe8+ 0-1

You can play through this game here: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2016/12/7/Game1026455937.html

Answer:

Black has a forced mate with 15...Qh4+ 16.Kg2 Qg4+ 17.Kf1 (17. Kh1 Qh3#) 17...Nh2+ 18.Ke1 Rfe8+ 19.Re5 Rxe5+ 20.Qe2 Qxe2#

Happy Tactics!

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