Blindfold Chess

BLINDFOLD CHESS: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records and Important Games
Authors: Eliot Hearst and John Knott
McFarland & Company, Inc. (2009)
437 pages
$65.00

Reviewed by John Donaldson

BLINDFOLD CHESS is a beautiful 445-page hardback with over 60 photographs that covers pretty much everything you might want to know about playing sans voir.

Among the topics the authors discuss in the first part of their book are the early origins of blindfold (even before Philidor), who they feel is the world record holder (Najdorf with 45 games in 1947), and who was the strongest blindfold player of all time (Alekhine). Before determining these two titleholders, the authors devote considerable space to the history of record holders for playing the most games blindfold. They examine the lack of uniform standards that require making some value judgments imperative (Do you allow short draws? How important is the strength of the opposition? How much information can the teller give the blindfolded record seeker? etc.).

The second part of the book takes a quite different look at blindfold chess switching from its history to the psychology of playing sans voir. How is it done? Is it something only for very strong players (the authors feel strongly that most regular tournaments players are up to the task with some training) and will it cause mental illness as has been suggested (no says Hearst and Knot)? The chapters in this section are broken down as follows: Research on General Chess Skill, Psychological Studies and Commentaries on Blindfold Chess, The Techniques of Blindfold Champions, and The Supposed Health Hazards.

Part three, the largest section of the book and close to 200 pages, consists of all available games from world record-setting simultaneous blindfold exhibitions and a selection of other significant blindfold games. In total, 444 games are given, nearly all of them annotated, starting with Philidor in 1783 and continuing to Anand and Kramnik.

Like all McFarland books, Blindfold Chess, is beautifully produced with library binding, alkaline paper, a neat two-column layout, and crisp photographs and other illustrations.

Highly Recommended

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