If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Policy / Politique
The fee for tournament organizers advertising on ChessTalk is $20/event or $100/yearly unlimited for the year.
Les frais d'inscription des organisateurs de tournoi sur ChessTalk sont de 20 $/événement ou de 100 $/année illimitée.
You can etransfer to Henry Lam at chesstalkforum at gmail dot com
Transfér à Henry Lam à chesstalkforum@gmail.com
Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
General Guidelines
---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
Some Basics
1. Under Board "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) there are 3 sections dealing with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, and Reading and Posting Messages. These deal with everything from Avatars to Your Notifications. Most general technical questions are covered there. Here is a link to the FAQs. https://forum.chesstalk.com/help
2. Consider using the SEARCH button if you are looking for information. You may find your question has already been answered in a previous thread.
3. If you've looked for an answer to a question, and not found one, then you should consider asking your question in a new thread. For example, there have already been questions and discussion regarding: how to do chess diagrams (FENs); crosstables that line up properly; and the numerous little “glitches” that every new site will have.
4. Read pinned or sticky threads, like this one, if they look important. This applies especially to newcomers.
5. Read the thread you're posting in before you post. There are a variety of ways to look at a thread. These are covered under “Display Modes”.
6. Thread titles: please provide some details in your thread title. This is useful for a number of reasons. It helps ChessTalk members to quickly skim the threads. It prevents duplication of threads. And so on.
7. Unnecessary thread proliferation (e.g., deliberately creating a new thread that duplicates existing discussion) is discouraged. Look to see if a thread on your topic may have already been started and, if so, consider adding your contribution to the pre-existing thread. However, starting new threads to explore side-issues that are not relevant to the original subject is strongly encouraged. A single thread on the Canadian Open, with hundreds of posts on multiple sub-topics, is no better than a dozen threads on the Open covering only a few topics. Use your good judgment when starting a new thread.
8. If and/or when sub-forums are created, please make sure to create threads in the proper place.
Debate
9. Give an opinion and back it up with a reason. Throwaway comments such as "Game X pwnz because my friend and I think so!" could be considered pointless at best, and inflammatory at worst.
10. Try to give your own opinions, not simply those copied and pasted from reviews or opinions of your friends.
Unacceptable behavior and warnings
11. In registering here at ChessTalk please note that the same or similar rules apply here as applied at the previous Boardhost message board. In particular, the following content is not permitted to appear in any messages:
* Racism
* Hatred
* Harassment
* Adult content
* Obscene material
* Nudity or pornography
* Material that infringes intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party
* Material the posting of which is tortious or violates a contractual or fiduciary obligation you or we owe to another party
* Piracy, hacking, viruses, worms, or warez
* Spam
* Any illegal content
* unapproved Commercial banner advertisements or revenue-generating links
* Any link to or any images from a site containing any material outlined in these restrictions
* Any material deemed offensive or inappropriate by the Board staff
12. Users are welcome to challenge other points of view and opinions, but should do so respectfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Posts and threads with unacceptable content can be closed or deleted altogether. Furthermore, a range of sanctions are possible - from a simple warning to a temporary or even a permanent banning from ChessTalk.
Helping to Moderate
13. 'Report' links (an exclamation mark inside a triangle) can be found in many places throughout the board. These links allow users to alert the board staff to anything which is offensive, objectionable or illegal. Please consider using this feature if the need arises.
Advice for free
14. You should exercise the same caution with Private Messages as you would with any public posting.
Koltanowski - ??, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 3,1954, 1 of 8, 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.e4 Qc7 10.Qe2 Ne5 11.Nxe5 Qxe5 12.Nf3 Qc7 13.e5 Nd7 14.Bxh7+ Kxh7 15.Ng5+ Kg6 16.Qd3+ f5 17.Qg3 Qxe5 18.Bf4 Qe2 19.Nf3+ Kf6 20.Rae1 Qa6 21.Qh4+ Kg6 22.b4 e5 23.Bxe5 Bd6 24.Qg5+ Kf7 25.Qxg7+ 1-0 The Colle can be a well of dynamic attacking energy or an absolutely dry, mundane, colourless opening depending on whose hands it is in. Kolty never had the latter problem although there are some that would insist that this game is just about recognizing basic patterns.
I am going to start the story of GM Janos Flesch's world record breaking attempt. The accounts are many and varied so I will spread them over several posts. The official facts are that Flesch on October 16th, 1960 played blindfold against 52 players over a 12 hour time frame with the final score of 31 wins, 18 draws, and 3 losses. A short film was made of the event and it showed the columns of players and 3 views of Flesch sitting at a table with his back to the players and then a final view of people applauding as Flesch accepted a trophy at the end.
I want to mention some of Flesch's background to the event. According to Flesch he did not want to join the national chess association and so was not allowed to compete in tournaments as permission for that had to be granted. He was poor and starving. For lack of any other opportunity to play he began to compete against himself without sight of the board. In 1959 he was diagnosed as having lung cancer. This made him extra determined to show the world what he was capable of. He started playing blindfold simultaneous chess and increasing his numbers First against 5 but giving queen odds in each game! Then 10, then 20 but without giving odds. After playing 30 he had figured out that it was important to simplify games quickly. He also noticed that the more opponents he played the better he felt. Without help from doctors or medicine he was cured from his cancer before the end of the year! He then decided to try for the world record.
According to Flesch in the year 1960 he continued his training and toured provincial towns playing against 20 to 30 boards at a time and within a time limit of 4 to 4.5 hours. He decided to play the sharpest openings to win more games quickly. On the day of the exhibition Flesch claimed his opponents were 1 woman master, 1 candidate master, 11 first category, 18 second category, 21 third category players. The move messenger was a candidate master and there was a 7 member jury of officials including Laszlo Balogh (the chief), who was the chief international arbiter at the 1950 Budapest candidates tournament. Flesch went on to give a great many other small details.
There are many differences between Flesch's accounts of his world record and those of reliable witnesses. I will list some of them. According to a detailed article in Magyar Sakkelet (the main Hungarian chess magazine at the time) Flesch's accounts of the strength of his opponents were wrong. The actual details were 7 first category, 11 second category, 8 third category players, 6 fourth category, and 18 unrated (also 1 woman master and one candidate master as previously listed). According to Flesch the lowest opponents were third category players. Why does this matter? - because almost half the field were beginner level players including a lot of extreme youth. Many of the players did not know all the rules and basic moves. There were many games that ended in basic opening mates. Twenty games were finished by the tenth move and several of them were also prearranged draws. One of the games ended when Flesch made a terrible mistake on move 6. Flesch's opponent resigned because he didnt want to win a game that way.
According to Magyar Sakkelet of the 52 blindfold simul games Flesch played, 20 were finished by the 10th move after 4 hours (7 wins, 13 draws), and 15 more by move 16 after 7 hours of play (11 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss) for a total of 35 games completed by the 16th move! Astonishingly quick results! - until further accounts and investigation revealed that many of the opponents quit because they were bored, tired, or hungry (not surprising as it took Flesch an average of about half an hour to make a move on each board). What is wrong is the counting of those games as a win by forfeit even though the amount of moves played meant those games were still in the early opening stages. (apparently there were no replacement players allowed). Further investigations revealed that several of the games were prearranged (planned in advance!).
One other point about the Flesch simul is that according to Koltanowski he took notes during the exhibition. This is true. According to several witnesses he took notes (not scoresheets or individual moves in notation) with Informator symbols indicating procedure of the game with 52 boxes drawn (obviously one for each game). As according to Flesch himself this was contrary to the rules that Alekhine stated for simul blindfold play and Flesch had said he was strictly following, Flesch at the very least was being dishonest. For many further details see: Blindfold Chess (the book about which this thread was started).
The most graphic counter statement to the Flesch 52 board world record would have to be from Dimitrije Bjelica, the well know chess journalist and author of several chess books. (my favorite is "Great Chess Matches of the Century" which has the scores of the games of the famous 1970 blitz match which Fischer won and dominated ahead of all the greats) According to Bjelica he played 56 simultaneous blindfold games at once (50+!, -1, =5) (at age 61!!) His opponents were all women nurses!!! and he lost only to his mother!!!! (who was over age 80 at the time!!!!) (of course, if you were going to lose a game, it should be to your own mother!!!!!!:D) If the chess world accepted the Flesch world record than they would have to accept the Bjelica world record. As a final note to the claims of Janos Flesch to the world blindfold chess record (which were accepted by virtually everyone in the chess world at some point) it sadly becomes clear that Janos Flesch the creative chess genius was unbalanced by Janos Flesch the bullshit artist.
And now for the amazing games from the Flesch 52 board exhibition. The first two I believe are authentic as they were published right after the exhibition and I have seen them several times over the years. The last two Im not sure but even so they are amazingly creative games. This is my Christmas present to the readers. Whether or not they are authentic I think most of us love beautiful chess ideas and creative tactical and attacking play. Whatever his faults Janos Flesch had amazing tactical vision and was a creative attacker.
Flesch - Hrumo, Budapest, October 16, 1960, 1 of 52, 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.d4 g4 5.Bxf4 gxf3 6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.Nc3 Ne7 8.Nb5 Na6 9.Bxc7 Bg7 10.Nd6+ Kf8 11.Qxf6 Bxf6 12.Bxa6 bxa6 13.Rf1 Ng8 14.e5 1-0
One last Flesch game from a 20 board blindfold simul given in Luxembourg 1964 Flesch - Reuter, 1 of 20, 1.d4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.Bf4 d6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Qd2 Bf5 6.0-0-0 Nbd7 7.Bh6 Bxh6 8.Qxh6 Ng4 9.Qg7 Rf8 10.e4 Ndf6 11.Ng5 Be6 12.e5 Rg8 13.exf6 Rxg7 14.fxg7 Kd7 15.d5 Bf5 16.Bb5+ c6 17.dxc6+ bxc6 18.f3 cxb5 19.fxg4 Be6 20.Nce4 Qb6 21.Nxh7 Qe3+ 22.Kb1 Qh6 23.Nf8+ Rxf8 24.gxf8=Q Qxf8 25.Nc5+ Kc6 26.Nxe6 fxe6 27.h4 Qf4 28.h5 g5 29.h6 Qf8 30.h7 Qh8 31.Rdf1 Kd7 32.Rf8 1-0 At several moves in this game I said to myself: "Whats this"?!! Intriguing. Want answers? Ask your supercomputer. (keep in mind this game was played (as one of 20 blindfolded!) in pre computer days! ) Sheer wizardry!! Did anyone notice the prolonged dance of the black queen? Humorous. A very tactically creative game and on that note I want to wish my readers a Happy New Year!
According to chessbase news reports GM Gareev who won the North American Open in Sin City (I mean Las Vegas) just before New Years recently in Hawaii did a blindfold simul on 27 boards. He has announced further plans to do 64!! (but he wont be the last to talk the talk and not walk the walk) Personally Id like to see some of his blindfold games. Its exciting to know that a worlds top 100 player has recently done over 20 boards. It might encourage others.
According to chessbase news reports GM Gareev who won the North American Open in Sin City (I mean Las Vegas) just before New Years recently in Hawaii did a blindfold simul on 27 boards. He has announced further plans to do 64!! (but he wont be the last to talk the talk and not walk the walk) Personally Id like to see some of his blindfold games. Its exciting to know that a worlds top 100 player has recently done over 20 boards. It might encourage others.
Hans, a little off-topic perhaps - but you must be the man to ask -
Do you know of any details regarding the system used at Amber and presumably in China at the Mind Games, ie two laptops for the players and presumably one for the arbiter ?
Hi Tony, I've seen it in action many times (on the internet) but the mechanics never crossed my mind. Idea: Geurt Gijssen has a monthly article called An Arbiter's Notebook on www.chesscafe.com - probably contact info there. You could ask him. He was arbiter at Amber several times. Also I am sure there are a few arbiters here in Canada who would know. If anyone who can help reads this feel free to respond.
Tweet
Personally Id like to see some of his blindfold games. Its exciting to know that a worlds top 100 player has recently done over 20 boards. It might encourage others.
Comment