German Master Plays 15 Simultaneous Blindfold Games, Will Try to Break German Record of 22 This Fall
On June 6 in Krumbach, Germany, FIDE master Marc Lang took on 15 opponents at once, without sight of any chessboards or pieces. We believe that this is the largest number of players anyone has attempted to play simultaneously since 1993, when Hans Jung of Canada played 26. Lang’s ease at handling 15 opponents has encouraged him to strive for greater heights and to oppose 23-26 players at once this fall. The record number of simultaneous blindfold games played in Germany was for a very long time the 21 opponents that Harry Pillsbury of the U.S. faced at Hanover in 1902, but in 1984 Anthony Miles of England topped Pillsbury’s record by opposing 22, as part of the centennial celebration of the Roetgen Chess Club. We describe both Pillsbury’s and Miles’s displays in our book, to which readers may refer for more details.
Email exchanges with Lang have provided us with interesting information about Lang himself and his recent exhibition. Lang, 39 and married, has had little time to play in regular tournaments because he must devote himself to his computer programming business in Günzburg, 60 miles west of Munich in Bavaria, as well as to his growing family: a son,7, with another child due in October. He keeps up with chess by reading many relevant books and magazines without any chessboard available, in his bed or bathroom. “Blindfold is just like I’m used to studying chess”, he says.
Lang claims that his memory is not exceptional at all, but quite chess-focussed (this is typical of expert blindfold players). He jokes that he always forgets what his wife has asked him to do, and that when he puts frozen pretzels in the oven, 80% of the time they are burnt to “coal” before he remembers he put them there. He admits to a weakness in remembering faces and names, but chess games “stick in his head” and he even recalls parts of blitz games he played when he was a youngster.
His introduction to blindfold chess was unusual. Around 15 years ago, he was playing his friend, the now IM Mathias Duppel, a series of regular games in a café in Stuttgart when the waiter told them that chess playing was not allowed there. Their first reaction was to leave and never enter that café again, but Mathias suggested they play a 10-board blindfold simultaneous match against each other. No one could prohibit that! Lang won, 6-4, and not long afterward began to give standard blindfold displays, starting with 4 and ending up with 13 in 1998. He had to stop there and hardly played any chess at all over the next decade because he started his company, married, and eventually his son was born.
However, his vicarious interest in blindfold play continued and not long ago he decided to try to beat his previous personal record of 13 by playing 15. He says he was very nervous before that display a few weeks ago and slept poorly the night before the exhibition. But it turned out to be relatively easy. The opposition ranged in strength from around 900 to 2074, according to the German national rating system. The physical arrangement for the display was different from virtually all previous serious exhibitions over past centuries. Lang did not want to be blindfolded, sit with his back to the players, or be located in a separate room; he preferred to face the players and chat with them as the event progressed. So a cardboard barrier was set up that prevented him from seeing the chess positions but enabled him to see his opponents’ faces and converse with them as they announced their moves. He thinks this arrangement may have permitted him to more easily keep the various games separate in his memory because he could associate a face and a voice with a particular game.
Like other experienced blindfold players, he does not visualize boards and pieces, but only “spots” and “functions”. “For instance, I know there’s something called a rook on a1 and I know where it can move from there in that particular position. That’s all. There are no colors, no shapes, nothing. When I was younger, I used to see the board with yellow and black squares, but now even that has gone”
The display lasted a little over 8 hours and Lang scored 5 wins, only 1 loss, and 9 draws. At the end, because the four remaining players were getting tired, they simultaneously offered him draws. Although he had the advantage in two of the games and the other two were fairly equal, he decided to accept. In his next exhibition he thinks it would be a good idea to take a break of about a half-hour after five hours or so, to give both the remaining players and himself a rest period.
Lang expects to try to break the German blindfold simul record in November by playing at least 23 opponents and he has already contacted the potential organizers of the display in a town near Stuttgart to arrange the details. We wish him luck and thank him for taking the time to give us the above information about himself and blindfold chess.
Finally, here are two games from his recent 15-board exhibition:
M. Lang - H. Reif
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8.Be2 Qxg2 9.Qd6 Nd7 10.0-0-0! Qg5+ 11.f4 Qe7 12.Qd4 e5 13.Qd2 Qe6 14.Nf3 f6 15.fxe5 c5 16.exf6 Ngxf6 17.Ng5 Qb6 18.Bh5+! Nxh5 19.Rhe1+ Kf8 20.Bxc5+ (Black now loses by force; if 20…Qxc5 21.Ne6+ and if 20…Nxc5 21.Qd8+) 1-0
M. Lang - E.Fischer
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 Nf6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Nbd7 7.0-0 e5 8.Be3 Ng4 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bc1 a6 11.h3 Nh6 12.dxe5 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 fxe5 14.Be3 Be6 15.c5 dxc5 16.Bxc5 Rf7 17.Qc1 Rd7 18.Be3 Nf7 19.Na4 b6 20.b3 c5 21.Qc2 Qc7 22.Rfd1 Bf8 23.Rxd7 Bxd7 24.Nc3 Bc6 25.Bc4 b5 26.Bd5 Rc8 27.a4 b4 28.Bxc6 Qxc6 29.Nd5 a5 30.Rc1 Nd6 31.f3 c4 21.Nb6 Rc7 33.bxc4 Nb7 34.Nd5 Rc8 35.Qb2 Nc5 (This was one of the final four remaining games that were agreed drawn at this point. White can maintain the better position by say, 36.Rd1, but after more than 8 hours of play both the players and exhibitor were willing to stop here!) 1/2-1/2
Permalink | Posted by Eliot Hearst at 01:35 PM | Comments: 6
COMMENTS
Congratulations to FM Marc Lang! I wish him the best of success and if he is motivated dont stop at 26 games but do over 30 and cause a real sensation! I am impressed by the examples of his games - the miniature above is a real tactical gem! - and worthy of inclusion in any collection. His opponent grabbed the d4 and e4 pawns in the opening and White found fantastic tactics. Black surely thought after his queen returned to e7 that he would survive but White finished in a tactical masterpiece with win of queen or checkmate. Well done!
Hans Jung, June 30, 2009
Hi Hans,
Thank you very much for your encouraging comment and to Eliot for the excellent article. I will do my best to crush the German record in November and then…well, who knows, maybe… . What were your experiences concerning the openings when you played your big BFC-simul? I tried a wide range from 1.d4/e4/c4 to 1.b3, 1.f4 and even 1.b4, but I wasn’t pleased with the result - I faced certain problems in the unfamiliar positions arising in systems I usally don’t play. Maybe it’s better to chose only between 2 moves (e4 and d4) and “exchange” the risk of confusing something against more familiar and thus promising positions? How long did your simul take and did you have a break?
Best
Marc
Marc, June 30, 2009
Stick with what you are comfortable with and what helps your style of play. (this way you will also have better chances of playing more brilliant games like the miniature above!) If you are most comfortable with d4 then open only with d4. The only reason to vary would be to establish a “landmark” board every 5 boards. You can still do this by opening d4 but playing something unique later on that landmark board such as Blackmar-Diemer on first board 5, then Colle System on board 10,London System (Bf4) on board 15 etc. For some blindfold players who concentrated mainly on a single choice of opening that would not be enough of a landmark - they would choose to play a board with the black pieces every 10 boards or so (example Najdorf) - that would definitely be enough of a landmark. My 26 board simul was very fast - about 5 and a half hours so I had no breaks. My last simul of note was only 8 boards but it took 8 hours. I took a short washroom break of 5 minutes after 3 hours and it completely disoriented me. Again go with what you are comfortable with and by all means take a break if you need to (but dont take a break until after all the games are well established in your mind - I would recommend only after move 10 earliest). Best of Luck in your blindfold adventures und machs gut! - Hans
Hans Jung, July 02, 2009
Your idea of facing your opponents and chatting with them is excellent (I had never heard of this before) This method should really help in the first few moves as you can attach a face to each opening and it should make it easier to recall each game. I think I will give it a try in my next blindfold simul.
Hans Jung, July 04, 2009
Hi,It’s very great and intersting.But I have more interesting news for you.In Yerevan(Armenia) Mikael Khachaturyans(master) record is on 40 boards(2 times),20 boards(4 times) and 10 boards many times. He’s ready to play on 64 bords (symbolic). If you are intersted I can find details about this master and send to you.
Best wishes, Armen
Armen Abajyan, June 13, 2010
Because of the apparent and exciting unpublicized possibility that Khachaturyan is the only player besides Najdorf to have played at least 40 games of simultaneous blindfold chess, I emailed Armen Abajyan on June 14, 2010 for more details (the dates of the two displays of 40 boards, whether note-taking was permitted, the strength of the opposition, the length of the exhibitions, a few available game scores, rules for the displays, etc.).
On June 22 Armen replied that many details of the exhibitions had been lost because of changes in the Governing Board of the Armenian Chess Federation and the departure of many top players from Armenia. Khachaturyan (MK) was born March 3, 1953. Armen said MK first played 40 boards in 1995 at the Yerevan Chess House, meeting five experts who each played 8 games simultaneously with sight of the board while MK played all 40 without sight of any boards or positions. No winning percentage, game scores, or other details were available.
In 2003 MK again played 40 opponents, from a Chess School in Yerevan,
with a final score of +20,-4,= 16 in the amazingly short time of 6 hours. Armen reported that there were mistakes made by MK and the referees and that the display was not well-organized,was noisy,and interest was not great, Armen said he would send more details (news reports,photos,etc.)shortly.
Weeks later (July 12)I wrote Armen again for the above details and received no answer (it was hard for me to believe that 40 simultaneous blindfold games could be finished in 6 hours!).
I wrote Armen again on September 6 and no response has been received. I believe that, in the absence of more data and details, the two 40-board displays should be considered as possible achievements but, without the necessary supporting data, the displays cannot be taken seriously in tabulating world blindfold accomplishments.
Of course we would still welcome more information to substantiate MK’s and Armen’s claims.
Eliot Hearst, September 20, 2010
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