Both Without Sight: Two of the Best Blindfold Masters Faced Each Other in 1923

November 16, 2009By Eliot Hearst

Alexander Alekhine, generally accepted as the best simultaneous blindfold player of all time, considered Friedrich Sämisch (1896-1975) as a brilliant blindfold player, “technically perfect, fast, and confident”. Many chess historians rate Sämisch as Germany’s best-ever blindfold player, although most of his displays were on only 10 boards (his maximum was 20, which was not a world record at that time). In a vast collection of blindfold games amassed by Hindemburg Melao of Brazil, we recently discovered a game in which they both played blindfolded (the exact conditions of this one-on-one contest were not spelled out). Here Alekhine won by a sparkling queen sacrifice, and most readers will have no trouble figuring out why it led to Sämisch’s resignation.

A. Alekhine-F. Sämisch      B30
Berlin,1923 (Both players blindfolded)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Be2 e6 4.0–0 d6 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Nf6 7.Bf3 Ne5 8.c4 Nxf3+ 9.Qxf3 Be7 10.Nc3 0–0 11.b3 Nd7 12.Bb2 Bf6 13.Rad1 a6 14.Qg3 Qc7 15.Kh1 Rd8 16.f4 b6 17.f5 Be5

Alekhine-Samisch.jpg

18.fxe6!! Bxg3 19.exf7+ Kh8 20.Nd5! 1–0

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Zukertort Interview (1883): How I Play Blindfold Simultaneous Chess

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Two Australians and a German: Absent From Our Book But Worthy of Mention