| |
BGonline.org Forums
Blindfold chess/backgammon
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Blindfold chess/backgammon (Timothy Chow)
Date: Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 3:49 a.m.
Timothy, I have heard that simply going to a non-standard line can thwart a GM playing simultaneous games, though implicit is some competence on the part of the opponent.
Interestingly, in one of the Nero Wolfe stories the villain is a GM, who challenges Wolfe to a game of chess in Wolfe's office. (Where else?) He asks if Wolfe can play blindfolded, and Wolfe concedes that he probably can. This is, of course, the nerd version of a pissing contest. Wolfe immediately steers it to a non-standard opening, and the GM realizes he is being lead into deep water, and finds an excuse for suspending the game. That story was written sixty years ago.
A related cliche is the genius who can whip grandmasters without much training. (Unlike the genius Nero Wolfe, who understands that he needs a tactical edge.) Most recently there is a thread in the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series along those lines. In real life there is the example of Habu. Habu is perhaps the greatest player of Shogi in history, and is the subject of books with titles like "Habu's Brain," because he is allegedly "Japan's smartest man." So, we have someone with an IQ as high as Lisbeth Salander, who is the greatest player of a chess analog. He spent a couple of years studying chess a few hours a day -as did another shogi master - and then the two of them tried their hand at tournament chess. Habu received a rating from hois play of something like 2350 (as did the other guy), which is amazing for someone in their first tournament, but shatters to smithereens the idea that a Lizbeth Salander could kick Kasparov's heinie with no formal study. (Well, maybe she could kickbox his heinie, but she has formal training at that. :-))
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.