#blindfold chess

[dozydawn]

“Ian Rogers is Australia's only chess grandmaster. Yesterday he was playing four opponents at the same time, with his eyes bandaged and his back to them. Only his wife's voice told him what the other players were doing but he defeated them all. June 28, 1989.”

Photographed by Andrew Taylor.

[dozydawn]

“oh no, my queen” traps from eric rosen.

[dozydawn]

“Alexander Grischuk prepares to compete in a 'blinfold' chess tournament at the Beijing 2012 World Mind Games Tournament. Unable to physically see their own or their opponent's past moves, the players summoned headache-inducing levels of concentration to fight for gold in a silent conference room, lined up in front of laptop screens showing a blank board.”

Photographed by Ed Jones.

[dozydawn]

Anna Zatonskih plays multiple games of chess simultaneously while blindfolded, 2009.

In blindfold chess, or sans voir, one or both players are unable to see the board, their pieces, and those of their opponent. Moves are communicated verbally through notation while the player must visualize the board in their head, maintaining a mental model of the position of the pieces at all times.