BLINDFOLD

***** BLINDFOLD *****

'Blindfold chess' refers to regular chess, played without seeing the
board.  Players are told their opponent's move, and announce their own,
usually to a referee, who makes the move on the opponent's board.

It is possible to play blindfold on ICC, as follows:
1) 'set style 9'.
2) start a game by using match or seek
3) minimize the board window when it pops up.

Whenever a move is made, the last 3 or 4 half-moves will be shown
in the console window. You can make your own moves by typing them
to the console window.

Don't forget to change the style back to 13 when done (or 12 if using 
WinBoard, Fixation etc.)

You can also use the SpeakMove or WoodIn plugin for Blitzin to have
moves read aloud to you.

Of course, we cannot verify that someone is playing blindfold.
We suggest you play only unrated blindfold games, or, if you play
this way often and want to obtain a rating, use a separate account
for it. Thank you.

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Historical notes:

Strong players in history often played blindfold exhibitions for the
great effect that their mental prowess had on their audiences.
When Morphy took on 8 (very strong) players simultaneously, it shocked
the world, even though his result was not in itself very convincing.
In this century, players chased the record number of game played
blindfold simultaneously. Alekhine did 32, Najdorf 45, Flesch 52,
and Koltanowski 56!

In the Soviet Union, playing blindfold was considered harmful to the
brain, and blindfold exhibitions were forbidden.
For most strong chess players, playing a blindfold game is not
very difficult.  In moderation, it is considered a useful part of
chess training, i.e. try it, but don't overdo it!

For more, read DrK (Dr. Danny Kopec)'s article for the ICC:
https://www.chessclub.com/iccjournal/past_issues/vol1issue1/article7.html

[onlooker, 10/1/2002]

See also:  style, plugins