Near Miss of Setting Canadian Simultaneous Blindfold Record

Near Miss of Setting Canadian Simultaneous Blindfold Record

Even though the world record for number of simultaneous blindfold games was achieved by Miguel Najdorf in 1947 when he played 45 opponents at once, in the past 50 years there have been fewer than ten players who have played 20 or more such games and no one (except for Flesch’s dubious exhibition in 1960: see pp. 99-110 of our book) has played more than 28. Although displays of 10-12 boards have been fairly common in recent years, chessmasters have turned to more regular forms of chess to make a reasonable living, rather than working as hard as is necessary to take on 30 or more opponents at once without sight of the board. From around 1850-1940 you were often not considered a major target for money-making displays unless you could give simultaneous blindfold exhibitions. Now the proliferation of weekend tourneys with large prizes, internet chess, chess writing and teaching, and one-on-one blindfold tourneys have taken central stage for chess professionals. However, recently there has been an increased interest in blindfold chess as an educational device and small blindfold displays and tournaments are becoming more and more popular, as our book relates.

One of the players who falls into the select group of those who have played more than 20 opponents without sight of the boards in the past half-century, and the last one to accomplish that feat, is Hans Jung (left) of Ontario, Canada. He is now a FIDE Master (FM) and has been the official chess coordinator for the city of Kitchener since 2002 (is there any other city, in North America or elsewhere, that has established such an appointment?)

Canada is one country that has continued to maintain a strong interest in blindfold chess. But one big, rather sad story involves Jung’s attempt to set the Canadian record for total number of simultaneous blindfold opponents (see p.124 of our book for even more information). By playing 26 at once in 1993, he attempted to beat what he thought was the Canadian record of 25 games, set by Leo Williams in 1982. To his great surprise Jung soon afterwards discovered that Williams had exceeded his own record by playing 27 opponents in 1986.

So a few weeks after his 26-board display Jung arranged a 30-board display at a different mall in London, Ontario. Two hours after that exhibition began, a punk rock band began blasting out music for a CD promotion release at a nearby record store. Since very noisy surroundings make blindfold displays almost impossible to give, for the exhibitor as well as the players, it had to be stopped. Jung never again had the chance to surpass his 26-board performance and to exceed Williams’s 27. What a near-miss!

During his chess career Jung has given more than 100 blindfold exhibitions of at least 10 boards. Not many players in the history of blindfold chess can come close to that achievement. For our book we could not locate any of his game scores to publish, but at our request Jung recently supplied a few.

The following three games are dear to Jung’s heart, because they were played in his first display of more than 10 boards and also commemorated the reopening of the London, Ontario City Chess Club in his home town in 1984. He played 12 games at once and scored 10 wins, two draws, and no losses against opposition that included two experts, five Class A players, and 5 Class B players — quite strong opposition. He averaged just over 30 seconds per move, very fast for a blindfold player.

More here.