George Koltanowski made his mark on the chess world by virtue not so much of his playing strength (though he was made an honorary grandmaster in 1988) as for his extraordinary memory, which enabled him to play a large number of games simultaneously without sight of the board.
He could also conduct a blindfold "Knights tour", in which a knight covers the whole board using legal moves but using each square only once.
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, chess player & mnemonist, 1903 - 1999.
This is from a newspaper cuttimg (U.K. Times) that fell out of an old book this morning - Thought I'd share this with you all.
@Hells-Caretaker
Don't know much about him but "The Art of Checkmate" has a game from one of Koltanowski's simulataneous exhibitions:
@kingme saidBeautiful, one of my favorite checkmates, but since black never moved his e pawn but moved the c pawn instead, the bishop goes back door left.
@Hells-Caretaker
Don't know much about him but "The Art of Checkmate" has a game from one of Koltanowski's simulataneous exhibitions:
[pgn]1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Bd3 Qxd4 6. Nf3 Qd8 7. Qe2 Bf5 8. Nxf6+ gxf6 9. Bxf5 Qa5+ 10. Bd2 Qxf5 11. O-O-O Qe6 12. Qd3 Qxa2 13. Qd8+ Kxd8 14. Ba5+ *[/pgn]
That particular checkmate would be difficult to reproduce I'd think.
Koltanowski gave one of his famous blindfold simuls in Edinburgh in 1937.
https://www.chessscotland.com/documents/history/Koltanowski1937.htm
J. (Johnny) WIlkes who got a draw I knew well and we played dozens of
skittles games before he passed away. A well travelled man who played
chess all over the world...literally...he was full chess anecdotes.
F. Gould later became president of the Edinburgh Chess club.
It was him who asked me in 1975 to be the live in caretaker of
the Edinburgh Chess Club. I was there for seven wonderful years.
In 1975 R. Laing (who also got a draw) was my first team captain
(I played for Edinburgh's 4th team.) Quite a character, he was 70
something and played nothing but gambits. I played two season and
was head hunted by the first team. But I wanted to stay with my friends
in team 4. (great days - played some great unsound sac games)
A few years later I went to the first team. Eventually became Captain but
after some off the board antics (never during the game - the game is sacred)
I was banned by the Edinburgh Chess league for 10 years from ever being a
captain again. (that is another story for another day.....)
@greenpawn34 saidOur appetite is whetted!
I was banned by the Edinburgh Chess league for 10 years from ever being a
captain again. (that is another story for another day.....)
In a nutshell...and from what I can remember.
Prior to the start of the season two of my good players left Edinburgh, another
(my board 2) refused to play because on the first game I took the whole team to
an away game just outside Edinburgh when in fact it was a home game. (OOPS!)
He could not see the funny side, we had a minor/major tiff and he was out.
Because of this I had to bump up boards 5 & 6 to 2 and 3.
I got a few good players I know (non-club members) to play
and talked other club members in other teams to play (which
was against the rules) add in I accidentally on purpose spelt their
names slightly wrong so no one would find out.
(I then kind of forgot - on purpose - to send my result card in, probably
so they would not have evidence in my hand writing, either that or laziness.)
Chief ploy was everyone make move 36, adjourn and I would look at the games to
see if we scrounge a win or draw. (this was about 1979/80 long before computers)
Of course most of these games were hopelessly lost so in that case I delayed
playing the adjournment as long as possible, kept putting it off and off.
Soon had a huge backlog of games and complaints to league about players
adjourning Queens down etc... then the envelopes with the sealed moves went missing.
(that was nothing to do with me, it was a non-member who did it for a laugh
but I looked upon it as act of divine providence. This took a while to sort out
but eventually all the games went against us. The fact this lad took all adjourned
games not just my teams let me off the hook. But I did have nothing to do with it.)
There were also a few 'incidents' One I recall was the team getting drunk at
an away match and on a whim nicking the garden furniture outside their club.
Another time I needed to postpone a match so called their team captain
saying one of my players had died. (no idea why, just a spur of the moment thing)
He asked who...er....So I said it was one of the players who had left Edinburgh.
(he was and still is as far as I know still very much alive. )
So we agreed on the phone to call it a 3-3 draw. The league found out
and ordered us to play a match. (if other budding team captains are going
to use ' one of our players is dead' to try and postpone a game you will
need to place a false obituary in the deaths column.)
So we were forced to play and my team (with a 'floater' - see above) won!
(this was later reversed when they discovered I had fielded a bogey.)
Also one or two (maybe three of four) scuffles, handbags at dawn really but the
complaints were mounting up and up. At the enquiry someone on the board said:
"In his defence I think that he (me) should never have been made a team captain."
I can remember part of the wording which will still be somewhere in the minutes.
I'll paraphrase:
"Mr Chandler should not be a team captain again for a period of 10 years
until he is more mature." ( I remember the immature bit - I was 31! )
We were very nearly relegated but survived after all the point deductions by one point. It is on record still the worst performance by an Edinburgh One team.
So recap: Never once was there any hanky-panky during the games.
(adjourning and getting outside help was the norm - a few seasons later
Edinburgh abolished adjournments which was good, everyone hated them.)
I am still of the opinion that anything off the board is fair game.
But the game itself, no cheating. Boards of enquiry I can handle
but not the wrath of Caissa - hell hath fury.....
I looked on the ban as a blessing. I hated being captain.
@hells-caretaker saidI had multiple conversations with Kolty back in the 1980's . We had him down to San Antonio for our biggest tourney over Labor Day , Southwest Open . He would give a lecture , a blindfold simul and of course his famous Blindfold Knights Tour . He told me his formula for playing blindfold chess and I used it to win numerous blindfold games . He was a gentleman and a true ambassador for chess .
George Koltanowski made his mark on the chess world by virtue not so much of his playing strength (though he was made an honorary grandmaster in 1988) as for his extraordinary memory, which enabled him to play a large number of games simultaneously without sight of the board.
He could also conduct a blindfold "Knights tour", in which a knight covers the whole board ...[text shortened]... uttimg (U.K. Times) that fell out of an old book this morning - Thought I'd share this with you all.
@hells-caretaker saidLol, wonder how many people have done this on rhp
& if that's astonishing, take a look at this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAXIubSTkc