MODERN CHESS BRILLIANCIES

Larry Evans told me that when Bobby Fischer was visiting his home in
Reno, he paid Bobby $100 to check the mansuscript of this book before
it was submitted to the publisher. Bobby went through it page after
page without setting using a board or pieces.


JohnD wrote:
I have heard a similar anecdote from a local player who played in the U.S.
Junior Championship back in the late 1960s. At that time, Fischer was in
New York hanging around the hotel (the McAlpin, I believe?) and checking out
some of the games. After salvaging his game with some nice tactics, the
junior player handed his scoresheet to Fischer who scanned it and sort of
shrugged and said, "Yeah, nice game, kid."

More recently, I read a GM who said he envied the ability of Shirov,
Svidler, and other players of that stature to rip a game score off a fax
machine and read it as if they were reading a short story.

I suppose there is some vagueness to the what playing blindfold means. I
don't visualize a full board and set when I try to play, but more like
chunks of squares and pieces along with maybe a single diagonal or file at a
time.

"Taylor Kingston" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 25, 8:30 pm, EZoto wrote:
On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:14:41 -0700, Rob wrote:
http://www.chessville.com/misc/Quotes/moreFischer.htm

One quote Fischer made that was amazing to me was that he couldn't
play blindfold chess. Fischer said he couldn't visualize a board and
pieces in his mind. Hard to believe.

Can you give a source for that quote? It really seems unlikely that
Fischer would say he couldn't visualize; that is a skill all great
players have to a high degree.
I recall another anecdote that directly contradicts such an idea; as
I recall it appeared in Chess Life some years ago. An acquaintance of
Fischer, a good amateur player, was elated that a game of his had been
published in a local newspaper column. He proudly showed the column to
Fischer, who scanned it for a few seconds. Bobby handed the paper
back, saying "Yes, pretty good game." The guy replied something like
"Aw, come on, Bobby, you mean to tell me you just played through the
whole game in your head??" Fischer replied something like "Yes, I did.
You could have won faster with a knight sac on move 17." And it was
true.
That sure sounds like visualization to me.