Mr. Blackburne's
subsequent thirty years blindfold chess is too well known to require
comment, he is admitted to be second to none in the exposition of
the art, some even claim superiority for him over all others.
Dr. Zukertort, on the 21st December, 1876, at the St. George's
Chess Club, contended blindfold with sixteen competitors,
comprising the best players that could be found to oppose him. From
a physiological point of view Zukertort's powers appear the most
extraordinary, because his abstraction for chess was far less
pronounced, and his mind seemed to be of a more varied and even
discursive kind. It would scarcely have been less surprising to
have seen players like Staunton, Buckle, or Der Lasa performing
blindfold chess.
The number of players of all grades of chess force who now
can play without seeing the board is amazing; a tournament for
blindfold play only could well be held. The faculty of playing
chess blindfold is thought to apply mostly to those who have
extraordinary retentive memories of a peculiar kind, and great
powers of abstraction very slightly brought into action or diverted
by other pursuits.
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