George (Kolty) Koltanowski, the greatest showman and promoter that chess ever knew, died at the age of 96 in 2000.
A diamond cutter by trade, he left Belgium before the second world war and created a daily chess column that ran without interruption for 52 years in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Though his tournament results were modest, he wrote more than a dozen chess books and made headlines in 1937 by taking on 34 opponents at once without sight of the board to set a blindfold record of 24 wins and 10 draws.
He even took on chessmaster development team at the age of 94 in 5 simultaneous games, easily beating all of them.
He was a tireless exhibitor and raconteur who entertained fans with his specialty, the knight's tour. Spectators posted random words and phone numbin the 64 squares of a giant chessboard.
Kolty memorized the hodgepodge in seconds and while blindfolded, called out the path required for a knight to touch every square on the board as he recalled these scraps of information in order.
"I don't know how he does it", said his wife. "He can't even remember to bring a loaf of bread from the supermarket."
"Pawns are like buttons," Kolty often said, "Lose too many and the pants will fall down by themselves."
In his newspaper office he played without sight of the board against movie star and chess expert Humprey Bogart, who lost by a mere pawn.
HERE'S THEIR FRENCH DEFENCE GAME:
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. Ne2 Bg4 It's too soon to know if the bishop belongs here. Better is 5. ... Bd6 to prepare castling. 6. 0-0 Bd6 7. f3 Be6 8. Bf4 0-0 9. Nd2 Nc6 More flexible is 9. ...Re8 before deciding where to post the knight. 10. c3 Ne7 11. Bsd6 Qxd6 12. f4 c5?! Overly aggressive. More prudent is 12. ...Bf5 13. Nf3 Rae8 13. Nf3 less accurate than 13. dxc5 Qxc5 14. Nd4. 13. ... Nf5 stronger is 13. ... b6 in order to recapture on c5 with a pawn and keep control of d4. Even 13. ...c4 14. Be2 Bf5 minimizes white's initiative. 14. Qd2 Ne4 15. Qc1 Rac8?! A waste of time. Again 15. ...b6 is indicated. 15. dxc5 Qxc5+ 17.Ned4 Nxd4 18. Nxd4 Rc7 19. f5 Bd7 20. Bxe4 dxe4 21. Qf4 Re8 22. Rae1 Re5 gives up a pawn without a fight and leads to a hopeless ending. The last chance to avoid material loss is 22. ... Bb5! 23. Rf2 Bd3 24. Rxe4 Rxe4 25. Qxe4 Bc6 25. Qe3 black has managed to stave off immediate mating threats but cannot overcome the lethal disadvantage of being a pawn down. Since Kolty is blindfolded, however, there is always a chance he will overlook something. Indeed, he is starting to drift. Sharper is 25. Qf4 Re7 26. f6 Re2 27. Qb8 Re8 28. Qg3. 25. ...Re7 26. Qg3 Re8 27. f6 g6 28. Qh4 the queen is already on a strong outpost and should stay there. Simply 28. Re1 is indicated to challenge the e-file. 28. ... h5 Bogart in turn misses his main chance 28. ... Re2 29. Rf2 Re1+ 30. Rf1 Re2 draws. 29. Re1 Rxe1+ 30. Qxe1 Qd6 31. Nxc6 Qxc6 32. Qe7 Qc8 33. h3 Qc6 34. b4 Qxc3 35. Qe8+ Kh7 36. Qxf7 Kh6 37. Qe7 Qc1+ comes close to drawing--but not quite. 38. Kf2 Qf4 39. Ke2 Qc4+ 40. Kf3 Kg5 making it easy.
The best try is 40. ... h4! Forcing white to find a move like 41. Qe4! in order to win, If 40. ... Qf1+ 41. Kg3 h4+ 42. Kh2 Qf4+ 43. Kg1 Qc1+ 44. Kf2 black will eventually run out of checks. 41. f7 black resigns.
Bogart once worked in a chess stall at Coney Island and was arguably the strongest player in the Holywood community.
Source: Blindfold Chess by Roberto Hernandez
Island Times Newspaper
Friday, April 27, 2007
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