Blindfold Chess, Un-blindfolded
by Michael Zhu
It was like a deep forest. The way through was not confusing for the lack of light, but rather for the denseness of the foliage. In 1858 in a Parisian hall, chess player Paul Morphy simultaneously faced eight of the strongest masters of his day. His opponents stared intently at their boards, while Morphy instead kept his eyes closed beneath his blindfolds. Yet he won 6 games, and drew 2 more.
I could not imagine playing a chess game of longer than a few moves while remaining blindfolded. Therefore, the ability of some to play dozens of games at a time while blindfolded seemed to me superhuman (Lubin 2017). My perspective was similar to the one Leona Godin describes as impacting the perception of blind people in modern society (Godin 2018). But like chess players, blind people only appear superhuman because they have developed skills latent in all people. My exhibit furthers this point by representing the “mind palace” technique that simultaneous blindfold chess players employ, and which apparently all people are capable of with some practice.
Lambros Malafouris claims that people “think “with” and “through” things, not simply “about” things” (Malafouris 2019). Indeed, like me most chess players rely on the chess board as an extension and projection of the analytic mind. However, the mind palace technique is an exception that proves his point—by approximating real world objects with mental objects, blindfold chess players can approximate thinking through thinging.
My exhibit represents a “mental palace” someone could use to solve simultaneous versions of the knight’s tour, a centuries-old chess puzzle. While apparently complex, careful study will reveal patterns that do not require superhuman abilities to memorize. Furthermore, I feel like I’m close to memorizing them, as I have already gone through the process of thinking through thinging.
Citations:
Leona Godin, M. “When People See Your Blindness as Superhuman, They Stop Seeing You as Human: M. Leona Godin.” Catapult, Catapult, 23 Nov. 2021, https://catapult.co/stories/when-people-see-your-blindness-as-superhuman-they-stop-seeing-you-as-human.
Lubin, Gus. “Timur Gareyev’s Blindfold Chess Technique.” Inverse, Inverse, 6 Apr. 2017, https://www.inverse.com/article/29863-timur-gareyev-blindfold-chess-memory.
Malafouris, Lambros. “Thinking as ‘Thinging’: Psychology with Things.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 29, no. 1, 2019, pp. 3–8., https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419873349.