UPDATE 24 March 2017: Gareyev's simul has now been officially recognized as a Guinness World Record GM Timur Gareyev played 48 chess games blindfolded simultaneously from Saturday to Sunday in Las Vegas improved upon previous simuls by FM Marc Lang (46) and GM Miguel Najdorf (45) and hopes that his record will be internationally recognized Gareyev played chess simultaneously against 48 participants without sight of the boards Against 43 on-site opponents and five online opponents Gareyev shaking hands with his opponents at the start of the simul The simul took place at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and ran from Saturday 8:30 a.m There was a half-hour break because of a fire alarm so His parents traveled to be with him for the memorable day The day-long event was a culmination of several years of preparation for Garayev. Previously, his largest blindfold exhibitions were 33 boards in St. Louis, 2013 and 35 in Santa Clara The record isn't officially recognized yet as an official representing the Guinness World Records was not present so there is a chance that the record will be recognized by Guinness at some point Gareyev performed his simul while riding an exercise bike Unlike at some of his previous exhibitions Gareyev seems to have met the most important criteria for becoming historically recognized Here's a game against one of the stronger opponents Gareyev puts up a strong attack against the enemy king and eventually checkmates it on move 39—That was quite far into the simul Some of Gareyev's young opponents pondering their next move played half of his games with the black pieces While visiting the world championship last month He also said that he uses other techniques to remember which board is which including chatting with opponents the night before to learn their voices which helps him remember which board is which "Sometimes people provide the moves in a certain way," he said Garayev also told Chess.com that he's adapted the technique of a "memory palace" that is used by memory competitors, usually used to remember things like numbers or the order of playing cards He said each game is like "a room in a palace." "It's all there," he explained to Chess.com "I walk into my kitchen I see that stack of bananas." The abstract images are an analogue for specific moves so presumably he now knows a lot of different fruits the founder of the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club But sometimes things went wrong as well It's impossible to play 48 games without hanging something So you have to accept that something like this can Here's an interview with Gareyev taken during the Carlsen vs Karjakin match in which he looks forward to his simul Huge congrats to @timur_gareyev for breaking the blindfold simul record! Gareyev slept for about six hours," said Lennart Ootes who was responsible for the live transmission as well as the photos (Gareyev told Chess.com he only got three hours before the Santa Clara event earlier this year) but again woke up after about six hours of sleep." "That's where the bike comes in," Garayev told Chess.com in November but at some point when he started running towards someone he completely missed a glass door and bumped right into it," said Ootes. "But I am not sure if that was related to the simul." People asked me how @timur_gareyev recovers from a 19-hour Blindfold Chess #WorldRecord. Well, he just ran into a glass door. #human Garayev did fall short of his personal goal of 40 wins He told Chess.com he had been scoring about 90 percent his previous simuls It's like a never-ending journey." He plans on visiting his home country Uzbekistan Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397 These two may not look like they would be friends and by most accounts should be rivals taking on an insane challenge and playing blindfold chess These blindfold chess experts worked together testing their extraordinary blindfold chess abilities and successfully set a new record for Tandem Blindfold Chess A tandem blindfold chess exhibition involves two players who team up to play multiple chess games with a number of other opponents making successive moves without consulting one another Neither partner has sight of the board or the pieces Alexander Alekhine and George Koltanowski set this world record for Tandem Blindfold Chess in 1934 in Antwerp Lang and Gareyev broke this 80-year record by playing seven opponents The evening began with media interviews and what else but some good old football tried to keep the mood light as he rode a bicycle around the square – blindfolded of course FM Marc Lang and GM Timur Gareev playing seven opponents in blindfold tandem On board 4 they switched things up and played black and returned to play as white on Boards 5-7 The age of the opponents ranged from 14 to 50 years with an average USCF rating of 1900 – with one player rated 2200 The seven-game blindfold match lasted 4.5 hours with two five-minute breaks both Lang and Gareyev agreed to three different openings in a sequence They opened with Nf3 on boards one and five They played board four as black as a way to break up the sequence When asked what he felt was the most difficult thing about working as a team blindfolded it wasn’t that difficult and I think Timur felt the same For me it was sometimes difficult to guess what Timur had in mind with his move some of the positions didn’t quite fit my style which told in my play on that particular board Especially the King’s Indian on board 4 was not really my cup of tea” He further explained “the position on board five right after the opening I would have played it completely differently than Timur but unfortunately (for me) it was Timur’s move when the crucial moments occurred I somehow lost track or better: I tried to return the position to “my style” But in the end we finally emerged as winners in a nice knight endgame.” After the last game came to a close around a quarter past midnight it was time for none other than – blindfold bughouse This popular chess variant is played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board Lang was exhausted after the match – regrettably he was somewhat preoccupied with a major work project that had him busy on the very day of the event But Timur insisted that the challenge continue Lang and Gareyev donned the blindfolds once more to challenge Roland Mayer (the club’s chairman) and Andreas Klein roughly 2100 USCF rating and stuck it out to win both games They played bughouse with clocks with seven minutes for the blindfold team and five minutes for the opposing team The moves were called out by a helper who sat across from the opposing team Timur and Marc were allowed to ask questions on material such as “what do I have?” it is Marc who mated Roland with a nice attack with three knights against a wandering black king Marc shared that he had a lovely experience meeting Timur in person and getting the opportunity to team with him in such an unusual event but was happy with how the event turned out Timur and Marc’s approach to recall is very different Marc is used to having sight of the players and seeing the move in notation on a computer screen It is still blindfold chess because he has no sight of the chess board or pieces The traditional blindfold chess player has his back to the opponents on the other hand finds the physical blindfold benefits his recall He relies purely on auditory processing for visualizing the board Timur says that the opponents voices are very important to him where as faces are very important to Marc for visualizing the individual games Marc went on to say that he was deeply impressed by the strength of Timur’s play and thinks he has an excellent chance to break his record Timur has also partnered with OFF da ROOK and Chicago Area Mensa for the world record event This event is scheduled for October 2016 and will take place in Chicago Both Timur Gareyev and Marc Lang are also in talks about doing more off the wall blindfold chess events together Perhaps a Blindfold Knight’s Tour……stay tuned Select games from the dropdown menu above the board