Three students from Dickinson’s chess team were chosen to play three simultaneous chess games with Chess Grandmaster (GM) Timur Gareyev while he was blindfolded.

Gareyev issued a challenge to the players saying whoever did not lose after 30 moves would get a prize. Students were also encouraged to consult one another with minimized noise disturbance. In the end, only Minh Tran ’19, founder and president of Chess Club, completed the challenge by losing in 34 turns, winning a cup full of candy.

The evening began with 30 minutes of warm-up games before the main event of blindfolded chess.

According to the FIDE website, blindfold chess is a form of chess play wherein the challenger is blindfolded and cannot see the positions of the pieces or touch them. That challenger, however, also has a facilitator who will follow and move the chess pieces on behalf of the challenger’s command.

“This game forces players to be focus[ed] and maintain [a] mental image of the board at all times,” said Gareyev last year after playing 48 simultaneous blindfold chess games (35 wins, seven draws, six losses) in Las Vegas, as reported by the FIDE website.

Liam Stenson ’19, a student at the event, stated “The event was very impressive. I have never seen anyone of his caliber nor knew that one could play 48 people at the same time,” he said, referring to Gareyev’s record in Las Vegas.

Seongho Lee ’20 said it was a great experience to learn some of the GM’s strategies. “He also showed us to take notes on each move so that we can review what we have done during a game,” noted Lee.

Stenson was very surprised with all the positive feedback the GM gave all the students he played with.

“The GM was incredibly humble, especially how he spoke about his skills, education and where he came from,” said Stenson.

Tran was also impressed by Gareyev, “The GM is so exceptional. He is the most brilliant person I have ever seen.”

“The event was a successful one. Everyone really looked forward to it and although the event was late, the turn [out] rate was still good,” said Tran.

According to Tran, the club consists of students, faculty members, and staffs of varying chess level. “The club’s purpose is to create a place where people who are interested in chess to come and get to know each other,”  said Tran. “In the future, we want to get more members, travel to other schools and go to tournaments.”

Students or faculty interested in joining can contact Tran at [email protected].

Over 20 students attended the event, which was held on Thursday, Sept. 28 from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.