487:, in which a lone knight traverses an otherwise empty board visiting each square once only. Of the countless patterns for achieving this feat, there are trillions of sequences for performing the more restricted version known as the re-entrant (or closed) tour, wherein the knight on its 64th move lands on its original starting square. For Koltanowski, who claimed to have a "phonographic memory" (a keen memory for sequences), the trick relied on mastering just one re-entrant pattern. He could begin on any square in the sequence and complete the tour by rote. However, it was his original twist that gave Koltanowski's performance dramatic value well beyond the mechanical moving of the knight through the memorized sequence.
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438:. Koltanowski would select the move actually played, and would award points and prizes to his readers for their selections. However, after about only 25 moves, Keres abruptly stopped the game and declared himself the winner by adjudication. Koltanowski disagreed and showed analysis which seemed to give him at least an even game. Keres, an Estonian, may have been ordered by his Soviet handlers to stop playing.
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simultaneously. In Palo Alto, California, he conducted his performance on three chalk boards, jumping the knight back and forth between boards mid-move, until all 192 squares were completed. He made two errors and immediately corrected himself both times. At the time of this performance, Koltanowski was 80 years old.
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After concluding his problem solving challenges on the demonstration board, Koltanowski would turn his back on the audience and examine the chalk board for three or four minutes. Then he would seat himself with his back to the board and ask for any audience member to call out a square; for example,
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Koltanowski began his tour with a large chalkboard divided by lines into a grid eight squares by eight. As he solved problems on a large demonstration board, audience members were encouraged to come onstage to enter words and numbers into the squares. By the time all 64 squares were filled, it was
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Koltanowski thereafter toured the United States tirelessly for years, running chess tournaments and giving simultaneous exhibitions everywhere. After his failure in the 1946 U.S. Open in
Pittsburgh, he never played tournament chess again, except for two games as a member of the U.S. team in the
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which he sold by mail order. He taught a system which would enable even rank beginners to get out of the opening with a playable game. This saved his students the trouble of memorizing vast amounts of chess opening theory. However, he never played this opening himself against strong opponents.
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As amazing as this performance was, if time permitted afterward, Koltanowski would occasionally demonstrate his mental grasp of the board by reciting the information contained in the squares by rank or file, or even the two long diagonals. He occasionally performed the tour on two boards
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common to see street and city names, names of months or days of the week, names of famous chess players, names of audience members, names of movie stars or TV personalities, telephone numbers and addresses, birth dates, serial numbers from bank notes, etc.
312:, using the Swiss system for the first time ever in a U.S. Open chess event. After that, he traversed the country, holding Swiss system tournaments everywhere. Before long, the Swiss system was adopted as the standard for most chess tournaments in America.
499:. He would recite from memory the entry in that square as an assistant crossed it off with a chalk mark. Making imaginary knight-moves through his re-entry sequence, Koltanowski would recite the contents of each square as the knight landed on it.
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209:(also "Georges"; 17 September 1903 – 5 February 2000) was a Belgian-born American chess player, promoter, and writer. He was informally known as "Kolty". Koltanowski set the world's blindfold record on 20 September 1937, in
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Possessed of an incredibly powerful memory, Koltanowski would give blindfold exhibitions, playing several games simultaneously. In
Edinburgh in 1937 Koltanowski set a record by simultaneously playing 34 games of
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From John
Donaldson: 'George Koltanowski died on 5 February 2000, but a daily column bearing his name continued up to 27 February. On 28 February Shelby Lyman started and has appeared continuously to the
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broke that record, but
Koltanowski claimed his efforts were not properly monitored. Najdorf played 40 games at Rosario, Argentina in 1943 and 45 games in São Paulo in 1947.
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229:, Belgium, Koltanowski learned chess by watching his father and brother play. He took up the game seriously at the age of 14, and became the top Belgian player when
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and dominated
Northern California Chess through the mid-1960s. Koltanowski later decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". He won election as President of the
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Koltanowski's books contained many statements and anecdotes which were factually incorrect. They were also lax in terms of spelling and editorial standards.
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On 4 December 1960, in San
Francisco, California, Koltanowski played 56 consecutive games blindfolded, with only ten seconds per move. He won fifty and
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Perhaps
Koltanowski's most remarkable accomplishment was that he made his living entirely from chess. He wrote many books; his best-known work is
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in 1923, 1927, 1930, and 1936. Koltanowski became better known for touring and giving simultaneous exhibitions and blindfold displays.
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in 1974. He also directed every US Open from 1947 until the late 1970s. He was sometimes referred to as the "Dean of
American Chess."
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preliminary and final sections. The next year, Koltanowski returned, not as a player but as the director, introducing the
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section, to replace an invited player who had not shown up. Koltanowski gladly accepted and finished near the bottom, but
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in 1955. In it, he recounts primarily his tours giving blindfolded simultaneous exhibitions. He also wrote books on the
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title in 1988. Koltanowski's record as a tournament player was not especially distinguished. He showed up for the 1946
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when the war broke out. In 1940, the United States Consul in Cuba saw
Koltanowski giving a chess exhibition in
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in New York in 1944. They settled in San
Francisco in 1947. Koltanowski became the chess columnist for the
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708:"Georges Koltanowski vs Paul Keres correspondence (1955) (correspondence), San Francisco Chronicle"
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Koltanowski had his own organization, the Chess Friends of Northern California, which resisted the
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He got his first big break in chess at age 21, when he visited an international tournament in
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Koltanowski's most sensational chess entertainment was the ancient exercise known as the
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521:"Domena szachykorespondencyjne.mzszach.net jest utrzymywana na serwerach nazwa.pl"
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601:"George Koltanowski, 96, Chess Master Known for Playing While Blindfolded"
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He thereafter played in at least 25 international tournaments. He was
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Based upon his results during the period 1932–37, Professor
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title in 1950 when the title was first officially established by
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550:"George Koltanowski 17th September 1903 – 5th February 2000"
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match, readers would vote on moves and send them into the
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Koltanowski played a newspaper game against grandmaster
754:"Grandmaster Of Chess, George Koltanowski", 2 July 2000
332:, in a game which Koltanowski appeared to be winning.
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Many of Koltanowski's relatives were murdered in the
428:. Following a system similar to that adopted in the
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to the U.S. Open. He directed the 1947 U.S. Open in
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51:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
213:, by playing 34 chess games simultaneously while
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300:In those years, the U.S. Open was played in
475:in San Francisco in 2000 at the age of 96.
652:"The knight's tours of George Koltanowski"
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853:20th-century American non-fiction writers
578:Hooper, David and Whyld, Kenneth (1996).
111:Learn how and when to remove this message
793:Belgian people of Polish-Jewish descent
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788:Belgian emigrants to the United States
393:and decided to grant him a U.S. visa.
271:gave Koltanowski a rating of 2450 in
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225:Born into a Polish Jewish family in
49:adding citations to reliable sources
396:Koltanowski met his wife Leah on a
318:10th Chess Olympiad (Helsinki 1952)
863:20th-century American male writers
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868:American male non-fiction writers
285:, and he was awarded an honorary
631:Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess
257:and gained valuable experience.
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654:. chessbase.com. Archived from
599:Ravo, Nick (13 February 2000).
36:needs additional citations for
843:San Francisco Chronicle people
725:"Koltanowski" by Edward Winter
447:United States Chess Federation
277:. Koltanowski was awarded the
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742:player profile and games at
454:Adventures of a Chess Master
348:Simultaneous blindfold chess
858:Businesspeople from Antwerp
582:. Oxford University Press.
274:The Rating of Chess Players
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873:20th-century chess players
848:Writers from San Francisco
818:Chess Olympiad competitors
580:Oxford Companion to Chess
431:Kasparov versus The World
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473:congestive heart failure
324:with Soviet Grandmaster
677:Winter, Edward (1986).
479:Blindfold Knight's Tour
403:San Francisco Chronicle
828:American chess writers
803:American chess players
556:. 2000. Archived from
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262:Belgian Chess Champion
152:Belgium, United States
808:Belgian chess players
419:International Arbiter
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310:Corpus Christi, Texas
823:Jewish chess players
749:Chess Space obituary
560:on 29 September 2007
478:
471:Koltanowski died of
279:International Master
193:International Master
60:"George Koltanowski"
45:improve this article
813:Chess Grandmasters
740:George Koltanowski
658:on 7 December 2008
650:Frederic Friedel.
606:The New York Times
443:USCF rating system
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207:George Koltanowski
126:George Koltanowski
554:The Week in Chess
253:with Grandmaster
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167:17 September 1903
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326:Alexander Kotov
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101:February 2008
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56:Find sources:
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798:Belgian Jews
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686:. Retrieved
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656:the original
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558:the original
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462:Colle System
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408:Shelby Lyman
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344:six games.
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320:, getting a
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306:Swiss system
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237:Chess career
231:Edgard Colle
224:
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182:(2000-02-05)
137:Koltanowski
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43:Please help
38:verification
35:
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16:Chess master
783:2000 deaths
778:1903 births
763:Koltanowski
662:12 November
410:took over.
365:Later years
302:round-robin
287:Grandmaster
247:grandmaster
215:blindfolded
198:Grandmaster
142: 1975
772:Categories
688:11 January
612:17 January
564:11 January
531:1 November
507:References
426:Paul Keres
417:named him
398:blind date
357:. Later,
295:Pittsburgh
221:Early life
163:1903-09-17
71:newspapers
695:present.'
436:Chronicle
421:in 1960.
387:Guatemala
383:Holocaust
375:Oak Ridge
291:U.S. Open
269:Arpad Elo
211:Edinburgh
172:, Belgium
633:, 1977,
255:Tarrasch
377:in 1948
227:Antwerp
195:(1950)
170:Antwerp
149:Country
85:scholar
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391:Havana
87:
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243:Meran
189:Title
92:JSTOR
78:books
690:2024
664:2008
635:ISBN
614:2015
584:ISBN
566:2014
533:2008
415:FIDE
413:The
342:drew
322:draw
283:FIDE
251:drew
177:Died
157:Born
64:news
293:in
47:by
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541:^
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