There's no doubt that Kolty's feats of memory were remarkable. But I do not believe they were based on "natural" or "photographic" memory, as many do. I strongly suspect they were based on systems of mnemonic techniques that have been floating around for quite awhile.

An outstanding small book on such techniques is "The Memory Book" by professional magician Harry Lorayne and former basketball star (!) Jerry Lucas.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...

Harry Lorayne used to give demonstrations similar to the one <tjshann> described <naming the object on each square the knight landed on>, though his did not involve the use of a Chessboard.

What's especially wonderful about this book is that YOU can learn many of these techniques and use them in your own life. It would take decades to develop them to the level that Kolty did, but it only takes a few evenings to develop the talent to remember 10-digit phone numbers, long lists of unrelated things, etc.

It was my *enormous* good fortune to have a copy of this book come into my hands as a child: I used the techniques I learned from it all throughout my school and university years. (I actually used a variation of one technique to memorize the entire "Kreb's Cycle", a rather abstract bit of business: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh... )

I think the main thing to remember about blindfold Chess is that it is primarily a *mnemonic* demonstration, not a *Chess* demonstration. I don't think Kolty ever achieved the rank of Grandmaster (though he was given an honorary version of the title), but he was a very strong master-rated player. So simply the fact that he could *remember* the games easily enabled him to defeat many much weaker players (as would happen in an ordinary sighted simul).

In the book I mentioned, the mnemonic feats of Harry Nelson Pillsbury are discussed, and you might find them interesting.

Especially fun is the technique for remembering long numbers: each digit is converted to a consonant sound, and then words are made using those consonants. These words are then listed and memorized using the "link" technique outlined in the book.

I will still occasionally memorize 50-digit numbers for friends just for their amusement. (Yes, my friends are a nerdly lot!) Like Kolty, I'm one of those people who can't remember to bring home a loaf of bread, but I sure can remember numbers!

(If you know any cerebral little kids, I encourage you to give them a copy of this book as a gift, along with the wonderful book "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster. Their little lives will be nicely enriched!)

Cheers!

Source:
http://www.monmouth.com/~colonel/ch...

"Harry Pillsbury, the American grandmaster from Somerville, Massachusetts, had an unusually short career. In 1895 he electrified the chess world by finishing first at Hastings, ahead of Lasker, Steinitz, Tchigorin, and Tarrasch. By the end of the century his ability had been undermined by syphilis; in 1906 he died of it.

"In his prime Pillsbury was famous for his simultaneous blindfold exhibitions, and one of his favorite warm-up feats was characteristically ambitious. In the words of Harold C. Schonberg, "A list of thirty words would be submitted to him, and he would memorize them instantly." It was at such an exhibition in London that Pillsbury performed his best-known feat of memory. In 1896 H. Threlkeld-Edwards, a surgeon from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Mansfield Merriman, who taught civil engineering at Lehigh University, gave Pillsbury a bizarre list of words to memorize. He reeled off the words forwards and then backwards, and on the following day did it again. The London papers picked up the story, and it was repeated throughout the chess world.

"And what were the thirty words? Chernev and Reinfeld, in The Fireside Book of Chess, supply this list:

"Antiphlogistine, periosteum, takadiastase, plasmon, ambrosia, Threlkeld, streptococcus, staphylococcus, micrococcus, plasmodium, Mississippi, Freiheit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, athletics, no war, Etchenberg, American, Russian, philosophy, Piet Potgelter's Rost, Salamagundi, Oomisillecootsi, Bangmamvate, Schlechter's Nek, Manzinyama, theosophy, catechism, Madjesoomalops...."

Thank you for your kind words, <mack>! <acirce> is correct, the historical Bishop Berkeley maintained that the "outside world" had no reality apart from thought. In academic philosophy, this notion that everything is mind is called "idealism" (not to be confused with the kind of moral idealism, i.e. very high ethical standards, that the term is often used to describe).

Indeed, I think the word "idea-ism" (no 'l') would be used, but it is harder to say! We need a consonant there.

There is a famous tale told of the lexicographer Samuel Johnson who, upon hearing Bishop Berkeley's doctrine of the non-existence of matter kicked a large stone and said, "I refute it thus!" Of course what this realy demonstrated was that Johnson didn't really understand Berkeley's doctrine!

http://www.samueljohnson.com/refuta...

One criticism of Berkeley's notion is the idea that, if everything exists only to the extent that it is perceived, wouldn't that mean that things are always popping into and out of existence as people perceive them or turn away from them? There is a widely circulated 2-part Limerick response to this which summarizes Bishop Berkeley's response to this problem:

Part 1:

There was a young man who said, "God
must think it exceedingly odd
that He finds that this tree
continues to be
when there's no one about in the Quad"

Part 2:

"Young man, your astonishment's odd
I am always about in the Quad
and that's why this tree
will continue to be
since observed by
Yours Faithfully, GOD!"

And this really was Berkeley's belief: that all the Universe is just an idea in the mind of God. (To which I believe Woody Allen responded: "A pretty scary thought if you've just put a downpayment on a house!")

Thanks again!

Sorry, I don't have a score from the Kolty simul. I do remember that I lost a pawn early, and he began to squeeze me really hard. I resigned when he got his rook on the seventh rank.