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The Signal Santa Clarita, California Friday, February 18, 1972 - Page 6
Blindfold Champion Starts Today Fri, Feb 18, 1972 – 1 · The Signal (Santa Clarita, California) · Newspapers.com
Blindfold Champion Starts Today
Chess has come to Valencia Valley. It is coming today in the form of one of the world's greatest chess masters through the pages of The Signal.
George Koltanowski, called the finest blindfold chess player in the world, today begins a semi-weekly chess column, which will appear every Wednesday and Friday in this newspaper. An International Master, Koltanowski competed in all …
Blindfold Champion Fri, Feb 18, 1972 – 6 · The Signal (Santa Clarita, California) · Newspapers.com
Continued from Page 1
…major European and American tournaments during his active playing days. His title puts him among the true elite in the chess world, and was conferred upon him only after years of battling the finest players on earth.
A San Franciscan for the last 26 years, Koltanowski learned the game of chess at 14 and, like prodigies that dominate the sport, he became the champion of his native Belgium three years later.
Blindfold chess soon became his forte — the style of play where the player never looks at the board; his opponent's moves are called to him. In 1937 he won the World Blindfold Championship by playing 35 opponents while blindfolded and defeating 24 of them (10 were draws).
Koltanowski is no stranger to the newspaper pages. He presently authors the most widely distributed chess column in the country, a column which started 25 years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 1960, just to show that he had not lost his touch, Koltanowski faced 56 opponents across the chessboard in another blindfold match. This time he played them one after another. His record after the 6-hour marathon; 50 wins, 6 draws and no losses.
“Chess is the only game worthy of a man's talents,” the International Master claims. “Anyone can learn the game — there have been 7-year-old champions!”
“But think of this: a machine has never been able to learn the game. And after all these years, six centuries of playing, no one has been able to ‘solve” the game.”
In his twice-weekly columns in the Signal, Koltanowski plans to teach, inform and entertain all readers with the lore and fascination of this ‘classic’ game.
The column will start from the beginning — how to move the pieces — and progress upward; the meaning of ‘checkmate’ and ‘stalemate’, lessons on chess notation (written moves), and the basics of chess openings and end games — how to play a sound game.
Also appearing soon will be chess problems and contests in problem solving, historical anecdotes, and news about happenings in the chess world.
Chess will have a bigger impact on the world this year with the upcoming World's Championship Match between the U.S.A.'s Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, scheduled for mid-spring.
What does Koltanowski think of this meeting? “The match of the century!” he states simply.
He also mentions the possibility of a local tournament or exhibition. During the coming spring he has talked of coming to Valencia Valley to perform a blindfold exhibition, and possibly to direct a local all-Valencia Valley chess tournament.
For the novice and the expert alike, practice for the championship should begin now. Chess instruction and entertainment will be published here in The Signal every Wednesday and Friday.
Chess Fri, Feb 18, 1972 – 6 · The Signal (Santa Clarita, California) · Newspapers.com
