On Sunday, April 24, Grandmaster Timur Gareyev, economics, a UMBC Chess Team alumnus, will return to campus to play a number of chess games while blindfolded and to lead a strategy session on how to play blindfold chess. This event comes in advance of an attempt, planned for later this year, to break a world record by playing 50 chess games simultaneously while blindfolded.

At UMBC, Gareyev will play chess games against 10 challengers, all while wearing a blindfold. After the games, Gareyev will talk about the art and strategy of playing chess without being able to see the boards.

Several members of the current UMBC Chess team will also have the opportunity to compete in knockout-style chess matches against Gareyev. All players participating will be blindfolded.

UMBC Chess also recently announced that in early March, eleven-year-old Pieter Heesters, a sixth grade student at the Calvert School in Baltimore, became the youngest winner of the Sweet 16 Maryland Scholastic Chess Championship, hosted by the Maryland Chess Association and held during the Alvin S. Mintzes UMBC Open. Heesters won a four-year scholarship to UMBC, which will be available to him when he graduates from high school in 2022, if he chooses to attend UMBC. Heesters is interested in math and music, and says that he wants to be a doctor. He will be one of the 10 challengers in the upcoming blindfolded chess event.

Grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics, was the winner of the open division of the 2016 Alvin S. Mintzes UMBC Open competition.  

For more information about Gareyev’s upcoming chess event, please visit the UMBC Chess website. 

Photo by Gabriel Saldana, CC by-SA 2.0.