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Koltanowski's Blindfold Simultaneous Record

A little bit of borrowed Edinburgh history. In 1937 George Koltanowski gave a blindfold simultaneous display at the Stockbridge Chess Club in Edinburgh, playing a world record of 34 games - breaking the existing record of 32 by Alekhine. The games took a total of 13½ hours and he won 24 and drew 10. As was his custom he was able to talk through the scores of the games at the end without sight of the board.

For this astonishing performance he was paid £1000 - worth approximately £18,000 in today's money.

The following year and for many years after, the winner of the Stockbridge club championship was presented with the Koltanowski Cup in memory of the display. When that club finally closed down they gifted the cup to the Edinburgh Chess Club and it sits in our cabinet to this day.

There is an excellent biography of Koltanowski on Bill Wall's website and we are indebted to him for confirmation of some of the above details.

We are currently compiling records of the games played in this display of which those below are the first converted.