Answers.Body: <p>No.  Not the way the Russians thought anyway.   It may raise your BP as you have trouble playing well.</p>
  
  <p>I have played, and won, blindfold games. <em>They do not increase your strength.</em> But they are harder and not in a  useful way.</p>
  
  <p>The truth is that you have to play well first, to be able to do blindfold chess at all.  </p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: edwina oliver
Answers.Body: <p>No.</p>
  
  <p>The main reason behind this train of thought was that they thought that blindfold chess may contribute to going crazy. They looked at Morphy and Pillsbury as their primary examples. Lasker, specifically, thought that blindfold chess made Pillsbury go mad, but we now know it was syphilis. Other than just plain incorrect assumptions like Lasker's, this is an incredibly small sample size no matter how you cut it, and we are talking about judging this on 90+-year-old "science", if you can call it that. </p>
  
  <p>This not only does not make any sense in the modern day, but it has been debunked by at least USCF NM, and noted psychologist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chabris" rel="noreferrer">Christopher Chabris</a> from Harvard. The paper can be found <a href="http://www.chabris.com/Chabris2005b.pdf" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
  
  <p>Blindfold chess is good for your chess vision, so feel free to practice it in moderation.</p>
  
  <p>P.S. We have in more recent times, from 1992-2011, had the Melody Amber blindfold tournaments for the the top players in the world including Karpov, Kramnik, Anand, and Carlsen. If modern science even remotely believed that blindfold was bad for you, these guys would not have played.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: Good answer. I think I had also read about some 20th century cases of players specializing in simultaneous blindfold play with many scores of opponents and suffering (as a result of this practice or for whatever other reason) psychological disorder. Possibly Georges Koltanovsky was such a case. Anyway, the sample would still be way too narrow !
Answers.UserDisplayName: Evargalo
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Answers.Text: The last paragraph seems a bit naïve. Professional sports is full with people doing stuff that really isn't very healthy, at least not in the long term.
Answers.UserDisplayName: leftaroundabout
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Answers.Text: @leftaroundabout There is a big difference between this and the typical examples you might cite like steroids, or CTE in American football, for example. Even there, they know, but they just choose to take the risks.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-01-24T17:19:11.477Z
Answers.Text: What is the _big difference_?
Answers.UserDisplayName: leftaroundabout
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Answers.Text: Since I gave them, do I need to do it again? How about you tell me the examples you believe that "professional sports is full with people doing stuff that really isn't very healthy", so I can accurately compare them, and not just assume.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
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Answers.Text: To the last paragraph, actually, as far as I know large simultaneous blindfold exhibitions are not held anymore, could that be because of health risk?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Akavall
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Answers.Text: @Akavall It is highly doubtful. It is more likely that simply few people are qualified, and fewer practice it. One, who still does them occasionally is GM Timur Gareyev.
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-01-25T00:48:19.393Z
Answers.Text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindfold_chess
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-01-25T17:50:55.417Z
Answers.Text: What about Najdorf’s anecdotal evidence?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jimmy360
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Answers.Text: @leftaroundabout: The *big* difference is that blindfold chess is an optional extra you can do for fun, and doesn't increase your success (not significantly more than other ways of training) at the thing top players *really* care about: regular tournaments / word championships.  But in American Football or boxing, the danger of brain injury comes during the actual main event time itself, and is thus unavoidable as part of playing at a top level. Steroids are optional but help your training more than any safe (and fair) option. Unless blindfold chess gives steroid-level results, big difference.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Peter Cordes
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Answers.Text: @leftaroundabout: TL:DR: you can be the top player in the world without ever playing blindfold chess.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Peter Cordes
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Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-01-24T10:51:20.647Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: PhishMaster
Body: <p>From Wikipedia,  </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>While blindfold chess has been recommended in moderation by many sources as a method of increasing one's playing strength, simultaneous blindfold exhibitions were officially banned in 1930 in the USSR as they were deemed to be a health hazard. Mikhail Botvinnik also warned against it.  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Should I actively not play blindfold chess? Are there any health risks?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-01-25T00:07:35.387Z
Comments.Text: Are you asking about health risks of playing blindfolded chess in general or health risks of giving simultaneous blindfold exhibitions? It seems that nobody is suggesting that the former poses any health risks, even the quote in your question says: "blindfold chess has been recommended in moderation ",
Comments.UserDisplayName: Akavall
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Comments.CreationDate: 2020-01-25T21:52:25.720Z
Comments.Text: Part of me wants to make the joke that blindfold chess is so draining it would leave me no energy to exercise, and that's unhealthy. But on the other hand, once you've had enough, you've had enough--it certainly wouldn't be the immobilizing time sink that, say, Candy Crush Saga is. Also, the Soviets banned a lot of reasonable fun things.
Comments.UserDisplayName: aschultz
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-01-26T07:13:10.033Z
Comments.Text: apart from headaches and nailbiting as you try to remember board positions accurately? :)
Comments.UserDisplayName: jwenting
Tags: <blindfold-chess>
Title: Is blindfold chess bad for the health?
ThreadText: # Is blindfold chess bad for the health?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-24)
  
  From Wikipedia,
  
  > While blindfold chess has been recommended in moderation by many sources as a method of increasing one's playing strength, simultaneous blindfold exhibitions were officially banned in 1930 in the USSR as they were deemed to be a health hazard. Mikhail Botvinnik also warned against it.
  
  Should I actively not play blindfold chess? Are there any health risks?
  
  **Tags:** blindfold-chess
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Are you asking about health risks of playing blindfolded chess in general or health risks of giving simultaneous blindfold exhibitions? It seems that nobody is suggesting that the former poses any health risks, even the quote in your question says: "blindfold chess has been recommended in moderation ",  
  > **username_2**: Part of me wants to make the joke that blindfold chess is so draining it would leave me no energy to exercise, and that's unhealthy. But on the other hand, once you've had enough, you've had enough--it certainly wouldn't be the immobilizing time sink that, say, Candy Crush Saga is. Also, the Soviets banned a lot of reasonable fun things.  
  > **username_3**: apart from headaches and nailbiting as you try to remember board positions accurately? :)  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2020-01-24. Score: 37 | Accepted answer
  
  No.
  
  The main reason behind this train of thought was that they thought that blindfold chess may contribute to going crazy. They looked at Morphy and Pillsbury as their primary examples. Lasker, specifically, thought that blindfold chess made Pillsbury go mad, but we now know it was syphilis. Other than just plain incorrect assumptions like Lasker's, this is an incredibly small sample size no matter how you cut it, and we are talking about judging this on 90+-year-old "science", if you can call it that.
  
  This not only does not make any sense in the modern day, but it has been debunked by at least USCF NM, and noted psychologist, [Christopher Chabris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chabris) from Harvard. The paper can be found [here](http://www.chabris.com/Chabris2005b.pdf).
  
  Blindfold chess is good for your chess vision, so feel free to practice it in moderation.
  
  P.S. We have in more recent times, from 1992-2011, had the Melody Amber blindfold tournaments for the the top players in the world including Karpov, Kramnik, Anand, and Carlsen. If modern science even remotely believed that blindfold was bad for you, these guys would not have played.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_6**: Good answer. I think I had also read about some 20th century cases of players specializing in simultaneous blindfold play with many scores of opponents and suffering (as a result of this practice or for whatever other reason) psychological disorder. Possibly Georges Koltanovsky was such a case. Anyway, the sample would still be way too narrow !  
  > **username_7**: The last paragraph seems a bit naïve. Professional sports is full with people doing stuff that really isn't very healthy, at least not in the long term.  
  > **username_5**: @username_7 There is a big difference between this and the typical examples you might cite like steroids, or CTE in American football, for example. Even there, they know, but they just choose to take the risks.  
  > **username_7**: What is the _big difference_?  
  > **username_5**: Since I gave them, do I need to do it again? How about you tell me the examples you believe that "professional sports is full with people doing stuff that really isn't very healthy", so I can accurately compare them, and not just assume.  
  > **username_1**: To the last paragraph, actually, as far as I know large simultaneous blindfold exhibitions are not held anymore, could that be because of health risk?  
  > **username_5**: @username_1 It is highly doubtful. It is more likely that simply few people are qualified, and fewer practice it. One, who still does them occasionally is GM Timur Gareyev.  
  > **username_5**: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindfold_chess  
  > **username_8**: What about Najdorf’s anecdotal evidence?  
  > **username_9**: @username_7: The *big* difference is that blindfold chess is an optional extra you can do for fun, and doesn't increase your success (not significantly more than other ways of training) at the thing top players *really* care about: regular tournaments / word championships.  But in American Football or boxing, the danger of brain injury comes during the actual main event time itself, and is thus unavoidable as part of playing at a top level. Steroids are optional but help your training more than any safe (and fair) option. Unless blindfold chess gives steroid-level results, big difference.  
  > **username_9**: @username_7: TL:DR: you can be the top player in the world without ever playing blindfold chess.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2020-01-24. Score: -2
  
  No. Not the way the Russians thought anyway. It may raise your BP as you have trouble playing well.
  
  I have played, and won, blindfold games. *They do not increase your strength.* But they are harder and not in a useful way.
  
  The truth is that you have to play well first, to be able to do blindfold chess at all.
  
  
  ---
  
  