The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-20
Even Plays the Game
BlindfO1ded, OverCofn-
ing the Greatest
Difficulties.

HESS experts declare that the
N al performance given recently by
NS Henry Nelson Pillsbury. the
W. American chess champion, I'm
~ the rooms OF the Franklin
Chess Club Philadelphia, was
o marvellous test of memory and of ex-
pertneSs with mimic warriors on the
checkered field Embodied. he played
at one time against twenty opponents.
TO do this successfully meant that he
must cary In his mind every move made
at each Of tho twenty tables. How well
he succeeded was shown by the score
He won fourteen games. drew five and
lost one.
The tables were arranged in a semi
circle, and In an adjoining room sat the
chess chamion. He could see neither
boards nor players nor spectators. The
moves were called out TO him as they
were made by each player and he re-
sponded During the first moves there
was slight hesitation in his replies. but
as the games progressed he became more
certain. and his replies came quickly.
AsTeach move was made he seemed to ac-
quire a more vivid mental impression of
the board and of the move which he
ought 10 make.
A recess for dinner was taken at $50
o'clock. and the champion seemed in no
wise fatigued by his work. He enjoyed
the dinner much as he would under or
binary circumstances. and seemed to nave
put the games completely out of his mind
But at o'clock. when the playing was
resumed, he offered to go over the moves
on any OF the boards Some of the spec
tators called for board IA, and without
hesitation Pllsbury named the moves
fxssx Eza.l ..w,f.x ~
games.
After the games were finished he gave
the most surprising exhibition OF his
wonderful memory. Some of the play
ers had been too much absorbed to keep
their scores carefully, and a few erors
had been made. Pillsbury went over
the twenty scores. without the aid of
chess board, and corrected every mis-
take. On one board a move had been
omitted, and he worked out the move.
On another three moves were missing
and he supplied them. Several trans
positions had been made, and two scores
were missing altogether. The transposi-
tons he corrected, and he worked out
the missing scores.
1t Is said that in Pllsbury the faculty of
receiving and retaining an almost innu
merable series OF impressions has reached
its highest development. Many skilful
chess players have endeavored to play
without seeing boards or opponents, and
have found tho task comparatively easy
until n number of moves had been made
and the positions became complicated. But
with Pillshury the reverse is true Each
move makes an apparently indeble i'm |
preston on his mind. and the more OF |
these Impressions there are, the more COM |
plete becomes his mastery of the situation |
as a whole
with thE. too, is his marvellous playing
In tn tk.~ .txg1t
TO fix all his attention on the one game,
and when his move on that board has been
made he turns all his attention to the
next one. He can recall games. too, a long
time after they have been played. He re-
Gently gave n blindfolded performance in
the Union League club. Owing to an over
sight some of the scores were not kept
Several days afterwards Pillsbury came to
Philadelphia having in the meantime
given exhibitions In other cities But he
had no difficulty, when asked to do so, In
working out the scores as they had been
made by himself and his opponents in the
Union League club.
DIR. Thomas ii. Andrews said of Cham
pion Pillsbury's remarkable feats OF MEM
CRY and chess playing;
"Ptlisbury's remarkable memory Is ex-
planned by the highly sensitive condition
or his sensory system 1t is to be COM
pared with tho sensitized negative Mate
OF photograph, and his ability to receive
and retain mental Impressions has doubt
less been increased by practice and culti-
walton. In the same way the sense OF
toucn in tho blind is cultivated until it be-
comes most acute. The Passanian bodies
In the ends of the fingers become. by cul-
usation. no sensitive that the blind can
read raised characters as rapidly as they
can run their fingers across them.
"PillshuTy must have had, to begin
with. "a healthy, normal brain. BY con
slant cultivation he has acquired the
remarkable faculty which enables him