By Mr. Nibaldo Calvo Buides

On Saturday, November 28, 2011, after 21 hours and 9 minutes, German FIDE Master Marc Lang (2306) broke the world record blindfold simultaneous games, which was held by the famous Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf since 1947.



Lang, 41 years old, played against 46 opponents, each with a board and pieces, getting a score of 25 wins, 19 tables and 2 lost.

Marc Lang agreed to an exclusive interview  to  http://www.nibaldocalvo.com/


When you started in chess, how and where?

I learnt chess from my father when I was 8 ys old. I remember our first game; we played on a cartboard board with green and yellow squares and small wooden pieces that beared "bite marks" by our dog. I suffered a disastrous loss, with my king being chased all over the board and finally mated by pawns in the center. It took me several years, however, to convince my father to play me again and I was deeply disappointed to learn that he was a rather weak player :-).







When I was 9 or 10 years old, my parents gave me a chess computer for Christmas. It was a small plastic box with a dark red display and white and orange buttons to enter the moves, called "Chess Champion MK II". It had no board and as mine was a rather poor one, I soon abandoned setting up the pieces every time and started to play without them. I never thought I did something special as it seemed all natural to me and I thought everybody could do that.


You consider the blindfold chess is harmful to health?


I'm convinced the answer is 'no', but there are exceptions. For instance, I was fortunate to talk with GM Vlastimil Hort several times in private, and he told me that after a blindfold display on 22 boards in 1981 in Meran (Italy), he completely lost his mind for about half a year and didn't even recognize his wife or knew his name for some time.
 I think it all depends on the way you concentrate during such an event. For instance, there are players who are in thoughts so deeply and concentrate so hard that it can easily be imagined that thinking on such a "cramped" level for a period of more than 12 hours can turn out badly - like blowing of a fuse. But if you stay relaxed, I don't think it is more harmful than, say, 24 hours of intense work in front of a computer. Exhausting, yes, but not dangerous if you don't start doing that every day.






Do you think breaking your world record?


My first thought is 'no' again. It was very exhausting; not only the event itself, but also the preparations - I spent half a year to train myself both physically (I swam a mile and went cycling for 1½ hours almost each day) and over the board. It was interesting and not bad itself, but see, I have a wife, two kids and a 'normal' job, so it was very difficult to accomodate all that without disappointing someone.

However, this hasn't to be taken too seriously - I played 23 opponents 2009 and 35 in 2010 and after each display I swore in public not to repeat this anymore...:-)


You like to play blindfold chess more than looking at the pieces?


I prefer to see the board. I definitely play much better then, especially compared to the chess I perform on displays with 20 or more boards.