Koltanowski, Blindfold Champion, Knights Tour, Colle System . . .

George Koltanowski Blindfold Champion, Colle system advocate, unique knights tour, Max Lang attack and much more . . .

He and his wife were such friendly couple and they were my friends.

I belonged to his chess club in the Marina Junior High School in San Francisco in 1950's. He also ran a column daily in the San Francisco Chronicle.

His ability to play blindfold chess amazed me. He played 56 players in a simul at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

He had many version of the knights tour. Here is the Turk version.

Tim Dunn a friend of mine and I were able to play a full chess game blindfolded without pieces against each other.We started looking at an empty chess board, eventually we didn't need a board, just our minds.

Tim Dunn has passed away.

Before George Koltanowski was a teenager his parents gave him permission to try to improve his ability to play without seen the pieces. So he wanted to hang a chessboard on the ceiling above his bed, so he could always be able to play the game without pieces.

My favorite book that George wrote has funny stories and situations is,

"Adventures of a Chess Master."

It has many games in each country that he visited. They are written in the old descriptive method ex: 1. Kp-k4  Kp-k4. which is the same as 1. e4  e5.

I won many small round robin tournaments that Kolty ran. I received no money, he always gave me a book until the day I said, "Hey Kolty, I already have this book. Instead let me play the other round robin winners."

                  That never happened.