Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, made a cameo appearance via video in Monday’s third episode of BBC Two’s Chess Masters: The Endgame, setting a challenge to memorise a position from a “special” World Blitz game. Viewer numbers, supplied by Broadcast, again dropped, but more slowly, from 890,000 in the first episode to 710,000 last week and 655,000 this time.
Carlsen displayed the position after 29…Ka6 of his 2022 World Blitz game with Richard Rapport.
The contestants had 60 seconds to memorise it, then another minute to recreate it on their own board. Most found it difficult.
Carlsen’s own memory skills were tested by David Howell in an entertaining YouTube video, with impressive results. In one instance, the Norwegian recalled from 25 years ago not just his own game, but events on the adjacent board.
Visual memory is one of the key factors in chess skill, and one that is often downplayed, as it is innate, hard to develop and therefore a difficult subject to teach. Long ago in the Netherlands a researcher showed a middle game position for 10 seconds to the former world champion Max Euwe, to a master, a local champion and an average club player.
Euwe dictated the position with no errors, while the master added a pawn. The local champion forgot a bishop and misplaced a rook, while the club player set up less than a third of the men correctly. Strong players can visualise the pieces in clusters, the weak see only single units.
At the 1960 Leipzig Olympiad I gave some memory tests of a different kind to leading players, naming games and then asking them for details of what happened. The outstanding performer was the then world champion, Mikhail Tal, who, when I named an obscure game of his from the 1954 Latvian Championship, responded with an account not just of the game, but of his discussions with his opponent both before and after it. Tal was also knowledgable about the games of his rivals. In contrast, Bobby Fischer had excellent recall of his own games, but limited memory of others.
Monday’s fourth episode of Chess Masters: The Endgame (8pm, BBC Two) will feature six new contestants. They include Kel, 39, from Bolton, an experienced league and tournament player whose track record gives him the potential to win the whole competition.
England’s Jonah Willow, 22, fell short of his second grandmaster norm in the European championship at the Romanian Black Sea resort of Eforie Nord this week, totalling 6/11.
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Now it is the turn of Matthew Wadsworth, 24, who already has the three required GM norms but still needs a 2500 Fide rating for the title, and reached 2491 with his performance in the Wightlink International at Ryde, Isle of Wight, last month.
Wadsworth is currently the No 2 seed at Bad Wörishofen, Germany. After six of the nine rounds he had scored an unbeaten 5/6, with his rating up to 2498, but a seventh round loss on Thursday to the top-seeded Armenian, Karen Grigorian, checked his progress. Wadsworth still has a chance for the GM title, but needs to win his final two games on Friday and Saturday.
3965 1…Qc6! wins the b7 rook, because 2 Rxc6 Re1 is mate.