Imagine playing a dozen or several dozen checkers games at the same time. Not an easy task, right? Now add to that the fact that you are doing it… blind, without access to a single board!

What is a blindfold simultaneous exhibition?

A blindfold simultaneous exhibition (also known as a simultaneous display or “simul”) is a competition against many opponents at once, without access to any of the boards. The competitor sits alone in a separate room, away from all of the rivals.

The player must remember every current position and every move — simultaneously, for a dozen or several dozen rivals.

The other players calmly look at their own boards. It isn’t hard to guess that this requires absolute concentration — it’s one of the most demanding achievements in draughts. Truly remarkable.

The first blindfold simul in the history of draughts

The first known blindfold simul in the history of draughts took place in 1926 in France. The Dutch draughts grandmaster Ben Springer decided to play two games simultaneously.

Then, between 1950 and 1955, two more brave men took on this challenge — the Dutchmen Piet Roozenburg and Wim Huisman. Roozenburg played 5 blindfold matches at once, and Huisman managed as many as 8.

In 1982, a true champion entered the draughts stage and, for a very long time, held the record.

The birth of a champion

On December 18, 1982, at 6:20 a.m. in The Hague, the Dutchman Teunis (Ton) Sijbrands began his first ever blindfold simultaneous display. He played 10 games, won 9, and drew one — an impressive 95% score (18 points).

Since then, he challenged himself further, facing more rivals every few years. In 1999, there were as many as 20 opponents, and the game lasted a full 15 hours. But it was Sijbrands’s blindfold simul in the new millennium that gained the greatest world renown.

A draughts simultaneous display that has gone down in history

In 2002, Ton Sijbrands, already experienced in simultaneous play, raised the bar himself and challenged as many as 22 opponents — blindfold, of course. For the record to be recognized, the challenger had to score at least 70% of the total 44 points, i.e. 31 points. How do you think he managed it?

In a blindfold simul, 2 points are awarded for each victory and 1 point for a draw. Sijbrands won 17 games and drew 5, for a staggering score of 39 points — 88%. What’s even more stunning, the grandmaster was already 53 years old at the time.

You are probably wondering where such talent came from, and what Ton Sijbrands did before this.

Who is Teunis (Ton) Sijbrands?

Sijbrands obviously didn’t jump straight into such complex blindfold displays. He is a Dutch international draughts grandmaster who won 6 Dutch, 4 European, and 2 world titles. He was born in Amsterdam in 1949 — let’s take a closer look at this truly unique player.

Sijbrands became acquainted with club-level checkers at age 12, when his father took him to a youth checkers club one Saturday afternoon. That meeting seems to have ignited a great passion for the game, because he was soon announced youth champion of both Amsterdam and the Netherlands.

He became known throughout the country in 1965 when, at age 16, he defeated the world champion Vyacheslav Shtsjogolyev — just two months after his debut in the Dutch championship. He went on to win the Dutch champion title in 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, and 1988, and became European champion four times: in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1971. He didn’t stop there.

In 1972 and 1973, he became World Champion in Draughts, defending the title in 1973 against Andris Andreiko (score 22–18). After that, he withdrew from top-level competition for a while. In 1990, he played another world title match, which ended in a draw, allowing the Russian Alexei Chizhov to keep his title.

Sijbrands is not only a highly successful competitor — he could confidently compete for the title of most unusual checkers player. For several years he published weekly columns on sketches in the Dutch national newspaper “de Volkskrant” and wrote several books on the game. Still, he is best known for breaking records in blindfold simuls.

More records in a blindfold simultaneous competition

On December 18, 2004, in the Dutch village of Lutten, Sijbrands attempted to break his own blindfold simul world record. This time the game lasted 24 hours, and he decided to face 24 players at the same time. The match ended with an incredible 92% score — he won 20 games and drew the other 4, for a total of 44 points. But the story didn’t end there.

At his next attempt, on October 5, 2007, at Tilburg University, he broke his own record again, playing 25 matches, winning 21 and drawing 4. Unfortunately, this incredible streak soon came to an end.

Stepping off the stage?

In October 2006, Ton Sijbrands announced that he would end his career, or at least refrain from participating in the 2007 World Cup in Hardenberg. He said his reason was to focus on writing his — very extensive — collection of memoirs, though as it turned out, that was not the only cause.

Interestingly, Sijbrands also disagreed with changes being planned in checkers at the time, such as:

  • introducing anti-doping controls,
  • reducing time control in the game by about half an hour,
  • scoring changes (a plus-and-minus draw system being introduced for draws).

None of these were followed strictly in practice, but they discouraged Sijbrands enough that he effectively withdrew from competition.

After the 2003 World Cup in Zwartsluis, Sijbrands restricted himself to Dutch checkers club competitions, first for Heijmans Excelsior Rosmalen, then for Bart Smit Volendam, and finally for Amersfoort Dam Genootschap (ADG).

Finally, a worthy rival to the simul champion

In the same year that Ton Sijbrands won his first World Championship title (1972), another great player, Erno Prosman, was born in Gouda, the Dutch capital of cheese. He remains the only man so far to have broken Sijbrands’s blindfold simultaneous record.

In 2008, at age 35, Prosman proved that Sijbrands wasn’t the only genius on the blindfold simul scene. Erno Prosman broke his compatriot’s record, playing 27 games (2 more than Sijbrands’s 2007 mark) in 22 hours, scoring 70%. It didn’t take long for a response — in 2009, Sijbrands attempted to take the record back, playing 28 games in nearly 42 hours, winning 18, drawing 7, and losing 3. But the story wasn’t over yet.

Who is Erno Prosman?

Sijbrands’s worthy opponent, Erno Prosman, is a Dutch international grandmaster. In 1991 he became Junior World Champion, and five years later, Dutch Champion. His path to success differed markedly from Sijbrands’s.

Prosman’s successes are less remarkable in raw numbers, as he chose a different career path early on and didn’t devote as much time to checkers as the other champions. Even so, he’s undoubtedly considered one of the strongest players in the Netherlands and the world — and, so far, the only person who has dared to challenge Sijbrands’s blindfold simul records. With success.

The great, final rematch

After 3 years of preparation, the two men faced a correspondence rematch. In 2012, Prosman took up the challenge of taking the record from Sijbrands again, playing 30 games in roughly 29 hours. History repeated itself: Prosman scored exactly the minimum needed to establish the record, winning 17 games, drawing 8, and losing 5, for a perfect 70%.

How did Sijbrands react? After his last record attempt in 2009, he had said never again — but on hearing about Prosman’s new achievement, he began to consider trying once more.

Two years later, in December 2014, the 64-year-old Sijbrands set about breaking the record once again. This time he decided to play 32 blindfolded games — 2 more than Prosman.

Who were Sijbrands’s opponents? Their average rating was 1,050 — roughly the level of an average first-league player. The exhausting battle lasted over 48 hours. Sijbrands did not sleep for a single moment during it, afraid that important details of the games might slip his mind even during a short nap.

What was the result? Ton Sijbrands finished the simul with 72%, breaking Prosman’s previous record! He won 14 games and drew 18, without losing a single match. Several of his opponents gave up during the event.

We can only imagine how intense and grueling that experience must have been.

Who will set the next record?

That question remains a mystery. As of now, the 2014 record has not been broken by anyone — there hasn’t even been an attempt.

Despite having plenty of great players and multiple world champions in the checkers world, it turns out that playing so many blindfold games on the 100-square board takes incredible talent, or perhaps even a gift. Chapeau bas.