Eva Harrison Shocks GM Timur Gareev in Blindfold Blitz

 

Chicago's Eva Harrison, a chess mom and a top Illinois female player in her own right, "shocked" the chess world with an upset of Grandmaster Timur Gareev.

In an attempt at setting the Consecutive Blindfold Blitz record, GM Gareev played 64 opponents September 24, one right after the other for 10 hours, dueling away at a smorgasbord of rapid chess variants.

The fun took place at the Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Coralville, Iowa and was sponsored by the Iowa Chess Association and organized by its President, Eric Vigil (who supplied the picture to the left).

Through a mix of Game/5, Game/3 (with no delay or 2-second delay), "normal" chess and Fischer 960 random chess (with the back rank pieces jumbled up), Gareev managed to win almost all his matches despite the "blindfold" handicap.

Harrison was one of a handful of combatants who managed to defeat the visiting GM. Eva told the ICA, "I was absolutely blown away by Timur's amazing talent."

She continued, "He took on all players and made it look so easy exercising away on his stationary bike and throwing in witty remarks while playing. It was sheer brilliance."

"I remember one game in particular where within two minutes he put both his bishops en prise and then delivered a stunning checkmate none of the bystanders saw coming."

While the bulk of the players were from Iowa, some traveled from Kansas with Harrison as perhaps Illinois' lone representative.

Harrison suggests she'll always remember her match, "In my game I got lucky to win on time on the black side of a Qd6 Scandinavian."

She also recalled some amazing games between Gareev and Iowa City's Joseph Wan, a 2200-rated scholastic player. Wan earned Master status at the Junior High Nationals in Indianapolis in April of this year, and returned to Indianapolis as Iowa's Barber representative in July / August.

Wan managed to defeat the GM several times at Fischer Random with each player having only three minutes to make all moves, once again with the GM incurring the blindfold handicap.

Eric Vigil's complete write up on the event -- including some game notations thanks to the automated DGT board used for the games -- can be found on the Iowa association's website here.