Alekhine’s Blindfold Simul in Paris 1925

On February 1, 1925, Alexander Alekhine sat in the great hall of Le Petit Parisien in Paris and attempted one of the most astonishing feats in chess history: twenty-eight simultaneous games without sight of the boards. The exhibition was organized by Excelsior, Le Petit Parisien, and the French Chess Federation, drawing a large public audience and many of the leading figures of Parisian chess culture.

Alekhine was not yet World Champion. That title still belonged to José Raúl Capablanca. But by 1925, Alekhine was already one of the most formidable players in the world, a Russian émigré building his reputation in Western Europe through tournaments, writing, exhibitions, and relentless public demonstrations of chess intellect. Blindfold play gave him a stage on which memory, calculation, endurance, and performance fused into one spectacle.

The Paris display began in the morning and stretched late into the evening. According to the contemporary report translated from Excelsior, Alekhine opened all twenty-eight games, received moves verbally, and answered without looking at a board. The room followed the event as both sport and experiment, with observers fascinated by the psychological strain of holding so many positions at once.

When the final result was announced, Alekhine had scored 22 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses, breaking his own blindfold record. His losses were credited to the École Polytechnique, the Cercle de Montmartre, and l’Échiquier Notre-Dame.

The achievement belongs to a peculiar chapter of chess history. Blindfold simultaneous chess is not simply “strong play without seeing.” It is a public test of disciplined imagination. Alekhine’s Paris simul made the chessboard invisible, but it made the chess mind visible. For spectators in 1925, it was proof that elite chess could become theater, science, and intellectual legend all at once.