Swedish grandmaster Axel Smith is scheduled to play 49 blindfold chess games simultaneously on May 7 in Lund, Sweden. The attempt aims to break GM Timur Gareyev's record while raising awareness for a climate campaign against fossil peat extraction.
The 40-year-old Smith, a coach and author of chess books including Pump Up Your Rating, will conduct the simul during the TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament in his native Lund, just outside Malmo. He has limited prior experience with blindfold play, having completed 15 games in 2011, and has prepared by testing a personal memory system based on images for boards, openings, and squares.