Timur Gareyev

Timur Gareyev is a chess grandmaster who was born in Uzbekistan and now lives and plays in the USA. With a peak USCF rating of 2780 he once was number three in the USA and one of the best 100 players in the world. Gareyev is particularly good in blindfold chess, where the player does not see board or pieces but plays the entire game in his mind. In practice and in countless blindfold simultaneous exhibitions the grandmaster has played thousands of blindfold games. In May 2013, parallel to the US Championship in St. Louis, Gareyev played against 33 opponents simultaneously without seeing the board. Ten hours and some minutes later he had won 29 of his games while drawing four and losing none. On July 31, 2015, Gareyev made history by playing together with Marc Lang from Germany to set a new world record in “Tandem Blindfold Chess”. Marc Lang currently holds the record for playing most blindfold games simultaneously: in November 2011 Lang played against 46 opponents at the same time without seeing the board. Timur Gareyev wants to break this record and plans to take up 50 opponents in a blindfold simul. Currently he is on a World Blindfold Chess tour to prepare for his attempt to break Lang’s record. Timur Gareyev loves challenges and adventure and is a licensed skydiver and base jumper. He enjoys traveling and meeting new people. Gareyev keeps himself fit by hiking and by practicing yoga. He is very active in teaching chess in schools, and has chess academies in Las Vegas, Austin and Kansas. He also serves as a consultant for the Karpov International School of Chess and has created a Virtual Chess instructional program that is offered to schools all over the US. Gareyev is the author of a Chess Tactics workbook called C.A.T. Tactics and is currently working on a new book with the title Get Off the Couch and Play Chess.