本篇文章共分 A-H 8 個段落，從鐵木爾-加列耶夫從小的西洋棋啟蒙、青少年出賽、移居美國、建立名聲到醫學研究分析其腦部的特殊功能等一一說明，內容豐富有趣。

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Timur Gareyev – Blindfold Chess Champion 鐵木爾-加列耶夫—西洋盲棋冠軍

1. 挑戰盲棋紀錄

   Next month, a chess player named Timur Gareyev will take on nearly 50 opponents at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded. Even by world record standards, it sets a high bar for human performance. The 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles, and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping. He has already proved himself a strong chess player, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013, Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King.

   下個月，一位名叫鐵木爾-加列耶夫的西洋棋選手將同時對陣近 50 位對手。但這還不是最難的部分。當他的挑戰者像正常人一樣進行比賽時，加列耶夫本人將被蒙上眼睛。即使按照世界紀錄的標準，這也為人類的表現設立了一個高標準。這位 28 歲的年輕人已經在盲棋的稀有世界中脫穎而出。他喜歡鮮豔的服裝和特殊的髮型，並從低空跳傘的冒險運動中獲得樂趣 【譯註：指從分別為高樓（building）、天線塔（antenna）、大橋（span）以及懸崖（Earth）等高度進行跳傘活動】。他也已經證明了自己是一個強大的西洋棋選手。在 2013 年 10 小時的西洋棋馬拉松比賽中，加列耶夫在腦中同時下了 33 盤棋。他贏了 29 盤，其他的也沒有輸。這項技能已經成為他的註冊商標：他稱自己為盲棋大王。

2. 學術界好奇

   But Gareyev’s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) called him in for tests. They now have their first results. ‘The ability to play a game of chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,’ said Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. ‘But the thing that’s so remarkable about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active at once. To me it is simply astonishing.’

   但加列耶夫的神通已經引起了西洋棋界以外的興趣。為了瞭解他和其他像他一樣的人如何能完成這樣的心智壯舉，加州大學洛杉磯分校（UCLA）的研究人員請他去做測試。他們現在有了初步的結果。“對大多數有成就的棋手來說，閉著眼睛下棋的能力並非遙不可得，” 負責加州大學洛杉磯分校記憶實驗室的傑西-理斯曼說。“但鐵木爾和其他幾個人的非凡之處在於他們能夠同時保持對奕的場次數量。對我來說，這真的是令人驚訝不已。”

3. 初出茅廬

   Gareyev learned to play chess in his native Uzbekistan when he was six years old. Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament aged eight and soon became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he was crowned Asia’s youngest ever chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, and as a student helped his university win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the third best chess player in the US.

   加列耶夫六歲時在他的家鄉烏茲別克斯坦學會了下棋。在祖父的指導下，他在 8 歲時參加了第一次比賽，並很快迷上了四處出賽。16 歲時，他被授予亞洲有史以來最年輕的西洋棋大師稱號。不久之後，他搬到了美國，並以學生身分幫助就讀的大學贏得了第一個全國西洋棋錦標賽。2013 年，加列耶夫被評為美國最佳西洋棋選手的第三名。

4. 盲棋歷史

   To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45 simultaneous games in his mind, winning 39 in the 24-hour session.

   對不瞭解情況的人來說，蒙眼下棋似乎需要超人的技巧。但此一精湛技藝的展現可以追溯到幾個世紀之前。歐洲第一場有記錄的比賽是在 13 世紀的佛羅倫斯進行的。1947 年，阿根廷超級大師米格爾-納伊多夫在腦海中同時下了 45 盤棋，在 24 小時內贏了 39 盤。

5. 記憶方式

   Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it. The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces make, the defences and attacks. ‘You recreate it in your mind,’ said Gareyev. ‘A lot of players are capable of doing what I’m doing.’ The real mental challenge comes from playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated with each player’s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to the next board. First moves can be tough to remember because they are fairly uninteresting. But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on only a fragmented memory of the pieces’ positions.

   技藝高超的棋手甚至可以在不知不覺中發展出盲棋的技巧。對局的本質是在頭腦中運行可能的棋步，看看它們是如何運行的。由此，經常下棋的人對棋子的模式、防禦和攻擊形成了一種記憶。“你在你的腦海中將其重新呈現，” 加列耶夫說。“很多棋手都能做到我所做的事情。” 真正的心智挑戰來自於在頭腦中同時進行多場比賽。不僅必須記住每個棋盤上每個棋子的位置，還必須在需要時原封不動地回憶起來，根據每個棋手的動作進行更新，然後再可靠地儲存起來，這樣大腦就可以進入下一個棋盤。第一步棋可能很難記住，因為它們相當無趣。但是棋局的最後階段也很費勁，因為疲憊感會出現。當加列耶夫累了的時候，他的記憶力會變得很差。他有時只根據對棋子位置的零星記憶來下棋。

6. 掃描分析

   The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards, soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. ‘He was not exceptional on any of these standard tests,’ said Rissman. ‘We didn’t find anything other than playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.’ But next came the brain scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well connected the various regions of the chess player’s brain were. Though the results are tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average communication between parts of Gareyev’s brain that make up what is called the frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only one or two scored more highly on the measure. ‘You use this network in almost any complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out whether you should be responding or not,’ said Rissman.

   科學家們首先讓加列耶夫進行了一些標準的記憶測試。這些測試評估了他將數位、圖片和文字牢記在心的能力。一個經典的測試是測量一個人在聽到數字後能重複多少個數位，包括向前和向後。大多數人能夠做到大約 7 個。“他在這些標準測試中都沒有出類拔萃的表現，” 理斯曼說。“除了下棋之外，我們沒有發現任何他似乎具有超強天賦的東西。” 但接下來是大腦掃描。加列耶夫躺在機器裡，理斯曼查看了這位西洋棋選手的大腦各區域的連接情況。雖然結果是暫定的，而且尚未公佈，但掃描發現加列耶夫大腦中構成所謂額葉控制網路的各部分之間的交流遠遠超過平均水準。在與這位元棋手一起參與掃描的 63 人中，只有一兩個人的得分較高。“你幾乎在任何複雜的任務中都會用到這個網路。它幫助你分配注意力，牢記規則，並計算出你是否應該做出反應，” 理斯曼說。

7. 初步結果

   It was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev’s brain. The scans also suggest that Gareyev’s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts than usual. Initial results suggest that the areas of his brain that process visual images – such as chess boards – may have stronger links to other brain regions, and so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may hold the first clues to Gareyev’s extraordinary ability.

   這並非是加列耶夫大腦中有些特殊東西的唯一線索。掃描結果還顯示，加列耶夫的視覺網路與其他大腦部位的聯繫比一般情況更強。初步結果指出，他大腦中處理視覺圖像—如棋盤—的區域可能與其他大腦區域有更強的聯繫，因此比正常人更為強大。雖然分析結果還沒有最終確定，但它們可能為加列耶夫的非凡能力提供了初步的線索。

8. 全心投入

   For the world record attempt, Gareyev hopes to play 47 blindfold games at once in about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. ‘I don’t worry too much about the winning percentage, that’s never been an issue for me,’ he said. ‘The most important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.’

   對於世界紀錄的嘗試，加列耶夫希望在大約 16 小時內同時進行47 場盲棋賽。他將需要贏得 80% 的場次才能獲得冠軍。 “我不太擔心勝率，這對我來說從來都不是一個問題。” 他說。“對我來說，盲棋最重要的部分是我找到了一件可以全身心投入的事情。我忘不了那種著魔的感覺”。