a great documentary on susan polgar can be found at either of these locations:

onlinedocumentaries4u.com

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-6378985927858479238&hl=en

female GM

I've seen that, it's a good watch.

along with Maurice Ashley African American grandmaster Sue Polgar and her sisters shoh the wide appeal of chess  and its a good thing!

Could she really play 5 games simultaneously without looking at the pieces? That's incredible.

The degree of incredible depends on the strength of the opponents. I'd say the average 2300 USCF could take on 5 blindfold? I've seen lesser masters do that many.

Ms. Polgar can probably do more, given the will to do it.

maybe she can set up a foundation to sue every chess organization that comes into existence--this could carry on long after she dies of hypocrisy

why cant she be judit

But blindfold you have to remember the whole position absolutely perfectly each move! If one part of it is wrong than a whole tactic may not work and that must be hard on the mind. And then you actually have to play chess, with multiple people!

I'm a nothing in chess and when I play one game blindfold memory doesn't really play a  part. I know where all the pieces belong because I am concentrating on them. The greater test for me is visualization.

The few occasion when I tried 2 games, yes remembering both boards was an issue, and the whole thing was 10 times as hard as doing 1 game.

I'd expect a master to have no more problem with 2-3 games as I had with 1, at least those who have done blindfold. Some decent players claim to be unable to manage even one game blindfold.

Still, Christiansen has done 10 games at once. Since he's somewhat better than Susan Polgar, I'd expect her to manage a handful of games at least.

Blindfold displays used to be a much more common part of the master's repertoire as well as income. I think it'd be a nifty club promotion in the community to have a few tables of blindfold going with strong players meeting lines of kids and the not-too-strong public in the town square for a few hours. It'd probably seem like magic to everyone and be good for a spot on the local news.

lol careful, you can be sued for stuff you say on the internet you know.

Well when I'm trying to solve chess puzzles of several moves, I often forget the position when I'm trying to analyze the one 5 moves later as thouroughly as in the starting position, and I have to constantly recalculate the moves I already came up with. I couldn't imagine doing that in a whole game and if I forgot the position in my head I would be pretty much screwed. So yes visualization is the big part but it's hard not to forget what the position you're trying to analyze many moves later is.

Here's Zatonskih taking on 5 blindfold just before the recent US Women's Championship.

Current rating is probably around 2480s after this tournament.