Photographic memory

I was thinking how much better I would be at chess if I had a photographic memory and wondered if any GMs past or present or chess.com members were blessed/afflicted with one?

It's been said that Bobby Fischer was.

Yes, there are some brilliant geniuses who have played chess and have had some degree of Photographic Memory.

However, the term Photographic Memory is much debated and broadly defined.

In Chess after 7 moves there are 3,200,000,000 positions(click on Read then click
Chessopedia then click Mathematics And Chess).

So the problem is one has to learn literally billions of positions but also grasp them at a deeper tactical level.

This is why we humans must study position and strategy, as we just can't
calculate the way a computer can do such things.

There was a chap called George Koltanowski who had a photographic memory and in 1937 played 34 games of chess simultaneously while blindfolded in which he achieved 24 wins and 10 draws. It is reported that in 1960 he played blindfolded again, but this time 56 simultaneous games, at ten seconds per move, achieved 50 wins and 6 draws. As amazing as this feat is, his wife once said 'George can go to the supermarket and forget his loaf of bread.'

I read that after a simultaneous exhibition, Fischer re-called every single move made in order, totalling more than a thousand. Also he could re-call every move made in order in  blitz games which he played more than a decade earlier.   

Photographic memory doesn't exist.  Some people have excellent memories and other can develop their memory through association, imagery, linking, etc., but the idea of recalling something like a picture--the human brain doesn't work that way.  Master chessplayers were given a memory test:  they looked at a middle game positiion from a real game for a number of seconds.  Then they were asked to reproduce it on another board.  Most of them could do it easily.  Then they were presented with a board in which the pieces and pawns were mixed up in a random manner.  they could not recall more that the average person off the street.  So, a chessplayer doesn't really see a picture, he sees patterns of forces on the board, most of which he is familiar from millions of real games.  This is a weak doubled pawn, this is a fianchetto, this is a castled positiion, etc.

I would say Bobby Fischer had a prodigious memory. One example. He was passing a board of a friend at a tourney on his way to the bathroom. Glancing at the board for a mere 3-4 seconds. Several months later Fischer met up with his friend and asked if his friend had played a Queen move? Of course his friend was like ??? Fischer set up the exact board position and should his friend the Queen move to an economical win. There are many similar stories about Fischer's memory and his IQ being between 180-200?

One correction: Those were 56 games in a row, i.e. consecutive, not simultaneous.

this is true, but if I had a photographic memory I'd study as many two move checkmates as i can until i have the general idea of the various patterns involved, then move to three, then look over all the different opening traps (as in Chess by Lazlo Polgar), memorize all the major opening moves, endgames, etc.

Obviously you need to still understand these positions, but wow, imagine how deeply you could study chess. you could pore over analysis and keep the game in your head. Everyone knows that certain styles of games tend to have common themes, and traps and tricks to follow inaccurate moves. It'd be waaaay easier to get good at chess with a spectacular memory. There's still a lot of studying to do, and even more playing, but you have to admit it would be lovely :)

So-called photographic memory (or eidetic memory) does exist, but it is not particularly helpful in chess for the reasons you specify.

It's ironic that modern psychology was born in studies that set to rest notions that eidetic memory might be helpful in chess, laying the foundation for theories of "chunking" that underlay all of educational psychology, yet chess players and teachers (two groups that should know better) frequently refer to this old abandoned hypothesis as if it holds some scientific value. Eidetic memory as useful is an idea that should have gone the way of Lamarck's ideas concerning evolution (giraffe's necks grow through stretching toward branches, then these acquired characteristics pass on to their offspring).

Susan Polgar was the subject of a documentary called My Brilliant Brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WREgHsTr5yE&feature=related

(It used to be complete here...I hope it still is.)

The vast vocabulary of chess positions that accomplished masters can refer to were in her case stored in the same place as faces are for the rest of us. She and others can recognize what we have to calculate, in effect. Anyway, worth a watch for sure.

Really?  I'm terrible at remembering faces, I wonder what the means for my chess

Oh, and about Susan Polgar -- it's too bad her brilliant brain couldn't figure out that gutting the USCF though lawsuits was not good for US chess in general.

It means you have to work your ass off while others daydream at the board i.e. the only fate possible for me.

One advantage of starting young is getting that Polgar-ish storage capability and then wondering what patzer is taking so long for.

I have a photographic memory; I just don't have any film in it.

who uses film anymore?

i feel so dated...arg.

Thanks to all contributors.  I understand that a photographic memory is no substitute for talent over the board but I would at least like not to get a lost position in the opening to give me a chance to employ whatever ability I have in the middle or endgame.

There is a memory championship held every year where participants are asked to memorize poems, decks of playing cards in order, lists of words, nonsensical and otherwise, lists of random numbers, etc.  Those participating made astonishing feats of memory.  For example Ben Pridmore (the winner at the 2009 chmpnshp) recalled 636 abstract images, 1026 binary numbers, 350 names and faces, 1012 historic dates, 880 cards in an hour, etc.  In the history of the championship not one participant claimed to have a photographic or eidetic memory.  If any exists they are missing the chance to make some ready cash.  They all used memory systems, either of their own device or a common device, like the Roman room system.  One must never forget the snowballing legend factor.  all kinds of alleged info about Fischer and others have cropped up, for example his iq being around 200 or speaking fluent Russian and Icelandic and Koltanowski having a photographic memory based on his blindfold feats. I'm sure Fischer and Kolty would love for people to believe it, and i'm sure both had good memories, but as for photographic--its simply not true.