Greetings,
Here is my report for 150 minutes.
I owed two corner times for a long time, maybe since January. All kinds of life has gotten in the way, which does not need to be discussed here. So, I decided to do this corner time first since it was easier then the other.
This is not the longest corner time I have ever done, perhaps a fourth or so of my personal record. To prepare to not have any disctractions I fasted from fluids for latter half of the day. The first half of that was not planned, but just turned out that way. The latter half of preparation I kept away from fluids on purpose.
I turned off all the fans in the room so I didn't have to worry about getting cold. I set the timer on my phone, and put the phone on silent. I wore a muscle shirt, and dropped my thong to the floor at my ankles. I don't typically wear pants in the house. I put my hands behind my back and nose to the wall. I live in an A-frame house, and am in the top so my nose can touch the wall but nothing else will reach the wall except my forehead.
I usually like to pace when I think, and don't really like staying still. I do have lots of experience in the corner and I just zone out to another world. I thought about creating a story to write in my head to put down on paper later, but decided against it. Instead, I decided I would try to replay a couple of games of chess at the same time blindfolded. I usually replay these games once a year to keep them fresh, and I have not gone through them this year.
So, I played Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick, Paris 1858 and Mayet vs Andersson, Berlin 1851. Two of my favorite games. After each black move I would wiggle my fingers and toes to allow blood to flow better. Locking ones kneeds and such is bad, and can cause you to pass out. I examined all the squares that each piece could reach all the way to the end of the board. Examined whether the move followed or violated Reuben Fine's 30 rules of chess. I did the point system for both White and Black. Instead of just calculating thirds of pawns as value, I tried to be even more exact. Then examined all of the candidate moves and looked ahead in each of the variations once. My typical pace during a game is faster for the first 10 moves, but I stayed at the 2-3 minutes per move per side. I imagine it took 10 minutes to get through both games first move (4 moves X 2.5 average minutes).
I don't really know when the middle was, and didn't pay much attention. The Mayet-Andersson game finished and I could fully concentrate on the Morphy game. My mind was more tired than my feet. Though it would of been nice to move, it was nice to be in total silence. My forehead was taking more of the force than my nose.
When the Morphy game was finished I reflected and evaluated my blindfold skills. There were at least 4 times in the Mayet-Andersson game that I ran through the complete game to get back to the correct position, instead of just recalling the position. I did not have that issue with the Morphy game and wondered if I switched the order if it would of mattered. I started going through the games that I had played that were similar to each of the games, and I had more that were similar to the Morphy game. I was just pondering on why when the alarm sounded.
Thank you for a total relaxing night!
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