In 1879, Johannes Zukertort visited Dublin, and gave a blindfold simultaneous exhibition against 12 opponents. All the details can be found at Tim Harding's website.

On 16th July, GM Alex Baburin will attempt to beat Zukertort's 135 year old record, when he will play 16 people at the same time, without sight of the board. As this event is a partial reenactment of the 1879 event, participants are expected to wear formal attire.

With the help of generous sponsorship from Arthur Cox Solicitors, the event will take place in the Poddle Room in the Printworks at Dublin Castle.

Blindfold simultaneous exhibitions do not have any specific conditions, but recent exhibitions for the European and World records have agreed that the average rating of the opponents should be at least 1500 ELO, and the blindfolded player must score 75%, which is 12/16 in our case.

To ensure that the event is properly controlled, the ICU tournament director and vice chairman, Gerry Graham has agreed to act as official arbiter. The moves will be announced and made on the boards of the sighted players by FM Stephen Brady and Jonathan O'Connor. Some of the games will be broadcast live on the internet, and there will also be commentary on the games in an adjoining room.

If you are interested in participating, please contact . There will be food and drink available on the evening. There will be no charge for anybody attending in formal dress, so dust down that dinner jacket, or buy a fancy new ball gown.

The event will start at 17:00. We would like to have 20 people signed up to play, of whom 4 will be substitutes, and will only play if any of the first 16 players have not turned up.