Viktor Korchnoi vs Géza Maróczy

This case may be one of the most remarkable cases supporting evidence for survival of an intelligent component of human existence after bodily death.

• Vernon M Neppe, A Detailed Analysis Of An Important Chess Game: Revisiting: "Maroczy vs Korchnoi", 2007

When it comes to the idea of the afterlife and communications from the beyond, we must not let materialistic prejudice dismiss convincing accounts of messages from the departed.

Dr. Wolfgang Eisenbeiss was an amateur chess player and had experience with mediums as the President of the Swiss association for Parapsychology. A medium is someone who can communicate with people in the afterlife.

A friend suggested to him that he establish a chess match between a living player and someone who had passed on.

Robert Rollans was the man for the job. He was an expert at automatic writing, where a dead person controls his hand to write messages. He was also a music composer and had an experience with another medium who told him about the music he was privately composing. Then his dead brother communicated with him:

Rollans : About half a year later, I wanted to write a letter late at night. With a pencil in my hand, I sat in front of the sheet of paper and wanted to start writing. Then I felt a strange force seizing my hand and beginning to write. I put the following words on paper: 'Don't be afraid, it's your brother Robi.' He had died eight years earlier as a very young doctor. Through his message produced by my hand, I was deeply impressed, but was also filled with fear, because until then I did not know that you can also write medially.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Chess game with a deceased, Wegbegleiter, No.1, 2001, p.11

Robert Rollans, 27th July 1988, in his apartment at Bad Pyrmont, Provided by Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Source

Now they needed someone to play a match against a dead person. The man for the job was Viktor Korchnoi, who is known as one of the strongest players who never became World Champion. At the time he was no.3 in the world after Kasparov and Karpov.

Viktor Korchnoi, 7th May 1987, Molendijk, Bart / Anefo, Source

Korchnoi suggested Capablanca, Keres or Maróczy as a potential opponent.

Rollans was assisted by Gabriel and Tata who were his dead relatives. They were in the afterlife and they helped locate a famous chess player: Géza Maróczy. Born on 3rd March 1870 he was one of the top chess players at the turn of the century and also an engineer and teacher. His first notable success was 2nd place at the Nuremberg tournament in 1896, he won Monte Carlo 1902 and 1904, Ostend 1905 and Hastings 1924/25, shared first at Barmen 1905, Vienna 1908 and Karlsbad 1923. He played on Board 1 in the unofficial 1936 Chess Olympiad for the victorious Hungarian team. In 1950, he was in the first group of masters who received the newly created Grandmaster title by FIDE. Maróczy left this realm on 29th May 1951.

Géza Maróczy, Deutsche Schachzeitung (January 1906), Source

Maróczy told Rollans that he was worried about the match as he was out of practice because he didn't play chess competitively in the afterlife.

On the 19th of June, 1985 contact was made.

Tata and Gabriel: Our dearly beloved, we are already waiting for you to begin. Now, at last, we have been able to bring with us Géza Maróczy. Because this is a beginning, we two will accompany you. We are going to help communicate. But first he personally will try to write using your hand. And there he is:-

The script goes on with much larger, clumsy letters in Hungarian:-

Maróczy: I am Maróczy Géza. I say hello to you. [Continuing in German.] I can talk German so first of all I can answer the identifying question. It was the opening with the king's pawn and the French defence. I am unable to continue, I will finish writing. [Letters becoming untidy.] I am going to tell everything to my friends. [Continuing in Hungarian.] Goodbye.

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

Mároczy guided Rollans' hand to write 'e4' on the paper. This was a momentous moment, the first chess game involving someone from the afterlife as far as we know. The match was conducted by Rollans who gave the moves to Eisenbeiss to give to Korchnoi, who would then respond with his move. Korchnoi selected his favourite French defense in reply. This was to be a game for the ages. Also it took place over 7 years and 8 months. This was because Korchnoi has to be given the moves when he was in different tournaments, and communication with Mároczy could not always be established.

Rollans described how it felt:

Rollans: I then sit in front of the material chessboard, and Mároczy shows me mentally how he could move the figures. My feeling is then that of a clear understanding of Mároczy’s reflections, in which he explains his features and the possible counter-traits of Korchnoi to me. In this case, I have the feeling of greatest insight, enlightenment and ease, as if I were a great chess player. These sensations last the minutes during which Mároczy explains his reflections to me. When he has left me again, I sit in front of the chessboard in a consternation and do not understand the whole game and the moves of Mároczy at all. I don’t remember what Mároczy told me in detail. I only remember that I understood everything with great ease shortly before.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Chess game with a deceased, Wegbegleiter, No.1, 2001, p.11

After move 27, Korchnoi shared his thoughts:

Korchnoi: During the opening phase Maróczy showed weaknesses. His play is old-fashioned. But I must confess that my last moves have not been too convincing. I am not sure I will win. He has compensated the faults of the opening by a strong end-game. In the end-game the ability of a player shows up and my opponent plays very well.

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

Eisenbeiss had Rollans ask Maróczy for details about his life for verification purposes. The communicating spirits who were intermediating between Rollans and Maróczy were offended that Rollans didn't trust in them that they had found Maróczy and said that he should have done this at the start. However, Maróczy did answer some questions. Notably, in the afterlife you forget bad things and only remember good/memorable things.

Maróczy: This is true, my dear friend. I have forgotten everything which I didn't like. But I am astonished when somebody does not believe me to be here personally, because I know for sure that not all of us here are able to play chess.

That is why I was a bit angry, but now I think that it doesn't matter if somebody does not believe everything that qualified spirits relay.

It is a pity that the 'Interrogatorium' began so late, but it nevertheless does not matter if I alone tell about my life and the best of my chess matches.

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

Maróczy gave his motivation for participating in this chess match:

Maróczy: I was and will be at your disposal in this peculiar game of chess for two reasons. First because I also want to do something to aid mankind living on earth to become convinced that death does not end everything, but instead the mind is separated from the physical body and comes up to us into a new world, where individual life continues to manifest itself in a new unknown dimension. Second being a Hungarian patriot I want to guide the eyes of the world into the direction of my beloved Hungary a little bit. Both these items have convinced me to participate in that game with the thought of being at everyone's service.

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

Rollans asked Maróczy 39 questions about his life, involving his chess games, tournaments and personal questions. Eisenbeiss tried to ask Maróczy's children about some information. But they dismissed him.

Maróczy: And look, what a meagre result: Where are the clever minds of my fellow citizens, who, instead of welcoming our efforts, they throw stones and stupid insinuations away from you, indirectly myself? Where are the fine Hungarian people who welcome their visitors warmly and with generous hospitality and do not just leave them at the door, as was the case with you now? Where did the famous Hungarian hospitality go? Amazing!"

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Chess game with a deceased, Wegbegleiter, No.1, 2001, p.11

One question that was asked had to do with a game Mároczy played in the 1930 San Remo tournament. He was playing against Romih and had a hopeless position. But then with an astounding move he turned the tables and won. Rollans asked him if he remembered this game:

Mároczy: But now it's time to answer your question whether I played a game with a certain Romi. I am sorry to say that I never knew a chess-player named Romi. But I think you are wrong with the name. I had a friend in my youth, who defeated me when I was young, but he was called Romih - with an 'h' at the end. I then never again saw the friend whom I so admired. In 1930 at the tournament of San Remo - who is also present? My old friend Romih coming from Italy also participated in that tournament. And so it came about that I played against him one of the most thrilling matches I ever played. I suspect that you were thinking about the same person but gave the name incorrectly. Any other Romi you might know is I'm afraid unknown to me.

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

Different sources gave different spellings, but the tournament book was sourced and confirmed Mároczy's recollection. Romi was a variant name which Romih used later in life.

Rolland also asked him "Who founded the Vera Menchik club?" which was the joking name for people who got beaten by the famous Women's World Champion. He asked this question as it appeared in a chess magazine recently. Mároczy replied it may have been Rudolf Spielmann, then changing it to Ernst Grünfeld. He then speculated it may have been Albert Becker, but he dismissed this hypothesis stating that Becker had gone to South America. He said he didn't know the answer as the club was 'silly'. The answer was revealed to be Albert Becker in a subsequent edition of the chess magazine.

Mároczy also related a story about Capablanca playing at the Karlsbad tournament in 1929. Capablanca had a mistress and during one of the games Capablanca's wife arrived. He said that Capablanca's "face turned white and then red".

Mároczy: "I have been talking about the embarrassing situation of the world champion Capablanca in Karlsbad. He was playing a chess match with Sämisch when his wife unexpectedly showed up from Cuba. He was a quite a 'lady's man' and had hugely neglected his wife. He was not only busy enjoying triumphs in his chess matches but also in love-matches with the ladies, which ended with many conquests. He was accompanied by his Russian mistress, who was even more striking than his wife, having black hair and deep dark eyes, into which some colleagues dreamily gazed. I myself was also impressed by her femininity and beauty and that is why I can remember the incident very well.

The moment when Capablanca caught sight of his wife, his face turned white and then red. I was there. He said nothing, as if nothing unexpected had happened, but his behaviour changed, which until then had been relaxed and even happy, because in fact he was better than his opponent, and also because his mistress continually flattered him happy with her adoring glances. His mistress could not grasp what had happened because she probably had never seen his wife. She did not know who she was and thought her to be one of his many lady friends. When she realized what was afoot she didn't know where to flee and eventually left the hall. What happened between the couple afterwards I no longer know. I can imagine what was said because shortly after Capablanca left his wife and married the striking Russian lady. But this also spelled the end of his amorous conquests, as the new lady never gave him a chance for an affair, she was with him at all tournaments.

The game with Sämisch was blown; he lost, as all this excitement led to a poor move. This is what people still believe today. Maybe this was one reason..."

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

This story was confirmed by reference to what Salo Flohr claimed that Capablanca told him. He related the same story, except the mistress had blonde hair, while Mároczy said she had black hair. It was reported that Rollans did not know these facts previously.

"If one were to suppose Rollans were conducting a fraud, and to this end had obtained access to the Flohr paper and other sources, it is equally hard to understand why he should have ignored the information requested of him and instead introduced a new narrative thread."

Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97

László Sebestyén was recruited as a chess historian, to source the information to verify the statements, under the impression he was contributing to a publication about Mároczy. When the accuracy was calculated it turned out that overall Mároczy got 88% of the questions right. And for the most difficult questions, there was a 94% accuracy.

Rollans and Korchnoi met each in September 1992, on the SATI TV show. The chess game came to a close on 11th February, 1993. 7 years and 8 months after it commenced. Mároczy resigned on move 48. Rollans died three weeks later.

Footnote 3: Dr. Eisenbeiss subsequently recognized the deeper meaning of a sentence that Robert Rollans had received at the beginning of the game, but which no one was able to understand in all its consequence at that time: “... and you, dear Robert, will accompany this game until their conclusion.” Mr. Eisenbeiss is reminded here of the Bible word that no one can prolong his life on his own (Mt 6:27), but that God can give a person extra time if this is necessary for a certain God-willed task (see 2 Kings 20:5-6).

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Chess game with a deceased, Wegbegleiter, No.1, 2001, p.11

Is it true?

Is it true? Well there are two possibilities, the first one is that this is indeed communication from Mároczy. The second possibility is that Rollans used Super-Psi (analogous to SuperGM vs GM) to get the information clairvoyantly and telepathically, in which case Mároczy wasn't there. However Super-Psi can be ruled out as it is impossible to establish under laboratory conditions. And remember how Mároczy wasn't sure who the founder of the Vera Menchik club was? Well that would not occur if he was using Super-Psi as he would know the info instantly. But Mároczy wasn't sure. And keep in mind Rolland didn't know the info that Mároczy told him.

---Final Verdict---

The final verdict is that this is all a laugh. Mároczy wasn't resurrected.

Firstly the game took place over 7 years. Ample time to get a strong player to relay a move. But a strong player may not have been needed as White had a -2 position by move 13, and simply got ground down after that. This would be more impressive if they played in real time, but the spirit world is apparently too unstable.

Evaluation graph of the game.

Korchnoi’s comments are peculiar. The opening play in this game had been far from old-fashioned! From before 1951 (the year Maróczy died), I could find only a few examples in this variation (with the move 10. Kd1); after 1951 many hundreds. Korchnoi was right that his opponent erred early in the opening. 12. Bb5 is a weird, amateurish-looking move (it isn’t among the first ten moves a strong chess program considers in this position for instance).

---

White’s level of play is not great. An amateur chess player like Eisenbeiss could have made these moves easily. Also, the choice of opening doesn’t really point to Maróczy. In all his known games he played different variations on move 4.

Pepijn van Erp, Playing chess with a dead man – Maroczy vs Korchnoi, 2017

An amusing observation is that Mároczy wrote 'e4' as his first move through the hand of Rolland. But this is modern day algebraic notation, back in the day, descriptive notation was used "P-K4" (Pawn to King's 4th Rank). Even at the time of Mároczy's death in 1951, descriptive notation was universally used. An example is My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer, which has descriptive notation in 1969. But perhaps Mároczy decided to see how chess notations are written in the modern day, from the afterlife.

The Capablanca story likely did not happen. Salo Flohr said it did in 1980 claiming that Capablanca had told it to him, he referred to the mistress as having married Capablanca afterwards. However Capablanca did not meet Olga Chagodaef until 1934. Flohr was also not at the Karlsbad tournament.

We also have an earlier account which contradicts the claim that Capablanca's wife entered the tournament hall during the game. In 1958, tournament participant Esteban Canal stated the Capablanca's wife arrived the day before the game while Capablanca was horsing around with a young woman. Canal says he tried to help Capablanca cover his tracks, but failed. Capablanca blundered, but this was the day afterwards.

Clearly, Flohr's account was used to provide a basis for Mároczy's answer. But ironically this simply shows Mároczy was not resurrected as one of the actual tournament participants stated that Capablanca's wife did not arrive in the middle of the game, but before.

Eisenbeiss and Hassler state that if Rollans was conducting fraud, then why did he not simply report the answers identically?

The answer is childishly simple, creating variability makes it look more realistic. Picture perfect answers would look suspicious. Rollans had plenty of time to look up the info on Mároczy's life ahead of time. Or he could have gotten the info from the historian Sebestyén, claiming that the info came after the questions, rather than before. Everything in this story is based on Rollans and Eisenbeiss' testimony alone, without no outside verification.

There is a nasty side to the story of Eisenbeiss. On 10 July 1988, the spirit of Maróczy tells about his motives to participate in the experiment (see second source linked below). But then he also makes a denigrating remark about his fellow countrymen who had not been hospitable and had shown themselves reluctant to cooperate with Eisenbeiss in his search for more background information on Maróczy. This seems to point to the refusal by the still living children of Maróczy to receive Eisenbeiss when he visited Budapest earlier that month. They had clearly no interest in this spiritistic business when they found out what it was really all about. It looks like Eisenbeiss took this ‘defeat’ badly and kicked back at them, making it look as if their father was not amused.

Pepijn van Erp, Playing chess with a dead man – Maroczy vs Korchnoi, 2017

In Eisenbeiss and Hassler's article, they speculate on any other explanations. The possibility of fraud is dismissed as Eisenbeiss says it's true. It is also dismissed because they doubt there is a reason for "Rollans to mock at Eisenbeiss". Their article spends a much larger portion to the discussion of whether the results could be accommodated by Super-Psi. This is apparently considered a more compelling threat to the integrity of this game, as opposed to fraud.

I imagine Korchnoi simply went along with all this. He probably knew it was fake but took it with amusement. I get the impression that Korchnoi enjoyed this, from what I've seen and read about him. Korchnoi brought along two American members of the Indian sect Ananda Marga who were charged with attempted murder to help him do yoga exercises and transcendental meditation during his 1978 match against Karpov.

Claims of communication with spirits should not be dismissed out of hand. However this case does not provide any evidence for communication with the dead.

Sources

• Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Schiebeler, Chess game with a deceased, Wegbegleiter, No.1, 2001, p.11
• Eisenbeiss, W. and Hassler, D. (2006). An assessment of the ostensible communications with a deceased grandmaster as evidence for survival. Journal of the Society for Psychicial Research, 70, 65-97
• Vernon M Neppe, A Detailed Analysis Of An Important Chess Game: Revisiting: "Maroczy vs Korchnoi", 2007
• Pepijn van Erp, Playing chess with a dead man – Maroczy vs Korchnoi, 2017
• Edward Winter, Capablanca
• Geza Maroczy / Robert Rollans vs Viktor Korchnoi
• Geza Maroczy vs Massimiliano Romi