Timur Gareyev – IELTS Reading Answers

With the diligent practice of passages like Reading Answers of Cambridge IELTS 17 test 4 ‘Timur Gareyev,’ the Reading Module can be the top-scoring category for IELTS aspirants. To score well, you must understand how to approach and answer the different question types in the Reading Module.

The Reading passage, ‘Timur Gareyev,’ is an IELTS reading passage that consists of 14 questions. The questions in the IELTS passages are divided into sets, each of which involves the completion of a specific type of work. So, let’s see how easy this passage is for you and if you’re able to make it in 20 minutes. If not, try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com.

The question types found in the ‘Timur Gareyev’ passage are:

• Matching information (Q. 1-6)
• True/False/Not Given (Q. 7-10)
• Summary Completion (Q. 11-14)

Reading Passage

Timur Gareyev

A) Next month, a chess player named Timur Gareyev will take on nearly 50 opponents at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded. Even by world record standards, it sets a high bar for human performance. The 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles, and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping. He has already proved himself a strong chess player, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013, Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King.

B) But Gareyev’s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) called him in for tests. They now have their first results. ‘The ability to play a game of chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,’ said Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. ‘But the thing that’s so remarkable about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active at once. To me it is simply astonishing.’

C) Gareyev learned to play chess in his native Uzbekistan when he was six years old. Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament at age eight and soon became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he has crowned Asia’s youngest-ever chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, and as a student helped his university win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the third-best chess player in the US and Canada.

D) To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45 simultaneous games in his mind, winning 39 in the 24-hour session.

E) Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it. The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces make, the defences and attacks. ‘You recreate it in your mind,’ said Gareyev. ‘A lot of players are capable of doing what I’m doing.’ The real mental challenge comes from playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated with each player’s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to the next board. First moves can be tough to remember because they are fairly uninteresting. But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on only a fragmented memory of the pieces’ positions.

F) The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards, soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. ‘He was not exceptional on any of these standard tests,’ said Rissman. ‘We didn’t find anything other than playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.’ But next came the brain scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well connected the various regions of the chess player’s brain were. Though the results are tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average communication between parts of Gareyev’s brain that make up what is called the frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only one or two scored more highly on the measure. ‘You use this network in almost any complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out whether you should be responding or not,’ said Rissman.

G) It was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev’s brain. The scans also suggest that Gareyev’s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts than usual. Initial results suggest that the areas of his brain that process visual images – such as chess boards – may have stronger links to other brain regions, and so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may hold the first clues to Gareyev’s extraordinary ability.

H) For the world record attempt, Gareyev hopes to play 47 blindfold games at once in about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. ‘I don’t worry too much about the winning percentage, that’s never been an issue for me,’ he said. ‘The most important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.’

Questions 1-6

1. A reference to earlier examples of blindfold chess
2. an outline of what blindfold chess involves
3. a claim that Gareyev’s skill is limited to chess
4. why Gareyev’s skill is of interest to scientists
5. an outline of Gareyev’s priorities
6. a reason why the last part of a game may be difficult

Questions 7-10

7. In the forthcoming games, all the participants will be blindfolded.
8. Gareyev has won competitions in BASE jumping.
9. UCLA is the first university to carry out research into blindfolded chess players.
10. Good chess players are likely to be able to play blindfold chess.

Questions 11-14

How the research was carried out

The researchers started by testing Gareyev’s 11. …………………………..; for example, he

was required to recall a string of 12. …………………………. in order and also in reverse

order. Although his performance was normal, scans showed an unusual amount of 13. …………………………………… within the areas of Gareyev’s brain that are concerned with directing attention. In addition, the scans raised the possibility of unusual strength in the parts of his brain that deal with 14. ………………………………… input.

Answers For ‘Timur Gareyev’ IELTS Reading Passage With Location and Explanation 

Don’t miss the answer key for Timur Gareyev IELTS Reading passage, complete with detailed explanations, and prepare to score a high IELTS Reading band score. Read further for the explanations and location of the ‘Timur Gareyev’ IELTS reading answer.

1. Answer: D

Question type: Matching information

Answer Location: Paragraph D, Line 1

Answer explanation: The paragraph mentions that Gareyev will wear a blindfold. It establishes a high benchmark for human performance even by world record standards. In the exclusive realm of chess played with blindfolds, the 28-year-old already stands out. Hence the answer is, D.

2. Answer: E

Question type: Matching information

Answer Location: Paragraph 4, Line 1

Answer explanation: The author mentions that even without realizing it, accomplished players may learn the art of playing blind. The nature of the game requires you to mentally simulate several movements in order to observe how they turn out. Regular players learn to remember the patterns the pieces create as well as their defenses and attacks from this. Hence, the answer is E.

3. Answer: F

Question type: Matching information

Answer Location: Paragraph F, Line 1

Answer explanation: In Paragraph F it mentions that Rissman examined how closely linked Gareyev’s various brain areas were when he was laying down in the machine. Although the findings are preliminary and have not yet been published, the scans revealed that Gareyev’s frontoparietal control network, which is made up of many brain regions, communicated considerably more often than is typical. Hence, the answer is F.

4. Answer: B

Question type: Matching information

Answer Location: Paragraph B, Line 1

Answer explanation: In Paragraph B, it mentions Gareyev’s skill has attracted attention outside of the chess playing community. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) invited him in for testing in an effort to better understand how he and those like him are able to do such mental feats. Hence, the answer is B.

5. Answer: H

Question type: Matching information

Answer Location: Paragraph H, Line 1

Answer explanation: The paragraph mentions that Gareyev’s skill has attracted attention outside of the chess-playing community. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) invited him in for testing in an effort to better understand how he and those like him are able to do such mental feats. Hence the answer is H.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in the ‘Timur Gareyev’ IELTS Reading Passage

Let us check out some quick tips to answer the types of questions in the ‘Timur Gareyev’ Reading passage.

Matching Information: 

Matching information is a type of IELTS reading question that requires you to match a list of features to the correct people, places, or things in a passage.

To answer matching information questions, you can use the following strategies:

• Read the given information first: This will give you an idea of the types of information that you are looking for in the passage.
• Read the passage quickly: This will give you a general understanding of the content of the passage.
• Match the information to the people, places, or things: As you read the passage, look for the information that matches each feature.
• Check your answers: Once you have matched all of the features, double-check your answers to make sure that they are correct.

True/False/Not Given: 

True/False/Not Given questions are a type of IELTS Reading question that requires you to identify whether a statement is true, false, or not given in the passage.

• True statements are statements that are explicitly stated in the passage.
• False statements are statements that are explicitly contradicted in the passage.
• Not Given statements are statements that are neither explicitly stated nor contradicted in the passage

To answer True/False/Not Given questions, you need to be able to understand the passage and identify the key information. You also need to be able to distinguish between statements that are explicitly stated, contradicted, and not given.

Summary Completion:

Summary Completion is a type of IELTS reading question that requires you to fill in a gap in a sentence with a word or phrase from the passage.

To answer these questions, you can use the following strategies:

• Read the sentence carefully: This will give you an idea of the type of word or phrase that is missing.
• Scan the passage for the keywords: The keywords in the sentence can help you to identify the correct word or phrase.
• Read the sentence with the missing word or phrase: This will help you to see how the word or phrase fits into the sentence.
• Check your answer: Once you have filled in the gap, make sure that your answer makes sense in the context of the sentence.

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