“Once considered the best Chess player in the world”

  A 14th century Chess player who could play blindfold Chess.

He was a lawyer and considered the best Chess player in the world who could play four blindfold games at once, plus another game under normal conditions while carrying on a conversation with the spectators.

  He was given the nickname Ali Shatranj (Ali the Chess player), better known to us as Aladdin, the chap with the wonderful lamp who appears in Christmas pantomimes in the Arabian nights as the son of a poor widow in China.

  He becomes the possessor of a magic lamp and ring, with which he commands two genii to gratify all his wishes.