Blindfolded and Unbeatable: Meet Maryland Football’s Chess Expert
The Maryland specialist has dedicated years to competitive chess, played more than 7,000 online games and developed a remarkable ability to beat his teammates without seeing the board.
Brady Ruth, Staff Writer
9/23/2026
When you sit across from Philip Noyes and a chessboard sits between you, the outcome has already been decided.
The only remaining question is whether he’ll choose to beat you blindfolded or not.
He doesn’t just have an edge against every opponent he faces. He has years of tactical training backing every calculated move he makes.
This isn’t meant to sound arrogant, but I’ve dedicated years of my life to playing chess, so against people who don’t take it very seriously, it’s really not a fair match. It’s not competitive for either person, so I wanted to find a way to level the playing field.Philip Noyes
What he found was as brilliant as it is ludicrous.
Noyes plays — and beats — his Maryland teammates completely blindfolded. Years of dedication to a game he loved long before football have created an unbelievable party trick for one of the Terps’ specialists.
Noyes’ connection to the game began halfway around the world. His mother, a Russian native, frequently took him to visit family, where his grandfather introduced him to the game that would soon become a fixture in his life. At just 3 years old, Noyes was already captivated, soaking in lessons from his grandfather and discovering a game that would stay with him long after those family trips ended.
Summer camps gave way to chess camps, and Noyes had the backing of professional coaches, but his interest in the game truly peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. His stepfather introduced him to Chess.com, where Noyes could play multiple games at once, whenever he wanted, against people all over the world.
Chess quickly became more than a habit.
I literally could not put my phone down. I had to set screen-time limits on my phone in high school because I was literally playing chess between classes, trying to get a few games in. I probably played nonstop online for about nine months.Philip Noyes
Since creating his account in 2021, Noyes has played more than 7,000 online games of chess, breaking down to roughly 115 per month — an average of four games per day.
Before he knew it, he was traveling up and down the East Coast for tournaments, sometimes juggling multiple games at once. The results were mixed — a $400 prize at one tournament helped ease the sting of getting “whopped” by three-year-olds at the Baltimore Open — but the wins and losses were only part of what kept pulling Noyes back. He was beginning to discover what he loved most about the game: No matter how much he learned, there was always something new to figure out.
When Noyes joined the Maryland football team, he quickly established himself as the locker room’s resident chess player. During downtime, the board and pieces would come out, and Noyes would find himself racking up win after win against his teammates. But the victories soon became routine.
That’s when the blindfold came out.
“We were just kind of messing around, but I ended up winning that first game playing blindfolded,” Noyes said. “I didn’t even think I’d be able to finish the whole game, but I did, which is just crazy.”
By calling out his desired moves to long snapper Luke O’Hare, who’d relay his opponent’s actions back to him, Noyes was able to visualize the board in front of him without actually seeing it. It reignited his passion for chess, and a new form of dominance emerged.
“To be completely honest, playing blindfolded chess sounds really cool to someone who doesn’t play chess much,” Noyes said. “But to people who really play chess and take it seriously, it’s not that difficult. It’s still a cool party trick and something cool that came from years of playing competitive chess.”
It’d be easy to think losing a game of strategy to a blindfolded man would be infuriating, but Noyes has learned that his party trick evokes a much different response.
“What I’ve noticed is that people are more like, ‘What the ****? There’s no way that’s actually happening,’” Noyes said. “Most people don’t take it very personally, but if I were to beat someone who takes it seriously while blindfolded, I think they’d get pretty upset. But also, if I tried it against a national player, they would win almost every single time.”
Between the blindfolded games and Chess.com’s balanced odds — which will remove pieces from a stronger player before a game even begins — Noyes’ record is no longer unblemished. His online ranking still hovers around the 1970 mark, however, which puts him in the top 1% of players nationwide.
“I like playing so much because it’s really fun and intellectually stimulating,” Noyes said. “There’s no luck involved, so it’s pure superiority if you beat somebody. Being a football player, I love things like that.”
Football may dictate Noyes’ schedule, but it hasn’t pushed chess to the back burner. During the season, he’ll find time for a game on flights, bus rides and whatever downtime he can carve out. His priorities are on the football field, but when it comes to the hours spent watching film versus studying chess over the course of his life, there’s little debate about where more time has gone.
“100% studying chess,” Noyes said. “As a specialist, we have less film because we really mostly look at ourselves. But on top of that, I’ve been playing chess way longer than I’ve been playing football.”
The economics major jumps at every opportunity to find intellectual stimulation. A frequent trivia attendee and online quiz connoisseur, Noyes disputes the notion that football players can’t be brainiacs off the field.
I try my hardest to be as well-rounded as possible. I spend so much time here physically lifting, so when I’m not playing football, I make sure to do things that stimulate my brain. To be a Division I athlete, you have to be smart. We have to be able to analyze how we can succeed in every situation and environment. It’s really hard to be stupid and succeed at this level.Philip Noyes
Chess has followed Noyes from halfway around the world to the locker room in College Park. The gridiron may be where Noyes competes for Maryland, but the chessboard is where he continues to challenge himself.
After more than 7,000 games, Noyes is still learning the game. There will always be another move to make and another opponent to beat.
He just might not need to see them to do it.
