Memorizing Coordinates

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know of a method or software that helps improve memorization/visualization of board coordinates? It's been something I struggle with every day as I read chess books and attempt to visualize the moves. I only end up getting confused. Obviously, the best way to master anything is to practice, but if there's a faster way I'm willing to try it.

Thanks :-)

yea or keep track of every move that is made (ex write it down).

after a while you get faster and in the end you'll be able to visualise it easily.

its going to take a little work though.

same prob here

the more you use coordinates, the better you can visualise them.
At a point all squares have meanings, f and c are the next to center pawns, de are center etc. g2 and b2 or g7 and b7 are for the bishop when fianchettoing.
and 4 and 5 are center lines 3 and 6 are in between.
try to give your squares personal meaning, and remembering will be easier, or so i think.

I highly recommend "Chess Eye" Chess Visualization Training software.

http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/

.... and CVT online is free at:

http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/o/

It's fun, it's free and CVT really teaches you how to visualize the board!

Play Battleship! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_(game)

We (our club) used to play without a board or pieces. I found that helped.

Just keep at it. It will come.

I agree, and would add that you should study and work both sides of the board.  If you work an opening or position from the White or Black side only, you may become completely lost if turning the board around and looking at the moves from the other side.

You may plan an opening in White and work with it - but you will surely see it used against you as Black at some point.  It would be a real waste to have to work hard to play 'your' opening from the other side and struggle through the moves as you try to orient yourself.

Perhaps you could purchase a board with the coordinates printed on it?

Wow, you all rule! Such awesome and extremely helpful advice.

Anonym, ChessEye is fantastic!

Thanks everyone!

Read "How to think like a grandmaster" without setting up a board and visualising everything. It's really difficult but its a pleasure to visualise really!

Excellent advice! Since starting this thread I've practiced doing what you say, except I played games against myself on paper. Sometimes purely in my head. I've found it to be easy to see where a piece moves in my mind, but what squares it attacks/protects/hangs are the difficult part for me.

I also came up with a clever way to remember what squares are what color. I'll try to explain without confusing you all:

Bishops

Don

Funny

Hats

These files all begin with light squares at rank 1. All light squares on those files are odd-numbered (I've never seen a real bishop wear black, so that's another way to remember the starting square color for the mnemonic). Keep this in mind as I continue...

If I say to you out-loud "c3, what color?" and you cannot remember purely from experience, here's the formula you can use to figure it out: The c file is not part of BDFH, so it must start with a dark square. Furthermore, you know that the light squares MUST be even-numbered, thus the odd squares are dark. So, through a quick process of deductive reasoning you can figure out the answer very quickly.

This might be a little too involved for some and there may even be a simpler way. It works for me though! :-)

where's a9?

and h 17?

Mnemonic* for remembering square color in algebraic notation ...

By converting file letters to numbers, i.e., a=1, b=2, c=3, etc., to h=8::::

--If  a square’s file letter corresponds an odd number and rank number of the square is also odd, then the square is black.

--If  a square’s file letter corresponds with even number and rank number of the square is also even, then the square is black.

But ...

--If a square’s file letter is "odd" and its rank number is even, then the square is white.

--If a square’s file letter is "even" and its rank number is odd, then the square is white

In other words ....

odd file+odd rank=black square & even file+even rank = black square (both odd or both even is always black)

odd file+even rank=white square & even file+odd rank = white square (an odd with an even is always white)

*Mnemonic -- a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something

Or, you could simply add the rank number and the file number. If the result is even, then the square is black. If the result is odd, then the square is white.

Thanks, I like this.

Try playing a game against an amateur without looking at the board. It's fun, and it helps your visualization IMO. What you do is, give them instructions on the coordinate system, then turn your back on the board. Call your moves out via algebraic notation and write them down in front of you; when your opponent calls his out, write them down. Now use this info to visualize the board and to make your moves.

The other thing to do to learn would be, associate pieces with coordinates. Like how Nf3 is almost always played early in the game, or if you like the King's Pawn openings, that's e4 e5. Fianchettos are pawn to b3, g3, b6, g6, and the Bishop goes to b2, g2, b7, g7. frodonbab's square-color idea is also useful for this if you want to associate each square with its color.

Sure enough, yes, that works too (simpler the better). Thanks for pointing that out.

The flash card approach never worked for me so I learned the square colors by inventing this crutch. It didn't take long before I could identify square color without thinking. The next step is learning the diagonals, and to which squares the knight can move to from any square.

The goal is to be able to see the board with the mind's eye -- to really "visualize" it (blindfold). Practicing holding a mental image of the board gradually is improving my "board vision" -- once I got into it, I began to see much better the whole board, open files, ranks and diagonals, and relationships between pieces in play.

As the mind's sight of the board becomes clearer, gradually begin visualizing the board with first one then two pieces. When you can visualize your mental board and move a piece or two with your mind, then gradually add more pieces.

Based on my own by no means extraordinary efforts, I think that with practice probably anyone can develop the  ability to play "blindfold" and read chess books without a board.

Bishops Don Funny Hats (thanks for sharing that, ACQ!) -- whatever it takes -- my odd-even trick is what it took for me to jump start my board vision -- not yet 20/20 by a longshot but so much better than it was.

Indeed: the goal for me is to be able to see the board in my mind - so as to be able to read books as quickly as possible, and to see where the pieces are after reading some sequence of written moves. That's always been very hard for me, because I had no training at all. When I was young, I could often win blindfolded, at least against bad players. But that wasn't based on any real ability in visualisation ... just on the fact that a bad player can be expected to make big mistakes early on, and that I knew the openings I played well enough for the first few moves.

I think it's good to have as many crutches as you can in trying to visualize the board. It helps to have more than one way to think about things. For simply knowing the colors of squares, I like to start with some piece, on a square I know (say Q on d1 :) ) and then move it to the target square. But that's slow, and thinking it out interferes with other pieces, if you're trying to remember a position.

The free CVT program you recommended is very good. I hope that drilling with it can still help me.

Excellent thread!

Here's an idea I have not tried yet.

Go to any database and filter out games under 10 or 12 moves. Group the games by opening if you want. Now play through a handful of games, maybe over the board at first. And then without the board. Chances are you will pick up even the first six or so moves pretty quickly without a board.

This question comes up a lot it seems. I thought I’d share my experience.

How do I memorize the chessboard coordinates?

This is what I did.

What you will need:

Chessboard - This can be printed out on paper, or actual board. No coordinates labelled on it.

I have a pocket set, and a little 7.5 x 7.5 board I use for on the go and at work.

Something light/dark to label every coordinate on. Example: Flash cards with the name of the coordinate on one side and the initials for LIGHT or DARK on the other.  Or use white card for light square coordinates and a color for dark squares.

You can use poker chips  white for light and color for dark.(permanent marker to mark them or tape paper on them.)

I printed out a chessboard with the proper colors, and coordinates labelled and then cut the squares out. So when done I have every square/tile with the coordinate on it and it’s color. (i.e. dark colored square with a1 on it, light colored square with b1 on it , etc) I did this on cardstock paper so they are somewhat thick. (they are about the size of scrabble tiles, but thin)

So when you’re done you should have card, chips, or tiles with every possible coordinate on it.

And it will match whether it’s light or dark on the board.

You will need a cup, bag, or box-

The reason is you will need to shuffle the cards, mix the chips, or mix the cut out squares of cardstock, so you can choose them randomly. You can store your labeled coordinate cards,chips/tiles in here.

THE PROCESS:

Place your blank paper board, real board, or travel board in front of you. I recommend a physical board that you can touch it. Be it paper, wood, mat, silicone, etc.

You will place your board in front of you. (White square in lower right hand corner.)

From White’s perspective your randomly choose a coordinate from your stack, bag, or cup.

For example say you chose c4:

Your will then find the coordinate, but counting over to the rank (Rank a, b, c)

Then count up the file (Rank 1,2, 3, 4) you should arrive at c4 and the color matches your card,chip,tile.  Touch the square once you identify it. EVERYTIME. Count over and up the rank out loud, to yourself.

You will repeat this for EVERY single one you randomly choose from your stack, bag, or box of coordinates.

Once you’ve chosen and used the drawn coordinate put it in a “used’ pile. Do not lay it on the board. The board is always blank. Do not put it back in with the unused ones.

When done, going through all the drawn coordinates, mix them up and  repeat process as needed until you become fluent and it’s quick to find them and go through your stack of tiles/chips/cards.

Once you know it from white’s perspective, repeat the whole process again, but doing it from black’s perspective.

Select a coordinate random, find it from black’s perspective, and then immediately find it from white’s perspective.

But you never turn the board around. Just make the adjustment in your mind. Reverse the perspective. For example : you draw A1. from black’s perspective it’s dark top right corner or board. Touch it.  Then from white’s perspective, it’s in the dark lower left hand corner of board.

Touch it.

Repeat untl you've drawn all coordinate cards/chips/tiles. Then repeat the whole process of mixing and draw from coordinates and naming them from black's perspective and then whites again. Repeat 

I got results pretty quickly from this process.

After doing this I started to know where the coordinates are without the aid of labels on the board from either perspective and the colors started to just come. I didn’t “get lost” when turning the board around to play black in real game. Your mileage may vary,

Adjust this system to your own way of learning.

The goal is for a blank board though.

I practice with this site: https://en.lichess.org/training/coordinate

I practice also with this mobile app that is like the above one but for mobile: http://goo.gl/QX1Ytx

I also started playing out games by reading printed out Chess Notation of great games.

(set up the board and read the notation and move the pieces on a real board) No computer help.

Notating games when you play them is another tool. Whether with a human or computer.

I hope this makes sense and helps.