Recently I have discovered that my "chess blindness" has started to lessen. I don't know the exact day or hour that it happened, but now when I play, I start to really "see" the game in its entirety and with a colder more powerful logic than ever before. Like Bobby Fischer, I just got good. Has this ever happened to you? Have you played for years and were just ok, then you studied, played some more, and then bam. Out of the blue, you get it? You get the essence of the game, the whys and wherefores of certain strategies, the way to exchange properly, the correct times to sacrifice and everything else that theory has to offer. It really is an amazing transition and I think it can only happen to players who are dedicated to improving. In short, I have received my chess epiphany and I already see how much my game has improved. Stupid mistakes that I used to make have vanished, and now I feel more confident in playing higher-rated players. If you have a similar experience, please share it with us as I believe that shedding one's chess blindness is an important, and hopefully, common transition for serious players. 

Assuming there are any higher-rated players left to play.

It happens to me on a daily/weekly basis. Sometimes I can just "see" the moves, other times I can't.

I don't know why it happens, everything just starts to fall together. I am against the idea that "logic" really has anything to do with chess ability.... you can just either see the moves or you can't. It's like magic. You can have all the logic in the world but if you can't see the moves or potential moves then you still won't be able to play right.

I tellya, there's an incredible opportunity to use chess to do experiemens and studies on the brain. I have very little faith in these other "cognitive tests" being a reliable marker of brain activity.... but chess rating is really something that might.

We've all experienced the predictable drop-off in rating as we've gotten tired or errr... drank alcohol. In a way millions of people are doing this type of "experiment" themselves by using chess to check how well their brain is performing.

I found one thing, if my body is tried I might as well forget doing Tactics Trainer. However, since I began practicing with TT my game has improved.  Nothing outstanding, such as, a big jump in my preformance.  I am able to notice moves I could see before, and now I see them more qucikly, plus I see many I would have not noticed before.  

Another thing I have noticed about TT is that I often miss moves I would not miss during a game. I think maybe that is because doing a game I see those moves because of the flow of the game.

What say any of you?

Well, usually with chess puzzles it's the other way around. A 2400 player finds some amazing tactic that we wouldn't find in a million years if we were playing it against an actual opponent.... but when it's in a puzzle and we know for a fact that there's a crazy attack aloof... then after a minute or four it's usually not that hard.

I enjoy solving puzzles.  In fact, my first puzzle book was Winning Chess Tactics Illustrated by I. A. Horowitz. I faithfully did my best to solve each puzzle. I agree that some of those puzzles I will never see in a regular game, but they certainly helped me see the usual moves I would have not been able to see if I had not given my brain a workout doing those puzzles. It is a first addition, copyrighted in 1963. I cherish it as an old friend.  

Another thing, I did not solve those using a clock and some took me serveal days to do. I barely knew much of chess at all. Ha! Joining chess.com I am learning I still know barely anything about chess. I suppose it is like learning anything, the more you study the more you realize you know very little about any given subject.  But is so much fun!

Agree, I have a lot more to learn about this game and life. At times I see the move when playing higher rated players, and at times I don't see the move when playing lower rated players, and at times vise-versa. I think you just gotta be "in the zone", focused, and tuned in with everything, even outside the game. You gotta be open and as some say, "one with the universe", and just accept the knowledge and wisdom it brings.

Yeah something like that happened to me about a year ago. It felt completely natural to me.