You will improve, and will be able to follow variations in your head for longer as you get more experience, but for now, you should use a board. It doesn't have to be a physical board -- a smartphone app is OK.
The Amateurs Mind is an ambitious place to start for 1000 Elo. I wouldn't try to dissuade you, but I own that book myself and I feel like it's above my level.
The best books, in my opinion, are the books you can study without board. They show a certain position and ask you or tell you what to do. Ben je Nederlands-talig / are you Dutch speaking ?
The book " U bent aan zet " by Theo Schuster and the 3 books by Euwe, about Amateur en Meester are of great help. Also "das 1 x 1 des Endspiels" is good. See www.schaakboek.nl for these books !
I use a physical board. I will read and let my mind go until I can't see the position clearly - then I move the pieces to make it clear. It has helped with visualization. One book I kindly suggest is Chernev's "Logical Chess Move by Move". It goes through games and explains the purpose of each move. It really opened my eyes.
Use a physical board : it helps the learning process.
I use a physical board, or go through the games on a computer screen. I also spend some time with just the book, visualizing the variations in my head. When I'm in a tournament looking at a vinyl board and wooden pieces, I need to be able to visualize the position a few moves hence, and so I practice that while reading chess books.
Recently, I've been going through the games in a book prior to to looking at the annotations in the book.
My training log describes the practice: http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/06/training-log-june-2013.html
I tried using a psychic board, but it seemed to work better for them.
If you have an Android device you can try my app called "Chesster - the interactive reader". It is a good way to read chess books without the need of a physical board, because Chesster detects the moves and shows them in a board. You can try a free version in Google Play at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bento.chessterlite
Using a board has his pros and cons. For the more beginners I suggest to use a chessboard. For experts I suggest that they read without chessboard, since it trains you to visualize and therefore calculate better and deeper.
If you have an Android device you can try my app called "Chesster - the interactive reader". It is a good way to read chess books without the need of a physical board, because Chesster detects the moves and shows them in a board. You can try a free version in Google Play at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bento.chessterlite
That app looks useful for Android users. For iOS devices, New In Chess is making some of their books available with a reader developed by e+Chess Books. The e+Chess Book app by itself comes with a copy of J.R. Capablanca, Chess Fundamentals (a book that every chess player should read). Everyman also has an iOS ebook reader for their books.
Reading Capablanca on my phone:
I suspect this market will grow rapidly over the next few years, and soon all mobile devices will provide access to a growing number of books with an chessboard embedded in the reader.
You should do what you can manage. If you can learn more from a position by getting the board and looking close, do that after you are done calculating.
I am in the same boat. When I am looking at a game I can just about follow a (fairly forcing) line that goes 10 moves deep. But then there is a sideline and another sideline, so I end up with 30 moves in my head or so. If there are even more possibilities I just can't take anymore and I have to get a backup board.
Reading this text (William Lewis, Elements of the Game of Chess [London 1822]) on one mobile device, I found it helpful to use the Stockfish app on a second device to play through the moves.
Anyone know how to set-up Fritz so I can move both the black and white pieces WHEN I WANT TO? I am trying to use it in place of a chessboard, but it wants me to move the white pieces first.
Hi chess.com
I am an absolute chess beginner (probably around 1000 ELO).
I have read a chess.com topic advising 14 chess books that are suitable for my level. I have acquired "The Amateur's mind" by Silman wich I find very entertaining.
This books is all about giving you a chess board in a specific position, then following the thought of beginners, who play an explain their moves. These moves, and the comments provided by the beginners are commented by the author. This is great because the beginners are sometimles following my exact thought, and the author just points the errors and mistakes they make.
The only "problem" that I have is that the book displays the initial position in a diagram, then provides the moves in chess notation. I am able to follow and understand the chess notation, but after a few moves (typically 3), I have a very hard time visualizing the board, and I spend a lot of energy trying to link the comments to the actual position.
I guess I am not the only one in this situation (or am I ??), so my question is : "Should I read the book with a physical board next to me, and play the moves on the board, to have a perfect vision at all time, and concentrate on the comments/analysis to get the most out of the book" or "Should I try harder visualizing the board in my head because on the long run, it trains my brain to have a better memorization/visualization of chess boards, and this is very beneficial"
What is your opinion on that matter ?