Blindfold Chess
Blindfold Chess
By BoboTheFlyingSheep67
Hi guys! I wrote this blog to thank you for 100 views on one of my blogs. I really appreciate the support you've shown and I hope you've enjoyed my blogs. Today, I will be writing about blindfold chess, so without further ado, lets begin!
Blindfold Chess
So what is blindfold chess, exactly? Blindfold chess (also known as sans voir) is a type of chess, in which the player is not allowed to see the pieces or touch them (hence "blindfold"). Because of this, players have to maintain a mental model of the position in their head. This "variant" of chess is extremely difficult, because 1) an inexperienced blindfold player is likely to forget the position and 2) It is harder to calculate in blindfold chess. To help you play better blindfold chess, we will be breaking blindfold chess down into two categories; visualization and memorization. In this blog, we will be covering some techniques as well as exercises for both of these components of blindfold chess.
Memorization
This is the more difficult aspect of blindfold chess, because you are likely to get lost in calculations and forget the position. Obviously, there are no "quick-tips" on how to improve your memory, and a large part of memorization is chess comes from practice. In this section, we will be talking about some techniques used by grandmasters, as well as some exercises to help you improve.
"Memory Palace"
Here is Wikipedia's definition of a memory palace (sometimes called Method of Loci)
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An imaginal technique known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. In this technique, the subject memorizes the layout of some building, or the arrangement of shops on a street, or any geographical entity which is composed of a number of discrete loci. When desiring to remember a set of items the subject 'walks' through these loci in their imagination and commits an item to each one by forming an image between the item and any feature of that locus. Retrieval of items is achieved by 'walking' through the loci, allowing the latter to activate the desired items. |
In the case of blindfold chess, this means translating chess moves into images and placing those images in mental rooms. For example, you could picture a certain character and then alter it based on the moves that are play. This is an extremely complicated way of memorizing the position and I do not recommend it to beginners, or even intermediate players. However, its a cool method that you could definitely try out.
Another way to do this is to create a story depending on what's going on at the board. This is a technique that Timur Gareyev, the world record holder for the most amount of blindfold games played , adopted during his 48 game blindfold simul. This helps improve your memory and gives something your brain to latch onto if you get lost in calculations.
Staying Calm
Believe it or not, this actually helps you to hold the position in your head better. Timur Gareyev said that the key was to reach a relaxed but focused mental state and then let his brain try to calculate and stuff. Because of this, Gareyev pedaled a bike throughout the simul. He said, "“You want to catch the rhythm where there’s a flow and you don’t get stuck. You just keep going. It’s the same sensation I have when I start spinning the pedals.”
Timur Gareyev, pedalling a bike during the blindfold exhibition
Exercises
1) Replay entire games from memory
Select a game from the database and play it a few times on your board looking at the moves. Then, practice doing maybe 2,3 moves at a time from memory, and then 4, then 5 (etc.). Keep doing this until you can play the entire game from memory. Then, play it several more times until you think you have got it. Once you are done, select a new game! (NOTE - This is also a great technique to help you memorize openings and all the other variations)
Visualization
This is also a hard aspect of blindfold chess and will take quite a bit of time for you to get used to. This is because most of us are used to being able to look at the position right in front of us. In blindfold chess, this is not the case and you have to visualize the position in your head AND play out the moves in your head. Here are a few exercises to help you with your visualization
- Which square is which colour?
Get someone to call out a random square on the chessboard and you have to figure out what colour it is. The person reading out the squares should gradually increase the speed at which (s)he names the squares.
- Visualization chess problems
This exercise involves a series of chess diagrams which have moves leading up to a position in which you have to find a tactic. For example -
- Watch this quick video by Daniel Rensch for more exercises and tips for visualization
Ok, that's it! Thanks so much for reading my blogs and I really appreciate all the support you have been giving me. Over and out!
