3 Exercises That Will Improve Your Chess Concentration Ability

Exercise 1: Follow the Clock

The ability to fully concentrate on the position is something that all chess Grandmasters possess. Without this very important skill, it is nearly impossible to calculate many moves ahead and to come up with the best move in a complex position after hours of chess. Some chess players have inherent concentration ability, while most others need to work hard to develop this important skill.

Here is the first, and a very effective exercise that will help you to learn how to fully concentrate on the subject of interest. Follow the seconds hand on an analog clock with your eyes; don’t let any thought enter your mind. Think only about that seconds hand. The goal of the exercise is to be able to do keep concentration for 2-3 minutes. If any random thought enters your mind during that time, restart the timer. Repeat every day for at least one week.

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Exercise 2: Tic-Tac-Toe

Have you ever wondered how this simple game can help your chess? In fact, it can greatly enhance some of the very vital skills needed for high-level chess. For this exercise two chess players play blindfolded Tic-Tac-Toe visualizing the board. The third person acts as a referee, recording all moves on a piece of paper. Not only this exercise helps to build concentration skills, but it also improves your general visualization, something that many chess players are severely lacking.

Tip: you can use something similar to algebraic notation to call the moves. After a 3×3 board game becomes too simple, you can repeat with 4×4 and 5×5.

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Exercise 3: Walk The King

This is another blindfold chess variant. The king is positioned in the center of the board. Two players need to visualize the position of the king and “walk” him switching turns. The king in this exercise can only move horizontally or vertically (left, right, up, down). Diagonal moves are illegal. The third person acts as a referee, recording the moves. The objective is to keep the king in the board boundaries. Player who drives the king from the board loses. This exercise also improved one’s concentration ability as well as works on visualization skills.

When that becomes too simple you can add few pawns on the board. The pawns cannot not be captures and the king cannot step on squares already occupied by the pawns.

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