Hocus pocus focus, one of those three is the key to it.
Very interesting, does your opponent get to know the move that you played or do they have to wing it? If they know (which I assume they do) its a pretty interesting way to play chess. It does seem a little silly, just adding a limitation that you must overcome. But, it does sound fun.
Wow, a lot of text, but I read it.
You seem to pop in from the 1800s my friend, back when this was considered superhuman :). More than a few thousand can play blindfold. The amazing thing is the few who have played blindfold simuls, although even strong GMs can lose track of a single game if they're trying to play their best and lose the current position after exploring many variations.
I wish you luck! I think you'll be pleasently surprised how much progress you can make if you keep at it. I definitely think you'll be able to play a whole game eventually if you keep practicing.
Interesting post. I've read that most titled players became proficient blindfold players after playing 100s of slow + serious chess games. Some of them even say it was a pleasant side-effect and that they "didn't" really set that goal in mind.
Good luck to you, and I've tried this blindfolded chess before too... but I kinda had to. I was in a chess tournement at my school and for the final round our sponsor had a special condition in mind... blindfolds. lol I was doing pretty good... I mean the other guy blundered into giving me his queen and then suddenly things started going badly... turns out our sponsor let him take his fold off without telling me until the end... I got a rematch though. :)
I read this thread because I'm trying to learn how to visualize the consequences of possible moves. I'm an old guy and I've only played chess sporadically during my life. So now I can only see a couple, maybe three, moves forward usually, and even then I'm only sure when I'm forcing my opponent to move to avoid check, or out of check. Any suggestions? Seems like this skill would be the key to chess success.
I wanted to revive this thread because I was trying to play a game of blindfold the other day... and failed. :-(
I managed to survive to move 20 by keeping the position closed and exchanging queens, but I couldn't visualize anything after that point and hung my pieces. Is there a suggestion of how to be able to finish a blindfold game? Or do I simply need to be better at chess in general to be able to play blindfold?
no blindfold experts around?
I'm intrigued by blindfold chess as well, but there are a few issues.
Like say how would you play a game online if you can't move the mouse? Trouble is that you basically need at least one person to help you by calling out the moves.
I think I would like to start trying to play blindfold by being able to see just the move lists, so I could refer back to the moves and play the games back in my head. Then after try it without the move list and see if I could keep track of the board positions Comments?
But the story that confounded me the most was this: two Central Asian horsemen riding side by side playing chess by calling chess moves to each other without using a board or pieces.
One more thing: It is a special property of chess that the number of pieces generally decrease as a game progresses. Blindfold masters stress that the burden on their memories decreases as a result quite proportionally . As far as I know, there haven't been mentions of people playing Go blindfold since this game is the very opposite of chess in this respect. So, playing Go blindfold would be the ultimate challenge of the human mind, in terms of memory.
I'm intrigued by blindfold chess as well, but there are a few issues.
Like say how would you play a game online if you can't move the mouse? Trouble is that you basically need at least one person to help you by calling out the moves.
I think I would like to start trying to play blindfold by being able to see just the move lists, so I could refer back to the moves and play the games back in my head. Then after try it without the move list and see if I could keep track of the board positions Comments?
You can play blindfold on ICC by typing "set style 9" and closing the board window. You will see a list of the last 3 moves and can enter your moves with the keyboard. Also see "help blindfold".
I'm intrigued by blindfold chess as well, but there are a few issues.
Like say how would you play a game online if you can't move the mouse? Trouble is that you basically need at least one person to help you by calling out the moves.
I think I would like to start trying to play blindfold by being able to see just the move lists, so I could refer back to the moves and play the games back in my head. Then after try it without the move list and see if I could keep track of the board positions Comments?
You can play blindfold on ICC by typing "set style 9" and closing the board window. You will see a list of the last 3 moves and can enter your moves with the keyboard. Also see "help blindfold".
Wow, k, very interesting that ICC does that! I guess that's why they are the 'serious chess site'! 
I was quite intrigued at the thought of blindfold chess. I was viewing YouTube videos about chess, and something caught my eye: Blind Fold chess. I was watching GM's playing chess with a blind fold on! It was incredble! For the first time in my life, I was watching people play chess without looking at the board.
I was stunned. I never knew people even had this psy-sptial ability to play chess without a board.
I went even deeper, looking into Wikipedia about blindfold chess, reading blogs about people playing blindfold chess, and even read a story about 2 high school students playing chess in their textbooks by writing down annotations.
But the story that confounded me the most was this: two Central Asian horsemen riding side by side playing chess by calling chess moves to each other without using a board or pieces.
I was blown away. I have never heard of such an extraordinary superhuman ability. However, according to statistics, there are some in this world who have been able to play blindfold chess successfully. Not many, but about a couple thousand people in this world are able to do it.
I decided to wonder: can someone like me perform this near-superficial task? There are many blogs and videos on the web that explain the "proper" way to train yourself for blindfold chess. But I personally believe that everyone learns different, so I steered clear of that trench of tips and tricks. I concluded that there are too many ways people can start learning blindfold chess, so having a mentor of any sort would be a waste. Some people could practice first by visualizing all the pieces on the board first, starting on one file at a time. Some begin right away, playing a game of blindfold chess as far as they can remember the positions. So learning from someone else is basically pointless.
I was actually very excited to play chess without looking at the board, so I quickly began a game, just to start things off. This is my first game I played, as far as I could get on my first try ever attempting to remember all the chess positions before I could forget even a single piece position.
I was very surprised I could actually remember so many positions and moves all the way down to near middle game. I was pleased, but the blogs on blindfold chess were right: it takes immense of mental power to go beyond a few moves. I don't want to sound like an idiot, but I actually fell asleep for 2 hours by accident after my blindfold chess expedition. My brain was fried. I could not believe I took an accidental nap from lack of brain power. I never take naps ^^
The way I decided to tackle this enormous challenge was to first familiarize myself with annotations and having the ability to instantly be able to distinguish if it was a light or dark square, and having a general knowledge of its location. I have barely crossed this step in my training, so I bet I wont be able to play an entire game of blindfold chess for a while. As I tried to distinguish squares, I also started trying to know the exact order of the first 8 letters of the alphabet, as I could see them on a chess board. I was having trouble with EFGH, but ABCD was easy. I literally recited EFGH for over an hour in a row, occasionally going EFGH-HGFE-EFGH-EF-EF-EF-GH-GH-GH, trying to visualize the pieces as I went along, also remembering which colored square they were placed. It took a while, but I nearly have them perfectly placed in my head. Just a little while longer til I can exact the placement of all the squares :]
I will update about once a month on my progress with blindfold chess. Perhaps by the end of the year, I can comfortably play an entire game without looking at the board. I can only imagine playing someone, but without me looking at the board. That would be the ultimate beauty of playing chess. Without a board, without pieces. Just pure verbal battle over a subconscious chess board. I can only imagine the look on the average persons face when I beat them in chess with my back turned ^^
Wish my luck on this immeasurable mission :D