Blindfolded chess

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Avatar of NMRhino
Around how long does it take to be able to play chess blindfolded.
Avatar of llama47

I don't know, but honestly this is one of the few things I think is a bit innate, because now and then you'll find a very low rated player who can do it, or a very high rated player who struggles.

I could struggle my way though a blindfold game when I was around 1600 OTB rating, and I still have to struggle my way through one now. I don't think my blindfold visualization has improved at all.

Although... maybe if someone practiced it they'd get better... I suppose that's true... but in that case it's not a question "at what rating will I be able to do it" it's more a matter of "how long will I have to practice?" Chess and blindfold visualization are related skills, but they're separate skills.

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So how long if you practiced it? I assume less than a year. One exercise you can do is get the moves of a game, and follow along in your head as far as you can. When you start to lose track, pause for a while, and memorize the position in your mind, then try to keep going. If you ever completely lose it, then you can put the moves on the board, study the board, and then continue the process from that move. Keep doing this until the end of the game.

At first you might lose track often, and have to use the board a lot, but doing this a few hours a day for a year, I imagine almost anyone could play a blindfold game after that.

Avatar of NMRhino

Google.com

Avatar of NMRhino
I used a website to practice it on google but havnt seen much improvement
Avatar of tygxc

Get better at regular chess first.
Calculating variations well is a first step to play blindfold.

Avatar of yetanotheraoc

My first blindfold game was against my brother when I was unrated, so I agree with llama47 that it is _somewhat_ innate. I also remember playing a mutual blindfold game against some guy on the wrestling team, we didn't consider the ability to play blindfold to be that unusual. Of course the games were wretched, but the moves were legal. Later when I was close to expert I used to play 30/30 "blindfold" games against ChessMaster 2100. You could hide the pieces and it would beep when it moved. Practicing like that did noticeably improve blindfold play. Against CM2100, I went from probably minus 600 Elo (so about 1400) to maybe minus 300 Elo over many months. So it is possible to practice and get better. Much later I did some blindfold exhibitions with clocks. The most I did was five games, which isn't many for an exhibition, but I wasn't trying to be Koltanowski. I think even at my best I was still minus 300 Elo.

Look around and you will find some computer software today that has blindfold mode (hides the pieces). Shredder GUI on Linux will do it, so will xboard, Scid, many others. In true blindfold chess, you cannot see the pieces AND you cannot see the board, but for practice games hiding the pieces is good enough.

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