Can you play blind?

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Gazmanus

When I was younger,  a friend of mine suggested we play a game. He played blind and whipped me comprehensively. He then proceeded to tell me everything he'd done wrong and tell me that he had been junior state champion in his home state. I didn't take up chess seriously for another 20 years. 

Bubatz

I played a blind game once, long ago. It was really exhausting, full of blunders and I never did it again. A year ago or so I tried to get my visualisation capabilities up to the point where I could play blind (not for the sake of playing blind, but of playing better OTB). I gave up somewhere along the line, but it had some benefits. I found that I can follow lines given in algebraic notation without diagrams much better than before.

Another interesting thing I noticed is that it's much much easier to play sort of "half-blind" with an empty chess board in front of me instead of "totally" blind.