Chess Sight

It seems to me that how you perceive the board is an extremely important aspect of the game. You could be a great player, but without being able to imagine moves ahead there's not that much that can be done. 

I have played chess on an actual board a few times a while ago, and I was pretty fine with it. But I recently took up chess again, but this time on the computer. For me the Chess.com board is really nice, and I could really see the game using this board. Today, I played with my younger cousin who had a board, and I realized how much I couldn't really see with the actual board. It was as though I was playing on a completely different battlefield. 

Another thing is, on online chess, there is an analysis board. This allows me to see the actual move combinations which makes it very easy. Otherwise, it's really hard for me to see out variations, especially longer ones. 

I don't know if I'm ever going to play in tournaments or on the board a lot more, but I feel like it's something I want to be able to do, if I'm playing chess. 

So how can I improve seeing an actual board, but more importantly imagining the pieces and being able to foretell various future moves and variations in my head? I think for one, I should try to stop using the analysis board on the Online chess. I would think something like blindfold chess would be sort of helpful (but this seems to be more on remembering the board, but also I don't got anyone to play that way with). 

The best way to get better at the visualization part of calculation is to practice it -- so yes, not using the analysis board anymore would be a good thing to do.  In my (limited) games on this site I've been analysing the board in my head as if it were a "real" OTB game and only after getting a very good feel or even deciding a move will I check it on the analysis board.  If there's some really complicated or long tactics I might pull it out sooner.

As for switching from 2d to a 3d board when you played your cousin, I think that's normal.  I also used to only play online, and when I tried to play on a board I had trouble, but after some practice you'll be able to do both without that handicap.  And if you switch and only did 3d boards after a while you'd have the same problem but reversed :)

The 'stepping stones' idea might prove helpful. Vizualize the position 2-3 moves ahead. Fix that position visually in your mind and see if you can take it another 1-2 moves further. With some practice I found it possible although I don't do it often enough.

The book "Forcing Chess Moves" is fantastic. I strongly suggest it if you want better board site/ calculation abilities.

I wonder if using the "3d" board on this site would mitigate the problem.

Boards on screen have always bugged me, I have the exact opposite problem.  All I can say is I'm used to playing it on an actual Chessboard. 

You might try setting out whatever game you're playing online on a real board to improve in this area.

orangehonda- That's a good idea. I would try to visualize the moves out first, then use the analysis board (I felt like giving that up all together would handicap me big time). As for 2D-3D transition, I don't know how often I can actually play with an actual board that much, but i feel like I want to be able to do it the once in a while I actually do. I can't really think of any solutions to this, besides playing more on the actual boards, but maybe there is one (hopefully).

chesteroz- I would try that. Taking one step at a time. But my problem is that I think I'm losing my short-term memory, even though I'm supposed to be near my prime. It seems to me like in this generation because of computers, calculators, and others you don't have to use your memory as often. Therefore I'm going to try to train it through chess, which I hope works well.

KnightShifter- I will look that book up. I usually don't like books because they aren't like a computer where you can see the moves go through step by step, but this shall be good practice ;). 

rookandladder- Does chess.com have a 3D board? I have played on other sites where there were 3D boards but I felt like the 3D boards is not really going to represent the actual board. But if anyone has felt like it really does, I should try that out. 

DMX21x1- That's a really good idea! I shall do that. Now I need a board :).