Does anyone use memory palaces to improve at chess

I’m told chess at a high level is really a case of memory, and recognising similar patterns.

when I was a teenager I learnt the memory palace techniques which made memorising decks of cards or numbers or any series of information a breeze, but am interested if anyone here applies this to chess positions and moves (if you don’t know what I’m talking about and want to learn I recommend the book moonwalking with einstein which is a bit long winded but a good introduction)

if so and there is a way you could race through learning them and improve very rapidly surely but adapting the technique doesn’t seem straightforward.

nope never

although timur gareyev said he uses it for blindfold simuls

so that's a thing

That does not sound like the sort of memory task that has much use in chess.

Which is why I’m asking whether anyone has experience adapting it.  I’m sure I could after much thought come up with a way that helps somewhat

Cool, I can see how that would work well 

I would image memory and being able to recall positions would be very helpful (and even more so knowing how to play them). But whether there is any technique that could help with that, I don't know. I think GMs just have an innate ability to visualize positions. Good luck, either way.

I don't consciously put chess tactics in pigeonholes, though I like Professor Higbee's Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It (1996) better than Walking With Einstein which I think wastes a lot of time focusing on things the guy did rather than the techniques.

I do recognize certain relationships among tactics. For example, the Dove Tail Mate is simply a diagonal version of the Swallow's Tail Mate and there are similar principles among the Pin, the X-ray Attack, and the Skewer.

Personally, I look at these two webpages and re-memorize the tactics I've forgotten in addition to working chess puzzles and making sure I understand which tactics were used and why I didn't see some of them:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

Finally, I like to look through books like Martin Weteschnik, Chess Tactics from Scratch, which not only gives examples, but principles behind how to create pins - even pins of pieces in front of empty but important squares, discovered attacks, etc. Plenty of diagrams so you can follow in book alone without a board.

Thank you.

photographic memory is a myth, everyone either learns through repetition (which takes hard work and focus) or turning the information to something logical or memorable.  Innate ability perhaps plays a part but it’s mainly mindset and I’m a lazy bum looking for a shortcut.

I have a memory book and there is a chapter on how to remember chess games it uses the journey method, each square on the chessboard is a famous person and all the pieces are famous people too except pawns who have no character.

so an average game is about 40 moves long so you would need a journey of 80 places.

It is a method for people who don't play chess though because a chess player could memorise a game of 40 moves without being so elaborate