good blindfold chess playing skills.

Hello everybody,

i am trying to improve my chess (as anybody on this site i think...).

And as anybody else i am asking me HOW it is possible to improve in chess.

Here some of my thoughts:

• making tactical puzzles is not bad and usefull for pattern recognition and so it is good for improving and for learning to calculate better. But MAYBE the utility is only limited. I think that there exist a point where making more tactical puzzles could be of very little utility and so become only a waste of time
• learning general strategic concepts is useful, but only if you are able to "implement" them on the board. Implementing a generic strategic concept learned reading books is very hard because there is one board and so many concepts and imbalances for a given position. And you have to be aware of tactical tricks and of the resources and the POSSIBLE plans and future threads of the opponent. 
• in chess there are not general assertions that are always true and univerally valid (except the rules of the game and forced combinations) and chess is not a logical deductive science in the same way of mathematics or physics. Positional "feeling" is something that you cannot describe in clear words.
• i think the most important fact is beeing able to see the potential maneuvers of the opponent and moving the pieces so that this potential (!) maneuvers can be neutralized while achiving some sort of advantage: more controlled squares and active pieces or the possibility of a tactical stroke. You have to figure out what the opponent will do and how to prevent this while achiving an edge. And you have to see all the board and all the possible future dynamics and the "hidden" tactics that will arise.
• while you achive positional dominance you achive a greater PROBABILITY of beeing able to win (material) throug tactics, for example with a double attack (more controlled squares => esaier possibility of beeing able to make a double attack an win material). But don't forget that the opponent could maybe mate you on the other side of the board, so always look for the opponent tactics (and positional possibilities) very deeply.

Analyzing games and reading chess books or doing chess mentor lessons are all thinks that can be helpful to some extent, but i think all this ALONE is absolutely not sufficient to become a good player (but you build some kind of pattern recognition ability and positional "feeling" that is of course important).

But i think the most important think is learn to easily SEE things happen on the board: you have to see in advance the position in the future and beeing able to judge this position mentally, going through variants.

In principle like a computer engine but with the human intuition and pattern recognition ability, so that of course a human do not need to calculate thousand and thousands of possibilities but only (!) the "important" one in accordance to intuition. This "few" possibilities are quite a lot !

You have to figure out what happens if the opponent defends some point while advancing whit the pawns in the center OR if he decides to sacrifice the excange OR if he sets up pressure in some point. You have to figure out if your attack CAN be stopped and vice versa if you can neutralize the opponents possible threads. What is an active position and how to judge it ?

Only some kind of "seeing in the future throughout the possibilities and the variations" can make a good play possible: can make possible a sound positional judgment and a correct calculation of tactics...

AND I THINK THE ONLY WAY TO DO THIS IS LEARN TO PLAY GOOD (!) BLINDFOLD CHESS, SEEING EASLY THE BOARD WHIT THE MINDS EYE and stepping in the variants three whith ease (forward and back) so like a computer engine but of course with minor extend and more "human intuition" judgement and instinctive pattern recognitions (this compensates the brute force calculation of the computer).

And it is necessary to develop the ability of checking things on an automated basis in the mind (blind): are all figures protected, could some defender be eliminated or is a (double) attack possible, are there checks or pins that could lead to a desaster or to victory, where could the enemy penetrate and become annoying, etc. etc.

Do you agree ?

AND HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLAY GOOD BLINDFOLD CHESS ?

WHAT SHOULD A CHESS PLAYER DO TO DEVELOPE GOOD BLINDFOLD SKILLS ?

thanks to all.