How can top level chess players play blind folded

How can top level chess players play blindfolded I am curious because I just watched a video of GM Magnus Carlson playing 10 chess players blindfolded and crushing them literally winning all of the games !!

Also I saw 2 grandmasters playing chess but without a board ??

How !?

superpowers bro XD

If you invested tens of thousands of hours into chess, doing it without a board, or blindfolded, is something you can just do. Its not a challenge as such.

As a kid I also tried it for fun with another guy, and I'm not remotely master level. We made one error though.

The world record is much more than 10.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindfold_chess

Oh my god

these People are superhumans

You can practice playing blindfold against the bots on here. In the settings option you can change your pieces to "Blindfold" pieces. The more you practice with it, the better you'll get at it.

But yes I agree, it's very impressive. I certainly can't do it - not to the level that top players can.

If you want to be even more impressed: here's Magnus and Ian. They have just finished playing a game - and now Ian apparently mentions a position from several games earlier. He doesn't describe the position or mention what point of which game it was ... he just mentions a move or two and expects Magnus to know what he means.

Magnus takes a moment to remember what game and position Ian is talking about. Then they play out several continuations in their heads.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyTf3o0tQc8)

Mind-boggling.

It isn't that hard. You just need to remember in the most complicated positions.

But it was 10 boards and it was timed btw the world record is 48 people vs 1

Yes I agree it truly is Mind boggling

this is how all the GM doing their speed runs, they just have remembered many winning postions by just playing chess for decades every day, this is what people have been saying for years, it is very reliant on memorization, also in those blindfolded games they go for very much forced lines from the opneing, there is no superhuman skill behind it, just simple patter and position memorization

You are wrong in this. The chance of playing the same game again is astronomically small (although is happens, very rarely). Memorizing positions would be pointless, as there are much more possible chess positions than you think. Even a billion positions is just a raindrop in the ocean.

Even in blindfold simuls very-very few games are decided in the opening. Almost all of them are decided in the middle game where every position is new and unknown.

Remembering where all the pieces are in blindfold chess, isn't as difficult as it seems, because chess positions, at least those reached in actual games, have a certain rational structure, which makes them easier to remember. It's the same reason why it's easier to remember a sentence, than a random sequence of letters that's just as long.

Learning to play chess is like learning a second language, except instead learning vocabulary, you learn patterns, and instead of studying grammar, you study strategy. And consequently, by learning the inner structure of a position, it becomes easier to understand and remember.