How to improve visualization?

Being able to accurately see the board in your mind is crucial to avoid blunders.

I have been trying to improve this skill by playing blindfolded games, but most of the time I can't even see the position clearly after 10 moves, and end up losing because I don't know where the pieces are.

Here is a game I lost as white after blundering my queen.

play otb

It's harder to find opponents, and traveling to tournaments is pretty costly :7

How are you with game memorization? When you memorise the moves you can shift the mental image of the pieces on the board in your mind. Also will help with faster recollection if you know the openings you are playing and can impose the subsequent moves on after the opening has been left. It is also like a mental work out to build that visualisation muscle.

Which time control did you play this game? 23 moves blindfolded is not bad IMO.

If you don’t want to memorize all of these opening traps that come out of the opening you play then you can try switching to openings where that isn’t an issue. Most queens pawn openings are good with that.

Trying to replay games in my head after they end is something I have been trying recently. I think it's great practice, but I find it really hard to do for shorter online games, since when you don't think about the moves as deeply they are much harder to remember afterwards

Just keep practicing with opening and game memorizing and replaying what you memorized. Build on that with each game in an opening you play.

Lucas Chess has some training features that may help you, such as:

• Check your memory on a chessboard
• Determining your calculating power

Hi

The brain sees what it knows. Keep learning and you will be able to see and calculate further, but keep in mind that even GM’s have a harder time visualizing random piece setups that don’t match the typical structures and positions throughout the history of chess (de Groot). I would imagine a lot of GM’s that can play blindfold could not do so when they first started or even years after they started.

The “brute force” method of trying to memorize the board itself (much like the Chessable” model) could be a helpful start, but since that method consists of memorizing out of the context of an actual game (much like spaced repetition training for openings), it is likely to be less time-efficient than continuing to play and learn (an 1800-level player will automatically have an easier time memorizing openings and the board than a total beginner, given equal memories).

Thanks for the suggestion, I gave it a try and the 'check your memory' feature was pretty interesting.

Do puzzles! there you always have to visualize the upcoming scenarios. And that is what you will have to do during your games. I always struggle to see the coming situations on the board in my mind and also see the actual situation with my eyes. It´s one of the greatest challenges for me. But I think the puzzles help a lot.

Totally agree, and I do a lot of them. To me the problem with puzzles though, is that you mainly focus on a few key ideas and calculate them far, while ignoring everything else.

In terms of improving your general board vision and awareness, I think there are better ways

Don´t think that was the question. It´s about visualisation, not about memorisation or recognisation.

which?

I cant play blindfolded

But on cc yes

@archaja

That's what I'm asking for

Probably your right. I've been playing a couple blindfolded games a day, and have seen slight improvement