When we learn to type, we are asked to start with a simple memorization of “home keys”. Then when we want to memorize other letters, e.g the letter “T” we only concentrate on moving our left index finger from “F”to “T”. I remember doing drills like this in typing class 100 times. We typed F-T-F-T-F-T... etc 100 times! So given this idea, i decided to create my own set of “home keys”, i.e. “home squares” to start my memorization from. The squares are f6 & c3. I chose these because they’re two dark squares, and I had the intuition that if I memorize FIRST, dark squares, I will implicitly be memorizing white squares as well!! So what I do is, start from f6 and memorize all adjacent (1 square away) dark squares!. f6-g7, f6-g5, f6-e7, f6-e5, then when this becomes super simple, I think branch out another set of squares from one of those leaf squares (e7, g7, g5, e5). So i would go from f6-e7 to d8, e.g. f6-e7-d8, then f6-g7-h8, then f6-g5-h4, f6-e5-d4, then start to zig-zag; e.g f6-e7-f8, f6-g7-f8, f6-g5-f4, etc. What i was really excited to realize was my brain naturally wanted to reach for the 3rd and 4th layer of squares away from f6!! So i would become akin to typing where, instead of memorizing 1 letters away from f, i started to gain an intuition about entire phonetical combinations! e.g. “ef”, “th”, “ing” etc. then from there, my brian naturally wants to move to typing entire words! “the”, “dog”, “jumps” “over” “the” “fence”, etc. This is what our brain is naturally wired to do, make layer upon layer of abstraction like a mental pacman eating up the dark colored squares on the board. I kid you not, i was able to memorize all dark squares in a single day using this method! What I did then, was go on to chess.com’s “Visualization” drill program, and i was blown away to realize, I automatically knew all the dark squares super easily, and because I knew them so well, if one of the queued letters of the drill was not a dark square, i knew it must then be a white square! So i was able to build an antithetical association in my mind about white squares, given i knew all the black squares, and Viola, we have a board really well established in our minds.
My next phase of evolving this plan, is to memorize with the board flipped in my mind (playing as black). I naturally started this process as playing white, but once I flipped the board in my mind, i came across some mental resistance in firing off the dark square as easily as I had playing white.
The next phase after the previous is to start envisioning every possible piece occupying those dark squares (then white squares), i find this to be extremely helpful!!! and helps us avoid building a crutch in our mind at visualizing squares as not being empty all the time, which is what I found myself initially doing at the beginning of my practice. This way, I can see in my head, how a piece, e.g. pawn, or bishop, etc can naturally move to some adjacent squares, and this helps guide my study visually to memorizing the next natural squares a piece can naturally move.
The last and final step here, was to memorize squares from one side to the opposite. Doing “laps” around the board, so to say, to really cement the idea of what squares MUST be traversed for a piece to travel. This was super helpful, and i found the most difficult piece to do this with was the knight, but if and when I can conquer the knights next possible square, I feel i’ll be forced to really clearly see the board.
The key to all of this, is to reach back for a “home square” whenever I start to get stuck, or can’t see the next adjacent square. Starting with f6 and c6 worked initially, but then I decided to move the home squares around randomly, c6, and f4, d7 and e2, etc. Then try and connect the route form those home squares by moving to 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 squares away from the home square.
Hopefully this helps!
I cant seem to get any better at visualizing the gameboard in my head over many years of play. I was amazed to hear that Hikaru looks away from the board to calculate better and it seems many other GMs do this too. I started chess chess pretty late, around 18-19, so maybe its something that cant be done without starting at a young age.
Yeah anyone can do it...get a display that runs engine. Then say you are visualizing and you are going to be a lot better. the winning results will be coming in fast.