Reading Chess Books Without A Board

Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you guys can read a chess book without a board? 

Or if any of you guys can visualize the whole board in your head? 

I am trying to start reading books without a board and I know being able to know the color squares and correspondent squares help you to become better at visualizing, but what I am wondering is; to those who can visualize the board very well, does that mean you can basically just read without a board? 

It's not that easy to just visualize board position. If arranging the pieces on physical chess board is troublesome for you. use Fritz on PC or Droidfish on tablets. Solving mate in 2 problems and puzzles is the basic in visualizing board position.

"... Slowly but surely, this or a similar type of digital/multimedia publication will doubtless come to occupy more and more of the chess publishing space. In terms of sheer convenience and efficiency, it's hard to argue with being able to see and play through the positions that you're reading about. ..." - IM John Watson (2014)

http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/john-watson-book-review-114-more-on-electronic-publishing

Magnus did it when he was little and many other people do it. I understand its nessesary for some stuff to go through OTB but a lot of times I don't feel like it when you go through many variations. 

It all depends on how motivated i am.  

try the everyman e reader, or gambit books e reader or forward chess e reader apps ..

Some books can be read without a board.  Future grandmaster Alex Fishbein once wrote in a local Colorado bulletin that he read Nimzovich's My System without a board, and at a relatively young age.  However, today's analytical tomes such as Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual would be difficult for the average or even above average player to go through just using visualization.  It also depends upon how many diagrams there are in a given book so you can go back to a starting point.

It's a good idea to practice board vision -- seeing what is in front of you -- visualization -- seeing the future position -- and calculation -- moving from board vision to visualization, in order to get better at chess.

As I've written in posts many times, it's also vital to learn checkmating and tactical patterns so they become second nature.  Regular practice is required, and that can be done with or without a board, but in either case they must be practiced without moving the pieces unless you're a rank beginner.

Unless you play correspondence chess exclusively, you have to learn to visualize future position and evaluate them accurately.  You can't do without such skills if you play open, tactical chess; actually, it's good for chess all around.

Very few books aside from puzzle books can be read without a board for mortals. 

Even if you can, unless you're a very strong player, you're likely missing out on analysis and variations by trying to do it all in your head. 

I'm still all for visualizing as much as you can in your head for the practice, but it should be verified on a board to make sure you're not miscalculating.

I don't have a single non puzzle chess book that can be realistically read without a board. 

You need a board unless you can remember all the positions in your head. What is the harm of using a board anyway...

I agree with this point wholeheartedly, but you get stronger if you practice calculating without moving the pieces and seeing the final position in your mind.  See Soltis' The Inner Game of Chess.

There's no harm, but visualization and evaluation of the resulting position is a vital part of the game.  If I'm relaxing with a games collection or collection of a single grandmaster's games, I play them out on a travel set.  If there are variations, I do them in my head; if they are very long and complicated, then I play them out on the same set or a second travel set.  That's where ChessBase comes in handy because the original position is just a click away.

Yeah this makes sense to me 

That's where a pgn file like Everyman chess is the best. I don't buy any other chess books - only Everyman chess downloads, where the text is embedded in the pgn/cbv file so no data entry or confusion looking back and forth.

Just saying, if you can visualize the board in your head, any given position and can see good lines and variations and tactics, you have some SERIOUS talent/ potential

I read a lot of game scores and visualize them in my head, but I'm limited to a few moves in familiar openings and the first few moves after a diagram. When I'm reading a chess book, I usually find the game in my database and play through it on the screen. Sometimes I use a physical chess board, which had been my norm until a few years ago.

The principal chess publication that I read on a regular basis is Chess Informant  which I get as book and CD. Everything in the book is on my computer. I use both. I write notes in the book, but mostly go through the articles on the screen.

Yeah I do the same thing, usually when I read about a book I go through them in my database. The only reason why I wish to visualize is when I'm going through opening books and it has a dreadful of variations and it just makes my head so tired going through all of em 

What is Chess Informant and what's special about it? What are some reason I should look into it? 

I wrote this post a few months ago. http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-new-informants.html

Before databases and the internet, Chess Informants were THE source for GM games. That time has passed, but Informant has reinvented itself. When it started in 1966, it came out twice per year. A few years ago, they increased it to three (fewer games in each issue), and now it comes out four times per year. The current issue is number 126.

When I started reading Informants in the 1990s, I discovered that the language-less code system for communicating chess ideas helped me to learn how to think about strategic principles in useful ways. The Informant codes highlight notions of compensation, initiative, bishop imbalances, and pawn structure, among other things. By reducing the number of ideas that can be communicated, the code system helped me reduce the noise in my head that leads to bad moves.

Dennis Monokroussos also has a nice review of the new format at http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2015/10/2/informant-125-another-winner.html

Sure it can be done using an online analysis board. However you really want a nice board to have best learning experience in my opinion. Speaking of nice boards, I still have to find whites king.

1000 Best of the Best by Chess Informant is one book that must be in your collection.