Telekinesis, Russians and Chess Pieces

The word telekinesis, the movement of objects by supernatural means, was first used by Russian pyschical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof. Twenty five years later, psychokinesis was added, referring to the movement of objects using the mind.

Is this why Russians have dominated chess for so many decades?  Do they have certain highly developed mental skills born from the Soviet school of chess that have yet to be fully explored in other countries?

O.K. There is my little attention getter.

Because of the one touch, one move rule, how do YOU mentally move pieces on the board without touching them in order to select a candidate move?

Try as I may, the pieces don’t move that well in my mind. I see either pieces sitting on top of each or pieces stuck on their original squares.  

Example: In the Ruy Lopez Exchange after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6, I wish to see 4.Bxc6 dxc6 as if it really happened, like when using the analysis board in turn-based chess. However, the bishop and knight are both stubborn, still sitting on b5 and c6 respectively.

I have an easier time of making each captured piece disappear if I close my eyes, thus making my calculations of exchanges more clear and concrete. I believe that this technique of closing one’s eyes is similar to blindfold chess, although I don’t know what blindfold chess players are seeing in their heads.  

So, what do you see when looking at the board or in your mind’s eye when doing such things as calculating exchanges or looking ahead four to five moves in a position?  

Do you have an easier time of looking ahead with your eyes wide open, or your eyes closed shut? Are there drills to strengthen this ability?

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I believe this skill is part of what is called visualization?  If so, I am terrible at it.  It’s far easier to physically move pieces around before selecting a move, especially when discovered attacks suddenly appear, but this is against the rules in every format but turn-based chess.

IM Denis Salinnikov

http://www.janmatthies.info/chess/cvt/im.htm

Q: “ Is it really true, that solving chess positions and problems only in your mind without
a board or diagram is a useful method of chess training ?”

 A: “Yes, I believe so.  First, you will increase your calculation ability and avoid missing ‘long moves’ such
as Qg1-a1-a8 in variations, very often a mistake of many chess players. In addition
you will ‘feel’ the geometry of the chess board much better (lines, diagonals etc.)
It becomes natural.”

Wouldn't it be great to have a crystal clear picture of a chess position 5, 6, 7, 8, 9...even 10 moves ahead, without physically moving a single chess piece.  Can anyone here do that!  

I made a interesting self discvery about this as well do you wanna hear what it was?

Well I will tell you anyway,sometimes when doing a combination in tactics trainer of say four moves I would get the first three moves right then miss the fourth and winning move...even though it was the easiest of the lot.

It started happening too often and I realised it was because I couldn't track the changing picture of the board in my mind.

So then I thought thats why all these great players could also play fantastic blindfold chess...and also that what they call calculation is really visualization..so far its strange that they 're no visualization resources online that are suitable for players like me though..

I find the idea of telekinesis to be rather moving. 

I wonder how many people believe in it.

Lets take a vote.

If you believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.

I googled chess - visualization - exercises - training - and found this site: http://www.chess-tactics-strategies.com/

The site has a few demos of the product, where you are told to visualize a series of moves AND find a winning move.

The exercise packages are progressive, going up to 8 move sequences.

It is challenging for me just to do the simple ones, so I may purchase the first sofware package for 10 dollars.

I started chess in my late 40's, and my ability to calculate/see variations in my head after two years is still extremely weak. Perhaps those who start young develop this skill over time without any conscious effort. Maybe it just happens after playing many games over many years.

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Our entry level option consists of levels 1 and 2. This option is a good choice for players wanting to try Visualwize at an incredible price point. Here is what you get:

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Recommendations for other training programs or better yet, just simple ideas on how to improve one's visualization without buying more software/books is most welcomed. Thank you.

I own Fritz 12, but I don't know if it has a visualization training component. I'll look into it.

The program can be set to mark squares in colors that denote safe (green), contested (yellow) and not safe (red), but that's not the same thing as looking ahead several moves and seeing the future position. 

If you can, try playing out a game in your mind.

Yes. Keep us posted. I'll download the program as well.

Fritz 12 does not have this training component, and I have yet to find anything similar to Visualwize on the internet. I find this surprising, since visualization is needed to calculate move sequences accurately. 

IM Daniel Rensch performs mental calculations out loud and really fast for his listeners during Live Sessions, with many variations going on past four moves. That would be a nice skill to own.

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Side note: Fritz 12 has something called Attack Training, where the goal is to click on every piece that is under attack, and once every piece is clicked on, the screen goes to a new position. This does train another aspect of board visualization - looking for all possible captures (good and bad), forcing one to see the entire board, but it doesn't train the mind to see 2-4-6-8 moves ahead in a position.

I will google visualization as well they must be something free on the net

I know rybka 2 that comes with the tarasch interface and is free to download has a visualization trainer where you make a move and then the peices on the board disappear until you make your next move then they all reappear for a second so you get to glimpse the board for just a moment but the pieces disappear in between moves.

But its a bit difficult for someone starting out...

Where's Reb?!  I'll have to act as his surrogate, I guess:

HOGWASH!

Thanks for the helping hand Nathan !  

This is good advice. It's a tall order, but you can get there in steps by learning and playing through a classic game, I found it useful:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/training-hacks

Theres something called cvt online http://chesseye.alexander-fleischer.de/o/?PHPSESSID=00tak3n6fm5edcdbco4vop0i43 you have to make a account but its free!

I found that site as well, and exercise number ten is very hard!

Visualwize is perfect for me right now. The program works great, and is cheap!

http://www.chess-tactics-strategies.com/