What Do You See When...

...you say to yourself, "pawn to a6, Bishop takes Knight, pawn takes Knight, Castles, Bishop to g4, pawn to h3, pawn to h5, pawn to d3, Queen to f6, Knight b to d2."

This is one of the many continuations in the Ruy Lopez: Exchange after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5.

What can you see in your head without moving the pieces physically? Can you describe it in words?

I started thinking about this when IM Daniel Rensch was engaged in a Live Session and talking outloud for teaching purposes, with him going on for many, many moves ahead, with three or four different continuations before selecting a move. Dang! It's like what a chess engine can do!

Daniel, what do you see in your head? How clear are these future chess positions? Do you see in color? Light squares do need to be seen as light, and dark squares as dark, I would guess.

Yesterday, I heard NM Dan Heisman do the same thing in a video lesson over at ICC when he played against a computer, to give us an idea of how he thinks during a game. He's looking way, way ahead and seeing that, for example, after a long series of captures and moves, he will have a better endgame because of his pawn majority on the kingside.

What can Dan see in his head to know that he will have more pawns on one side of the board than his computer opponent?

In Turn-Based chess, I will use the analysis board to find out what my position will look like after a series of moves. I can't see these future positions in my head when they go past one or two moves for each side. And even for these one to two movers, even though I try to move pieces in my head, the position before me still looks the same.

Example: In the Ruy Lopez Exchange, I know that the bishop and knight get traded, but I still see those stupid pieces unmoved on the board when I play a chess game. I can't make them disappear in my head, at least while I am looking at the board.

I try to do this with my eyes looking away from the board, or with my eyes closed, but the picture is not as clear as the real thing, and I definitely can't paint a clear picture in my mind of the position in the Ruy Lopez after 8.Nbd2!

I can see my fingers moving over the guitar strings in my head, but that is after 45 years of guitar playing. And these guitar pictures are nowhere near as complex as chess positions than span 64 squares! Guitar chord diagrams are nowhere near that big.

Enough typing for now...good grief. So, what do you see...and please do not say that you see waffles, because that is a piece of pie!

What did Miguel Najdorf when he played 40 games at the same time (or whatever it was)?  Honestly, I'm not quite sure why you're getting all mystical or whatever about this...I mean, what does anybody do when they're looking ahead in a position?  Of course there are people who are a lot better at it than others--but it's what everybody does (or tries to).  You probably see a little board, with pieces (diagrams or actual wood and plastic) moving around, and you hope you don't screw it up too drastically (at least, not any worse than your opponent's gonna do).

And that whatever-the-heck-it-is was very cruel, Mr. Heflin, because I'm still on a diet all through this week...

Oh my. Terribly sorry about that. Here we go. How about some asparagus soup?

Back to "What Do You See..."

I'll try again without the mysticism.

How do guys make these crazy long calculations in their heads, without physically moving pieces and more importantly, not screwing up?

Practice, surely? Maybe stop using the analysis board in turn-based, or at least attempt to go through the variation in your head, count up material etc. then use the analysis board to see how you did.

In Turn-Based chess, I will use the analysis board to find out what my position will look like after a series of moves. I can't see these future positions in my head when they go past one or two moves for each side

These visualization skills develop with training : to practice them, you need to stop moving the pieces with the analysis board

Specific pattern-training helps too.

One exercise which I found helps with this kind of visualization is learning famous games. (I guess they don't have to be famous! The first one I did was the Immortal Game.) Initially, I learn the game by playing through it on the board until I am fluent with the moves. Then I start playing through it in my head. I find it helps to look at a blank wall, though an empty chess board might be better. At some point, I will get stuck - in which case, I go back to the real board for a quick reminder. When I am able to play the entire game in my head, at any move I can go through each square saying what's on it. Finally, I quiz myself about certain pieces - where they can go, which pieces they attack, which pieces are attacking them, etc.

This is hard work! The good thing is it gets easier the more you do it, and surprisingly quickly too.

Some software may be helpful too, e.g.

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

Grandmasters can do this easily. You were not too clear but yes I know the line you are talking about, black sacks the bishops and gets a strong attack over the open file if white takes. You can take a few lines a few moves deep, but some lines are just not meaningful if the opponent had other moves somewhere. In OTB I did at times calculate to 7 or 10 moves, sometimes more in a an endgame with a pawn race. (Which is barely calculating.) In OTB I simply use the board as a visual aid, and only move the pieces. When I am sitting without a board like now, I'll use a type of mental projection. For example I may not consider a rook on a1 at all since it does nothing. I just think about the enemy pieces and my pieces and what they can do. For me, thinking about the whole board with 64 squares and all the pieces on it at once takes a lot of power and I do not do it. I find you don't need it to play a blind game, though admittedly I'm not very good at playing blindfold.

Chunks.

I've seen a video on the subject of chunking and how the brain stores information. It included stories like how one waiter can store every detail of a complete order from a party of ten people or more without righting  anything down by way of chunking. Also discussed was chunking and blindfold chess.

I stared at the Ruy Lopez Exchange as you suggested. This is what I focused on, and I can do this better than trying to see the entire board at one time. It's a good exercise. Thank you.

Is there a way to get rid of the kings when making diagrams?

I noticed it just before you posted it. Oops!

I'll try a FEN. Thanks.

How's that?

This is a fascinating question.  I have been trying to describe to myself what I see when I calculate and it is very hard to define.  All I can say so far is that it is diferent when I am staring at a board than when I am just playing over a game in my head.

Improving visualization skills through Internet Blindfold Chess

What about an app for Internet Blindfold Chess?

Players enter algebraic notation into an internet device (smart phone, tablet, laptop). The app includes a chess clock and record keeping of moves for both rated and unrated games. The program will only accept legal moves and it will determine the winner by checkmate or time, just like in Live Chess. Basic functions such as seek, challenge and resign are built into the app, etc.  

A category for Blitz Blindfold can be created for the really fast typists! 

Example:

Rules - No chess boards. No chess pieces. Time Control 10 0 Blitz - (Yeh, Right)

Musikamole types: 1.e4

Ajedrecito types: 1.c5

Musikamole thinks: Arg! The Sicilian. I hardly know that opening. No one plays it at my level. I'll avoid main line theory with my secret weapon!

Musikamole types: 2.d4! 

Are you sure? I counted 64 squares. I also counted each rank and each file separately in case of some optical illusion. The corner squares are also the correct color. It all seems to check out just fine.

Speaking of Dan Heisman, he has a nice page with many different kinds of chess exercises, including some for  developing visualization skills.

"r1bq3/1pp5/p1p5/8/8/8/8/7 w - - 0 1"

Only 7 squares for each highlighted rank in the FEN.

I think the way I wrote the FEN has an error which would technically produce two ranks without an eighth square. Because there should be either a letter k or the number 8, which would mean either a king or a blank square (I think I have this right, correct me if I'm wrong) but I left nothing. Still worked, though...

EDIT: Explained by Ian 1984 while I was typing that out...

I am glad that you are enjoying this subject, and I have often thought about what players are actually seeing with their mind's eye when playing chess.

This is all quite new to me. After staring at my small study chess set some more, the dark squares are a more vivid green, and the light squares are a sharper white, with the texture of a course vinyl. I am definitely making out the texture of a coarse vinyl.

Also, I am seeing new relationships between the various pieces in the Ruy Lopez Exchange. For one, my brain just made a connection that Bc8, and the pawns at b7 and a6 are on a short, light diagonal. The human brain craves meaning.

A few weeks ago, I had my elementary band and orchestra students engage in a few visualization exercises. I asked them to really concentrate and stare at me while I played the violin. Then I asked them to close their eyes and play back/imagine  what they saw. It surprised the heck out of them!  They were so completely shocked and surprised to see me so cleary. Some of them jumped out of their seats!

Just today, I asked my violin students to close their eyes when playing a song. I wanted them to focus on their fingers moving on the fingerboard. Seeing their fingers moving on the fingerboard in their mind.

Do you see an actual chess board, or a two-dimensional one like the ones on chess.com?