George Koltanowski the blindfold champion who was my chess coach at the Kolty Chess club in San Francisco in the early 1960 would say to me, "When I play blind fold it seems like many times I can see pieces and the tactics better, than when I am looking at the board."
How can that be? Because when playing blind he had to focus.
Here is a forum memoir I wrote about playing chess: Click on it.
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/blindfold-chess-play----memoir
Most everyone can play blindfold to some extent.
I can play blindfold chess. I am a lot better if I can see the board but I have no problems imagining it.
This is hard to know exactly, since blindfold isn't that popular.
I've known people around 1800-1900 rating who could do some degree of blindfold with a little practice. People around 2200 or more that I know of had a much easier time with it, even beating me while I was using a board.
People with a much lower rating seemed to have no inclination to play blindfold. They also struggle with the visualization and can't explain anything that was going on in their games without use of a board and pieces.
If you practice, I suppose even little children could learn it though.
I've played once, against a very weak opponent. That night I slept 2 hours more than normal. Can't be random.
I have concluded it is definitely more than possible. I won a game in 15 moves today while I had my eyes closed and my opponents did not (two of them teamed up on the board). Mind you, they weren't very good, they only knew how to move the pieces.
Here is the game:
Blindfold chess can definitely be played, however practice is recommended.
{[(EDIT)]}
I didn't include some plausible lines:
No i wont be relevant and helpful and nice you cant stop me haha
i think it has something to do with photographic memory.
Quite a few of my students have learned to play blindfold chess merely by practicing it.
I'm not saying that they are average, but every single player I've known who has made a serious effort to learn to play blindfold chess has succeeded.
why? seeing is hard enough.......for you the blind who once could see , the bell tolls for thee...........
Thanks for the great reference
I know that 90% of you retards are lying.
I know that 90% of you retards are lying.
And the percentage who don't care what you think is even higher.
I have tried blindfold chess a couple dozen times. If a position gets too complicated I may lose the thread and fail to finish a legal game. But usually I succeed in playing a game, though not a very good game. It helps if the opening is a familiar one that I know well.
Same to you bozo.
Cystem_Phailure wrote:
GmPrice wrote:
I know that 90% of you retards are lying.
And the percentage who don't care what you think is even higher.
Sure you can, but it takes a lot of practice!
Check out http://www.blindfoldchesstrainer.com for some exercizes that should help with your board awareness and eventually let you play blindfolded.
The process of visualization is now commonly thought to be helpful in many sports, from equestrian events to Formula 1 racing. Of course, some people are better at it than others. Shaquille O'Niel never could master the free throw. He tried everything, including costant attempts to visualize the shot, but he never could get it.
Regards,
Lou
In high school I played blindfold chess every day in physics class with my friend, Tom. We got away with it for months until we were assigned a student teacher. One day she strolled up the aisle and found our physics notebooks (literally) filled with chess notation. The regular teacher had seen it but didn't know what it was, and evidently was too embarrassed to ask. We got busted and it was the end of our blindfold games. I won most of the games, but Tom went on to Princeton and Berkeley.
Chess notation! of course. I am sure I can do this if I can see the notation. I have attempted it multiple times, straight up blindfolded and lose my way by the middlegame. I will try this soon, thank you!