Possible to Learn Chess as a Non-Visualizing Adult?

I'm a 24-yr-old computer engineer who just learned the rules of chess this morning. I've never played a game and know nothing beyond basic movements. It looks like an interesting and maybe fun game, but I'm concerned about entering a competitive sport where most people my age have been playing for 20 years! I make a living designing logic circuits, and test very high in logic & geometry. However, I am totally unable to visualize anything and remember everything as information.

Is it possible to learn the game at 24, or do you need to learn it as a kid? Is it possible to learn the game if you can't visualize, but are good at logic/geometry? Am I kidding myself about this being feasible? Thanks.

1. Welcome to chess.  It's fun.

2. It's a game.  So no, it's not "too late."  It's not like the stakes are particularl high should you fail.  It's probably too late for you to ever realistically hope to contend at the world championship level, but that's true of golf and kickboxing as well.

3. Obviously, the ability to visualize stuff helps, but it is not 100% crucial. I don't know if your "condition" is something physical, or just a deficiency you've noticed in yourself.  If the latter, I think you'll be surprised how quickly visualization improves with practice.

4. Even if it's physical, you should look into the possibility of enjoying correspondence chess, which allows you to "play out" moves on a practice board before making them official.  Alternatively, it's entirely possible to play live games using positional ideas and recognizing tactics based on piece positions, rather than visualizing them in your head several moves ahead.  That may limit your progress way later on, but you can still progress fairly far "looking" only a move or two ahead.

5. Above all, have fun with it, and good luck.

Of course you can learn the game, unless your definition of "learn" means to become a titled player.  That might be a bit problematic unless you really are willing  to devote yourself to hours of daily study for a number of years. But to learn it well enough to have a lot of fun and eventually be able to play a decent game?  Why not?  One of the wonders of chess is the rating system which allows you to play opponents of approximately the same skill. Visualization, like most skills, can be improved upon and as a computer engineer, your logic wil serve you well.  Yes, in the beginning you'll make blunders that will unnerve you, but everyone, even masters blunder.  It's part of the game.  

You might want to try a month's diamond membership on site to see just how fascinated you are by the game.  Diamond gives access to all the features including lots of beginner videos, the Chess Mentor whcih likewise has plenty of beginner material, and access to the Tactics Trainer.  Give it a shot...

You believe you can't 'visualize'?  curious

anyway, tons of newbies who started in their teens or twenties (kinda rare for four year olds to take up chess, I think the average starting age is more like 10-12)

play a few hundred games for fun, by then you'll get a sense as to whether you've any potential or not.  if you can learn 'patterns', you'll do well I predict.

sftac

Be prepared to get badly beaten a good thousands of times before being any satisfied with your visualization skills.

Chess is extremely competitive if you want even to break even from tournaments (registration fee vs money prize), let alone make it a serious source of income, but otherwise, you can pick the game at 70 and still have some fun.

Give chess a try and good luck! 

Start by looking at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrOGeSWv3g

You can challenge me too if you want. But I won't make any gifts (hence, there is a huge probability that you will get crushed without even realizing what happens) - I learnt the hard way, and I can't think it is any good to teach new players something else.

Feel free to ask for analysis during the game.

Oh, and while we are at it, a few advice for beginners :

-Never, ever, ever play a move you know to be bad out of the assumption that "he will not see it".

-Never play a move if you cannot answer the question "why did you play that ?".

-Do look back at your games, and more often than not the ones you lose, so that you do not make the same mistakes.

-Do not care the least about your rating, be it online or real, unless you are already in the very serious players ballpark (where you want a title or a tournament invite...)

-Do not become an addict to chess.

Thanks for responding. There is a wide spectrum of visualization ability in humans, just like any other mental skill. 5-10% of people visualize photographically and another 5-10% can't visualize at all. These people think completely in data and tend to be good at math. Most people are in the middle, and as such can develop their ability to visualize. I'm in the category of 'mentally blind' people. Whenever I close my eyes all I see is black. No amount of effort yields images, sounds, or anything sensory. This didn't prevent me from being hs valedictorian or the lead engineer of a small company, but it may prevent me from playing chess well. I've been browsing high-level games on this website and they make sense. I obviously can't play at that level, but the moves make a lot of sense. The problem is that since I can't visualize, I'm having a lot of trouble remembering what I see. Its different than circuits/motors/equations, where you have some underlying mechanism that you can just remember in place of images. Chess is a pile of pieces, and there is too much data to simply encode as non-visual information. You guys all seem to be profient visualizers, and it would make sense that stronger visualizers gravitate to chess. Interesting...

Thanks Mark. Sounds like fun. Would you mind playing as white? I've been looking at a few games and black just seems more intuitive, since you're reacting to white.

Sure, I'll play. Ok if I play black? You can go ahead and crush me. I'll enjoy learning from an experienced player. And your advice is good. Whenver you learn something new its important to focus learning as much as you can and having fun, rather than measuring yourself against some arbitrary standard.

Logic Circuits, you are correct to say that there are some people who are non-visual thinkers. I read somewhere that psychologists put the % at about 5%.

I am the opposite end of the spectrum; I am as a graphics designer extremely visual and can imagine entire designs from start to finish without doing any actual work.

I think that you may succeed by playing in a way that is more strategic than tactical. But tactics can be worked out without being visual. I don't see age as a barrier. I have lost a game of chess to someone who was 90.

This is interesting. I would have offered to play an unrated game if someone hadn't done so already.

Everyone is different. I cannot touch type.

Visualizing would certainly come in handy in your profession. It'd be really time consuming to sketch variants of your graphics just to see how they looked. Btw, how good are you at math? I've seen many math majors who couldn't visualize at all and many art majors who couldn't pass high school algebra. I've always thought that there tended to be a trade-off between math/mental images, although some people are going to have both or neither.

Also, is there any downside to playing rated games and losing at the beginning? I don't really care about my rating, but will you get to the point where no one with play against you if its too low?

I did some maths at university. I wasn't good at it. But I passed it. I liked matrix algebra the most. That and optimisation. But I would never call myself a mathematician. I do not have a "number memory".

One odd element with having sone maths is that I am used to the XYZ system where Z points up. Yet for some reason graphics design programs like to use a system where Z is a different axis. That drives me mad lol.

Can't think of a downside to playing rated games for you except that because of the Glicko rating system your rating will plunge rather precipitously.  The Glicko system tries to quickly establish an accurate rating by adding or subtracting a lot of points when you first start and takes at least a few dozen games before it settles down.  And no, you can never be so bad on this site that you won't be able to find someone to play with. 

There are always open tournaments.  No matter how bad your rating makes you appear to suck, people can't avoid you there.

Online chess here at chess.com can help minimize the visualization issue because you can move pieces around and see the resulting choices of your original move. If you have any questions or want to play some let me know. Chess is a great game!

A word of advice if I may do so is to use the tactics trainer and do the daily puzzles.  It doesn't matter how well you play as long as you have fun, and there are many players willing to help the unknowing.  If you need help, post a forum topic and you'll have many knowledgable people assisting you.  If you would like, I can point you to a group that I am a part of that is full of people trying to improve their game together.

Welcome to chess! It's definitely a fun and interesting game, and I hope you enjoy it.

Unless your want to become World Champion, no, it's never too late to learn chess and become at least a pretty good player. True, a lot of people learn the game when they're kids, but there are many people who take up chess as teens and adults as well. One great aspect about chess is you can learn at any age and play it any age as well (unlike most physical sports that you're unable to play by the time you're in your mid 20's and early 30s).

Chess.com has a great beginner's article that I would recommend reading:

http://www.chess.com/learn-how-to-play-chess

I would also highly recommend following chess.com's "Study Plans". When I was starting out as a new player I found them helpful. Check out the Beginner plan, try following it as well as you can and see how it works out.

http://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory

First of all, start playing games. Several a week is good, if you have the time. Keep in mind that in the beginning you're going to lose a lot of games. Don't let it discourage you -- if you enjoy the game, you'll be motivated to study and get better. Take small steps (don't feel pressured to try and soak up everything in a month) and learn from your mistakes. You'll improve gradually by realizing what you're doing wrong and focusing on your weaknesses.

Don't worry about your rating (especially when you're starting out). Just keep playing.

Chess is a game that involves a large amount of studying, practice and effort, so it'll take time to get good. Study/practice as often as you can and slowly but surely, you'll see improvement.

Once you know the basics and can play a decent game, you should start practicing tactics (available here @ chess.com and other sites like chesstempo.com and ideachess.com). This will improve your game greatly.

The main thing is don't get discouraged and keep trying. Chess is just a game so remember to have fun too!

I'm an artsy type and I have trouble seeing three or four moves ahead before I get lost and need to start over. It's just something that develops with time and practice. Endgame puzzles are good to do because there are only a few pieces on the board that you need to look at and this makes it easier to calculate further and more accurately.