visualizing knight moves

how do you guys visualize the way knights move? everytime i try to move the knight i have to construct an L shape and i feel it takes too much time and hinders me in improving my game

is it something i pick up automatically with time? do you guys look at a knight and instantly see all the squares that it can land on?

i have played against an opponent once who is much stronger than me then.. i asked him the same question because moving the knight seems so easy for him..

he told me to put the knight on the middle of the board and look for the imaginary circle that the knight could go (consist of 8 squares).. when i concentrated, i was amazed to the result..

also, the knight lands on the color opposite to the color of the square he was currently standing..

You will pick it up automatically with time and practice. Practice moving the Knight, first slowly and accurately, then faster. Soon you will just "see" without having to think about it. In the meantime, as in the diagram above, note that the Knight is on a light square. Now take note of the four dark squares surrounding it. It can move to any dark square that is touching those four dark squares, but not the four squares themselves. Don't worry, it doesn't take long to develop.

i forgot to add that when you go through the diagram, click each move in the pgn box.. that way you can easily imagine the "imaginary circle" im talking about..

thanks for the quick reply... i do see what you guys are talking about n it really blew my mind.  never thought about it before.

Should i only practice visualizing the knight this way?

I like to think of standing in the corner of any 2x3 rectangle, and moving to it's most opposite corner.

Practice by moving the Knight on a chessboard, just the Knight, no other pieces. And a real chessboard, not a computer monitor. The physical act of moving the piece will aid you in visualising where it moves. You can also practice by mentaling moving the Knight, avoid using the "one, two, and over one" method, train your eye to look for the squares it can move to. It doesn't take long. I seem to recall a website with a board for training Knight moves, if I come across it again I'll send a message with the link.

BTW, Anaheim, eh? I lived on Forest Lane most of my elementary school years, went to James Madison.

Cheers

hahaha yea lived here my whole life. graduated from loara high down the street from madison

lots have changed they're starting to put up alot of housing and malls

the areas also mostly hispanic too but i dont mind looking at the pretty senoritas ;)

With time you move the Knight correctly and fast,

The problem arises when you have an enemy Knight close to your important pieces, for example a Rook and the Queen, or a pair of Bishops. . . beware of the dreadful fork

So you have to know darm well how the Knights move and check all possible moves of nearby enemy Knights that might "fork" a couple of your pieces.

I love having knights and hate having them against me. I will trade my bishop to get rid of my opponets knight if I can.

Not sure if it's a good trade ??

The darn knight fork scares the dickens out of me. LOL.

this threads a ton of help guys, cheers

pick up with time, but then the problem is visualising the correct one ;)

thanks you guys

Uh, I just picked it up completely from experience. When it comes to identifying forks, I just tell by seeing if there is a potential fork because of how my pieces are placed and then if a knight is nearby, then, well... I guess I'd try some suggestions though, might make the process faster.

Like this--

Just started visualising like this.