So this is the first game I've tried to play blindfolded on this site. Needless to say I was crushed. Position still looks playable at the end, but somewhere around the 18th move picture got really really fuzzy.
http://en.lichess.org/uAP7ULMMGU8qI refused to look at the move list except to see the last move.
Any blindfold chess aficionados that would care to share some tips as to how you play this? Is it just a function of how much practice you have? Or is there some specific manner in which you must order your thoughts to think clearly?
I played quite some blindfold chess with my friends lately, and it's much fun. We're both pretty average players, but I guess one thing is clear. Play a lot of online chess and then switch to blindfold. It takes quite some practice (firstly 5 moves, then 10, 15 and so on...), but then it gets easier to shuffle with pieces in your mind, imagining 2D board.
My experience.
Being able to see just the empty board is a huge aid versus playing OTB blindfolded where you can see nothing. OTB blindfolded even against very bad opponents, if the game goes on long enough, it just gets so blurry that your making almost random moves. I wonder if anyone knows a way you could practice this, or if playing with the empty board helps learning to play full blindfolded?
I taught myself to play OTB blindfold chess and have a few exercises that may be helpful. My goals were to be able to play a decent game of chess blindfolded and to be able to read chess books without a board and "see" the positions the books referred to. Here are a few that will help to visualise the board:
1) Try to visualise a 3x3 board with colours.
2) Move a knight around a 3x3 board.
3) Try to visualise a 4x4 board with colours.
4) Try to play simple mini games on the 4x4 board.
5) Try to visualise the colour of each square on a full board and be able to say the colour of a specific square.
6) Choose a square and then say all the squares on the same diagonal as it or ask yourself something like where do the diagonals from this square intersect the d-file.
7) Try to move a knight from one square to another goal square on the full board.
8) Put a queen on the board (in your mind) and move the knight to a specific goal square so it's not attacked by the queen.
Once you've done these you should be able to beat a weak player blindfolded. The board will probably still be a bit fuzzy though and inactive pieces may escape from you. These exercises helped me improve a lot.
1) Try to recall positions e.g. Look at a position for 2 minutes and try to recall it a 5 minutes later or try to recall a cool puzzle or study you've seen.
2) Play through your opening repertoire in your head trying to look at sidelines you haven't considered and see why they may be bad.
3) Play through a game in your head only reading the pgn trying to understand reasons behind the moves and coming up with other alternate moves or even see if there are any hanging pieces/offer of pawn sacrifice. They don't have to be GM games. (Firstly maybe just do 5 moves then build up gradually).
4) FEN tactics. I found this to be the most beneficial thing by far. I looked up how to read FENs (very easy) and downloaded a load of mate in 2 problems in pgn form. Then I opened it up in notepad and read the FEN and tried to solve the puzzles. This is great but I did have to look for the ones without too many pieces otherwise it's too hard.
5) Actually playing blindfold games although this does require someone to play with. I found I could play my computer (Lucas chess) by typing in moves and then it would shout out a move so I didn't have to look at a board.
Hope these are helpful. Better players than me can probably already do a few of the easier ones but hopefully there's something useful for everyone.
Thanks a lot!
Hi I was wondering how one would go about playing 'blindfolded' on this medium. How would I be able to move my pieces if I cannot see the screen and how would I know where my opponent moved which piece?
#6
You can toggle blindfold mode in your personal settings. You can still see the move list but the board is completely blank. You have to drag the piece to the desired square as you normally would however they are invisible. The players last move is highlighted though.
the best way to improve blindfolded chess is played many games with much time to think, when you have played games like 7 or 8 easy play blindfolded. I won a +2000 blindfolded and I not played more than 15 games blindfolded. Here the link
http://es.lichess.org/yr616swOcpnqI dont believe at all that you played that game blindfolded, I'm a similar rating to you, and I couldnt have played anything close to that without seeing the board, should lichess have a little icon that shows that your playing the game blindfolded?
