blindfolded chess visualization program from elliott neff

1 Chess4Life www.chess4life.com (425)283-0549 fax [email protected] ©Elliott Neff 2009

Visualization Techniques by National Master` Elliott Neff

“How far can you look ahead in a chess game?”

“You have to have a very good memory to play chess!”

These comments/questions I hear quite frequently…and while a good memory

certainly helps in chess, and being able to look ahead (visualize) is very important,

UNDERSTANDING concepts/strategy and HOW to choose the best move are more

important. Having said that…looking ahead does give one a great advantage – and

it is NOT a skill that is only for the select few with LOTS of TALENT! Visualizing and

calculating multiple moves ahead, even to the point of being able to look 10+

moves ahead in a game, is achievable by most people that are willing to put in the

simple (notice I didn‟t say Easy!) methods to learn it! The time put into this area

certainly produces great returns, even at only 10 minutes/day practice in this area!

So how do we achieve this ability? The following is the method that I have used

successfully with dozens of students to help them become strong players, able to

calculate many moves in advance. (You can even follow these methods and then

WOW your friends by your „amazing talent‟ at visualization, thanks to your following

Elliott’s Visualization Techniques!!)

So how do we accomplish this at 10 minutes per day? If you will follow these steps

patiently, you will be a much stronger chess player! In fact, several of my students

who followed these steps have become national champions, and even those that

have not become champions have AMAZED their friends by taking them on in a

BLINDFOLD challenge and won!! (With their friends NOT blindfolded!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before getting started with this visualization program, remember the following:

a. Do not try to master this until you can move all the pieces competently…then it‟s a great time to get started with visualizing!

b. Secondly, your visualization will increase rapidly if you follow these tips while continuing to work on the other areas of your game – don‟t feel that you must master this area before progressing in other areas…it‟s a process that

takes some time, but with patience and some consistency, you WILL become a VISUALIZATION MASTER!!

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Steps to Blindfold MASTERY:

Phase I – “Knowing your board” 1. Start by taking an empty board with the

„algebraic notation‟ letters and numbers on it. First, start with learning to recognize the

RANKS and FILES on the chessboard. (Ranks are numbered 1-8 - files are lettered a-h.)

Practice having someone call out a rank or file (such as the 1st rank or the g-file), and you point to it as quickly as possible. (see

diagram) TIP: To do this by yourself – cut out the text

lines on the last page, drop them in a box, and without looking pull out one at a time – and as fast as possible find the rank or file on

the chessboard.

2. Now do the same as exercise 1, this time with the board „reversed‟ – rank # 8 now closest to you. (see diagram)

3. Next, learn how to name every

square on the board (just like playing battleship). Have someone call out a square (such as “e5”) and then you point

to it as quickly as you can. Do this from both sides of the board, until you can

point to the square within 1-2 seconds of hearing the square. TIP: To do this by yourself – Cut out the

names of squares on the addendum. Place all these squares in a box, and pull out one name

at a time and see how quickly you can find the square on your chessboard, placing that name on the square.

4. Now, take a board WITHOUT this notation

(or just tape over the letters/numbers). Do the SAME 3 exercises as before, this time

doing it without the „crutch‟ of having the letters and numbers visible. (This is somewhat like learning to type…first you

learn where all the keys are, then you learn




where they are without looking at the names on the keys.) Practice this until you can point to the squares within 1-2 seconds of having it named, again from both the white and black sides of the board.

5. Next, we learn to recognize DIAGONALS on the chessboard. Diagonals are

named by the first and last squares on the diagonal, such as “a1-h8”. Have someone call out a diagonal, and as quickly as you can, point to all the squares on that diagonal and NAME them all. Do this also from both the

white side and the black side of the board (1st rank and 8th rank).

Phase II – Visualizing your board

6. Once we have accomplished the above, we move on to the next major step…trying to „visualize‟ the board! Notice that the corner closest to a

player‟s right side is always white…which means that h1 and a8 are always „white‟ or „light-colored‟. Now, without looking at the chess board, have

someone call out the name of a square on the edge of the chess board (such as g1)…as quickly as you can, figure out what color that square is and call it out! This is a fun game to see how good you can get at it! (TIP: You can do

this by yourself by utilizing the names of the squares in the addendum.)

Once you can quickly answer all the colors on the edges, move a row away from the edge, and then finally going to any square on the board including the center squares! While doing this, try to „visualize‟ the board…‟see‟ the

color of the square in the corner, and then the color next to it, etc. With consistent practice, you will soon be able to name all the colors very quickly

as someone calls them out! (When doing this, be careful that you don‟t just figure out a mathematical way to know the colors – rather easy to do – instead, work at trying to „see‟ the board in your head, with the color

patterns.) TIP: To help visualize the squares, it often helps to imagine a piece on that square…for example, d1 is white and white‟s queen sits on that

square at the start of a game…or f3 is white and white‟s knight from g1 usually goes to f3, etc…

7. Now, we move on to „blind diagonals‟! Have someone call out a diagonal – you name all the squares on that diagonal AND the color!

8. Next, have someone call out TWO diagonals that intersect…and you try to

name the square on which the two diagonals cross! (You are getting close to

mastering the visualization techniques that will make you a STRONG chess player!)

Phase III – Making chess moves Blindfolded!




9. Time to introduce some chess pieces on the board!! Start with the rook – either have someone call out a square, or just imagine it on a certain square (let‟s say, for example, h1). Now choose any other square, such as e8, and

figure out in your head how to move the rook from h1 to e8 (h1-h8-e8 or h1-e1-e8). Once you can do this rapidly, time to move to the bishop…pick 2

squares (of the same color!) and figure out in your head how to move the bishop from one to the other (should always, as with the rook, take only 2 moves). Start with squares fairly close together (such as h1 to h3), and then

advance to squares far apart such as a1-c7. Once you have mastered the rook and bishop moves on an empty board, it‟s time for the challenge

piece…the KNIGHT! Start with squares very close together, such as h1-f1 or h1-g1, on the edge first, and then as you get better at this visualization, choosing squares farther from the edge and farther apart.

10.After you have mastered the above exercises, it‟s time to introduce a couple

more pieces…for this, I generally recommend having someone place 2 pawns on the board, preferably in such a fashion that one protects the other (such as a6 and b7), and then you (blindfolded) use each of the following pieces (in

this order) to capture those pawns: Rook from h1, Bishop from f1, Queen from d1, King from e1, Knight from g1. Rules for this: You must capture

the pawns SAFELY, only capturing pawns that are UNPROTECTED e.g. starting with the b7 black pawn then the a6 pawn. The goal is to try to do it

in as short a number of moves as possible. As you become competent with this, add 1 pawn at a time, till eventually you do the same exercise with the following positions of 8 pawns: a6, b7, c4, d7, e6, f7, g6, and h5.

Phase IV – Blindfold CHECKMATES

11.You are almost there! Time to attempt a couple „simple‟ checkmates

blindfolded! White‟s king on e1, Queen on h1, Rook on g1 and Black‟s King on e5.

White moves first (do this against an opponent who looks at the board and moves the pieces while you are „blindfolded‟) and attempts to checkmate (should be able to do it in 5 moves).

Next, do it with 2 white rooks on h1 and g1 in place of the queen and rook.

Now, try to do checkmate with just your Queen on h1 (and your king on e1), against black‟s king on e5. (This time you will need to use your king to help checkmate.)

Next, do the mate starting with a rook on h1 instead of a queen. Note: For these exercises, you should first be able to do each of

these on a board looking at the pieces before you attempt this blindfolded.

Phase V – FINAL STEP: READY FOR BLINDFOLD!!




12.Final step!! You are ready to try a chess game blindfolded! With all the pieces set up, play a game against someone else who gets to see the board and move the pieces. (They will move your pieces when you tell them your

move, and will tell you wherever they move also.) Try to go 5 moves into the game – then stop and set up the position

on a 2nd board to see if you remember the position correctly Next go 10 moves and do the same Next 15, etc…

Now go as far as you can…when the position starts to get „muddled‟ in your head, take an empty board and set up where every piece should

be to try to figure it out, remembering where each piece went. Soon, you will be able to play a complete game blindfolded!

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have become proficient at visualizing! This skill will help you tremendously in being able to look ahead in chess!

Phase VI – FOR VERY ADVANCED PLAYERS ONLY

13.I recommend doing more advanced checkmate patterns:

King plus 2 bishops versus lone king King plus bishop and knight versus lone King

Playing „speed chess‟ (5 minutes for the whole game) Playing 2 games at the same time!

Do all the above challenges blindfolded…these additional challenges are fun to try and develop the memory/visualization skill even more!

Some final comments: do NOT expect this to happen overnight…simply spend 10

minutes at a time, even just 3 days a week – and you WILL be able to master your

chessboard. If you have a chess rating already, I can guarantee that you will

increase your playing strength simply by following these tips!

Have fun – and best wishes in your chess play!

Sincerely,

NM Elliott Neff




PS – Please do send any comments or questions to [email protected]. I look

forward to hearing from you!

Names of Squares: (cut out for training purposes)

a1 a2 a3 a4 e1 e2 e3 e4

a5 a6 a7 a8 e5 e6 e7 e8

b1 b2 b3 b4 f1 f2 f3 f4

b5 b6 b7 b8 f5 f6 f7 f8

c1 c2 c3 c4 g1 g2 g3 g4

c5 c6 c7 c8 g5 g6 g7 g8

d1 d2 d3 d4 h1 h2 h3 h4

d5 d6 d7 d8 h5 h6 h7 h8





Print and cut out the 16 elements below:

“a” file

“b” file

“c” file

“d” file

“e” file

“f” file

“g” file

“h” file

1st rank

2nd rank

3rd rank

4th rank

5th rank

6th rank

7th rank

8th rank



blindfolded chess visualization program from elliott neff

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