Invisible Chess
Blindfold Chess Training: A Newcomer's Guide (1/10)
INVISIBLE CHESS
Blindfold Chess Training: A Newcomer's Guide
Well, you might ask, where shall I begin? There are a million places to begin. It only matters that you decide on one of them and stick with it for a while.
- Eugene Burger, Magician
*Record Scratch*. *Freeze frame*.
Yup that's me.
You're probably wondering what I - GetBentLarsen on lichess & chess.com; @unseenchesspod on twitter - am doing here on the Say Chess Substack.
Well, the answer is that I’m writing a series of guest posts on Blindfold Chess Training. Specifically, a 10 week introductory programme aimed at people who’ve never tried blindfold work before.
Before I properly introduce myself, please have a look at these two polls. I’d be really grateful if you’d take a moment to click on a couple of buttons for me. I’m going to come back to these questions in the middle of the course and then again at the end. I’m really curious to see if the answers might change over the next couple of months.
GET BENT LARSEN
OK. Let’s get going. Here are half a dozen (mostly) chess facts about me:-
My real first name is Jonathan;
I've been playing 'serious'/rated OTB chess for about 35 years now;
If you know me at all, it's probably as "The Simple Chess Guy" from Ben Johnson's book recap series on Perpetual Chess;
I was also The Abysmal Depths of Chess Blog Guy for while and much longer ago was one of the writers at the Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog which ran from 2006 - 2016;
Professionally, I worked full time in the chess coaching world for several years until early 2018, although I've now moved on to other things;
My main chess twitter account is @Berlin_Endgame.
WHY BLINDFOLD CHESS?
Blindfold chess is something that I only got interested in over the last few years or so. It's probably not at all coincidental that my fascination developed at the same time that changes in my working life severely restricted my opportunities to play OTB chess.
Like Jon Tisdall in Improve Your Chess Now, it seems self-evident to me that strengthening our visualisation skills must have benefits for our practical chess. Even if all we did is imagine a single move that our opponent could make in response to one of ours, OTB chess would still actually be mostly visualising. So building up this ability has to be helpful, right?
You may also - like me - value blindfold training as enjoyable and interesting in it's own right. Something you're happy to do just for the fun of it, regardless of any side benefits it may bring.
Either way, I hope you'll give it a go.
BCT - A NEWCOMER'S GUIDE
Starting today, and continuing every Monday for the next couple of months, I'll be posting some blindfold training exercises on Martin's Substack. Including a post-mortem in early October, this will build up to a 10-week course on Blindfold Chess Work.
The programme is aimed at people who've never tried visualisation training before or have only a very little experience with it. There's no minimum rating standard for entry. If you're interested in building up your blindfold skills, this course is for you.
My aim has been to create a programme that anybody could fit in around their existing chess (and life) commitments. It's going to be be high volume - you'll be doing something every day with just a day or two off each week - but low intensity. My suggestion is that you do 5 to 10 minutes of blindfold work each day in total. Even that doesn't have to be done in one block.
What's more, the course is designed that you can get the work done Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere. You won't need access to a computer or the internet to get busy.
YOUR COMMITMENT
Literally all you need to complete the programme is a willingness to give it a go.
I also recommend using a notebook (A5 is my favourite size for ease of portability), but that’s optional.
I'll have some more to say about the content of the course - and why we're doing it the way we are - over the coming weeks. In the meantime, let's make a start with a "what colour are the squares?" exercise.
It's not the only place to begin. But it's a place and one we can as the launchpad of a programme we can stick with.
WEEK ONE: EXERCISES
You can do what follows with any game at all. Would you like to revisit Capablanca - Marshall, New York 1918? Does Game 6, Reykjavik 1972 tempt you? Choose your favourite game or anything at random. It’s entirely up to you.
From a technical point of view, it makes very little difference, but you'll probably enjoy it more if it's one of your favourites.
One game I really like is Karpov - Larsen from Montreal 1979, so I’m going to use that.
[Event "Montreal"][Date "1979.04.27"][Result "0-1"][White "Anatoly Karpov"][Black "Bent Larsen"] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Bd2 Bg46. Be2 Bxe2 7. Ncxe2 Qb6 8. Nf3 Nbd7 9. O-O e6 10. c4 Be7 11. b4 O-O 12. a4 c6 13. Qc2 Qc7 14. Rfe1 b6 15. a5 Rfb8 16. a6 b5 17. c5 Nd5 18. Nc1 Re8 19. Nd3 Rad8 20. g3 Bf6 21. Re4 Nf8 22. h4 Rd7 23. Kg2 Red8 24. g4 Re8 25. g5 Bd8 26. Nfe5 Rde7 27. Bf4 Qc8 28. Bg3 f6 29. Nf3 Rf7 30. Qd2 fxg5 31. Nxg5 Rf5 32. Ra3 Ng6 33. Nf3 Ref8 34. Nfe5 Nxe5 35. Rxe5 Rf3 36. Ra1 Bxh4 37. Qe2 Bxg3 38. fxg3 Qd7 39. Qxf3 Rxf3 40. Kxf3 Nxb4 41. Rd1 Qxd4 42. Re4 Qd5 43. Nf2 Qh5+ 44. Kg2 Nd5 45. Rxe6 h6 46. Rd3 Kh7 47. Rf3 b4 48. g4 Qg5 49. Kg3 Qc1 50. Nh3 Qc4 51. g5 h5 52. Re8 h4+ 53. Kg2 b3 54. Rb8 Qe2+ 55. Nf2 Ne3+ 0-1
All you have to do is read through the moves and each move work out the colour of the square that the piece lands on. You can go through from start to finish if you like, or dip in and out like this:-
1 e4 d5
2 exd5 Qxd5
3 Nc3 Qa5
4 d4 Nf6
5 Bd2 Bg4
11 b4 0-0 [f8, g8]
12 a4 c6
13 Qc2 Qc7
14 Rfe1 b6
15 a5 Rfb8
21 Re4 Nf8
22 h4 Rd7
23 Kg2 Red8
24 g4 Re8
25 g5 Bd8
31 Nxg5 Rf5
32 Ra3 Ng6
33 Nf3 Ref8
34 Nfe5 Nxe5
35 Rxe5 Rf3
I would suggest starting off with 6-10 ply (3-5 game moves) each day, but do however many you can do in your 5-10 minutes of training.
Bonus Questions
1.
On move 5 Larsen played ... Bc8-g4. On move 10 he played ... Bf8-e7.
Assuming no other pieces on the board, what other squares could Black's bishops move to from their starting positions?
2.
What about the White bishops?
3.
On move 5 White has Bd2; Black has Qa5
On move 5 White has Qd1; Black has Bg4
On move 24 White has Bf4; Black has Qc7
In which of these cases is the bishop on the same diagonal as the queen?
The Answers
I’m not going to give the correct solutions here.
Find a way to work through the material that suits you best, but my suggestion is that you start off by writing down your answers as you go - again with the notebook! Every now and then - or if you get stumped - get out a chessboard and check how you did.
You might want to have a screenshot of an empty chessboard - preferably one with the coordinates of the squares visible - saved on your phone for exactly this purpose.
WEEK ONE: THE DAILY ROUTINE
Do a little of this each day, but take at least one or two days off during the week when you do no blindfold work at all.
What I find works best is using a notebook. Something small enough that you can easily carry it around with you wherever you go.
Write down the moves of whatever game you're using for the Colour of Square exercise. Write down your answers as you go. Keep track of how you're getting on. This way you're going to end the course with a whole bunch of training materials you can dip into any time you like.
NEXT WEEK
If you've made it this far and you've been doing blindfold work all the way through the week - CONGRATULATIONS!Â
Next week we'll be spending a bit more time visualising the board. I'll also tell you what I think is the big secret when it comes to making progress with blindfold chess.
IN THE MEANTIME …
Let me know how you're getting on. Is it a struggle? Too easy? Is blindfold work something that you see yourself continuing with this until the end of September?
Whatever you've got to say, leave me a comment, give me a shout at @unseenchesspod on twitter (or shoot me a message on chess.com or lichess). However you choose to do it, I'd love to hear from you.
And please do share this post with anybody you think would like to try some blindfold work.
Have a good week everybody.
I am looking forward to these articles. I have been wanting to practice blindfold chess for a while but I have found it too daunting. I trust that these articles will help me on my journey.
The colour of the square I find quite easy. I started doing this a while ago by summing the squares (a=1, b=2, finding the sum of the x and y axis), which led me to know if the square was black or white. I won't say too much here in case anyone thinks its cheating. But, after a few months of doing this the colours just come to me now. That being said, every other area of my blindfold chess is abysmal.
Thanks again!
For anybody interested in something slightly (but not too much) harder, I'm doing a series of 'skeletal' mating problems tonight (Monday 8th) over on https://twitter.com/unseenchesspod.
Checkmates stripped down to the complete basics.
If they're a bit too tough you can always do the 'what colour are the squares?' for the starting position. And for those looking for something a little more challenging these might be the somethings a little more challenging that your looking for.