Invisible Chess II

Blindfold Chess Training: A Newcomer's Guide

I started believing. And the more I believed the harder I worked.

- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, Athlete

Welcome to Week Two of Invisible Chess.

I've got a fresh batch of exercises for you as well as a few thoughts on the value of working 5 to 10 minutes a day, and the real secret to making a successful start at blindfold chess training.

First, let’s start with a poll.

Seriously though, I’m interested in hearing from you whether or not you did some blindfold work. If you did - great, how did you get on? If not - well, there’s always this week. Is their any particular reason why you didn’t?

Either way, let me know how things worked out. You can find my contact details at the bottom of the page.

---

THE DAILY ROUTINE

You might be thinking "What's the point of five minutes working on something? Can such a small amount of time make any difference at all?"

The answer is no, it won't - not if you only do it today.

Remember, the aim of this programme is not to make you an expert blindfold chess player by teatime tomorrow. Rather it's designed to get you (and me) into a training habit that is both effective and viable over the long-term. Something that fits in with your existing chess and life commitments.

Over the 10 weeks of this programme, 5-10 minutes each day with a day or two off each week will add up to around 10 hours of blindfold work. That's 50 hours over a year. 50 hours extra work that you wouldn't otherwise have been doing. 50 hours that you'll be able to achieve because you won't get burned out and overwhelmed by taking on too much and have to take a break or give up altogether.

Those who go big or go home often end up going home.

-Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness, "The Passion Paradox" (Rodale 2019)

Home, as far as blindfold chess training goes, at least, is not where we want to be heading.

---

THE COLOUR OF SQUARES

One of the things I realised when I began coaching beginners for a living was that traditional teaching methods focussed too much on the pieces. There is also a need to understand the board and how it is made up of squares - of alternating colours - ranks, files and diagonals.

This is the best starting point for blindfold training too.

No, there’s no real benefit in being able to identify the colour of squares per se. That’s not really the point though. The reason for doing this exercise is to practice imagining the board. When you can do that flawlessly, when you get to the point that anybody can name any square and you instantly just know what the colour is, that’s when you know you’ve arrived. You probably won’t even know how you know. You just do.

This isn’t something that just happens. Nor is it necessary to reach the point of being able to name the colour of squares perfectly before moving on.

It is, though, a very good starting point from which to start your blindfold journey and I hope you’ll give it a go - remember, just a few minutes a day done every day will build up to a lot of work.

Small Steps lead to Big Gains

- Brad Stulberg

---

WEEK TWO: EXERCISES

Remember from Week ONE, the idea is to do 5 to 10 minutes of work each day with one or two days off each week.

Normally I say I doesn’t really matter what source material you use for these exercises. Here, though, I’ve specifically chosen opening lines that will give you a lot of practice thinking about the central squares. Since this is a key strategic part of the board, it makes sense to focus on it in our visualisation training.

What colour are the squares?

As last week, your task is to work out the colour of the square that the piece lands on for each move.

FRENCH DEFENCE

1 e4 e6

2 d4 d5

3 e5 c5

4 c3 Nc6

5 Nf3 Qb6

6 Bd3 cxd4

7 cxd4 Nxd4

8 Nxd4 Qxd4

9 Bb5+ Bd7

10 Bxd7+ Kxd7

11 Qxd4

KING'S INDIAN DEFENCE

1 d4 Nf6

2 c4 g6

3 Nc3 Bg7

4 e4 d6

5 Nf3 0-0

6 Be2 e5

7 0-0 Nc6

8 d5 Ne7

9 Ne1 Nd7

10 Be3 f5

11 f3 f4

12 Bf2 g5

13 Rc1 Ng6

14 c5

SPANISH/RUY LOPEZ

1 e4 e5

2 Nf3 Nc6

3 Bb5 a6

4 Ba4 Nf6

5 0-0 Be7

6 Re1 b5

7 Bb3 d6

8 c3 0-0

9 h3 Bb7

10 d4 Re8

11 Nbd2  Bf8

12 a4 h6

13 Bc2 exd4

14 cxd4 Nb4

15 Bb1 c5

16 d5 Nd7

17 Ra3 c4

Bishop Checks

For each of these the task is to identify the squares to which the bishop can safely move to give check to the enemy king.

TIP: there could be two squares that work.

TIP: one of these has no solution.

1.

WHITE: Be1

BLACK: Kc7

2.

WHITE: Ka7

BLACK: Bf8

3.

WHITE: Bc4

BLACK: Kg4

4.

WHITE: Kf1

BLACK: Bd6

5.

WHITE: Be4

BLACK: Kf7

6.
WHITE: Kh1

BLACK: Bh7

Knight Checks

The same as before - find the squares to which the knights can move to give check.

Remember: there could be more than correct answer to each problem and there will be one question that has no correct answer. 

1.

WHITE: Ke1
BLACK: Nb4

2.

WHITE: Ng2
BLACK: Kg6

WHITE: Kc1
BLACK: Na1

4.

WHITE: Nd5
BLACK: Kh5

5.

WHITE: Kf5
BLACK: Nd3

6.

WHITE: Ne8
BLACK: Ka8

SOLUTIONS

I’ll put the solutions in the comments later in the week for anybody who needs them - but really, I’m quite sure these problems are solvable if you keep work and' aren’t tempted to give in too early.

If you’ve tried your best and are started to get frustrated - a common and understandable reaction - take a break to it later. Maybe even leave it over night.

If after a day or two maybe get out a chessboard and have a look - then write that particular problem down in your notebook as one to come back to later on.

---

THE REAL SECRET

So what's the real secret to trying blindfold chess training? It's simply believing that you can do it.

The more you believe the more your try and the harder you'll work. That's as true for Joe and Josephine Schmo chess players like us as it is for multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medal winning athletes.

In the quote at the head of this newsletter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price was talking about the possibility of returning to the very stop of her sport after pregnancy in her 30s - something nobody had ever done before. Was she successful? Suffice to say that her son is now 5 years old and just a few days ago Fraser-Price ran 100m in 10.66 seconds. That’s just one 100th of a second slower than her personal best and the fourth fastest of all time ran by a woman

Anybody of any level of ability can do blindfold training. You've just got to realise that's true and make a start.

And if you don't believe me - have a listen to Rene's interview with Dr Skull over on the Chess Journeys podcast. Rene's already a decent club player, yes, but encouraged by her coach she's been doing blindfold work right from the beginning of her chess career.

---

NEXT WEEK:

If you've made it this far - and you get 5 days of blindfold work ticked off this week - CONGRATULATIONS. It's not easy getting the work done day in day out over a long period of time. You've earned yourself a 

Next Monday, along with a new set of exercises, we’ll also take look at why I’ve (not) laid out a specific schedule of daily work for you.

Have a good week everybody.

---

GET IN TOUCH

GetBentLarsen - LiChess

GetBentLarsen - chess.com

@unseenchesspod - twitter

---

PS: Thanks very much to Martin for the new logo