TalkChess.com

As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Strange....never encountered such a problem

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Kotov in his book "Think Like A Grandmaster" Kotov speaks of this very phenomenon. He goes into great detail as how to identify this issue and correct it. I think you will be pleased. Truly and beautiful gem of a book.

Dr.Wael Deeb wrote:

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Strange....never encountered such a problem

Of course you have Doc. We all do. You just are not thinking along those lines. Everytime you lose to Houdini or Komodo or others you have missed something perhaps 10-12 ply deeper in the position. Often when you miss tactical ideas it is for this very reason that Carl pointed out. Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy.

Robert Flesher wrote:

Kotov in his book "Think Like A Grandmaster" Kotov speaks of this very phenomenon. He goes into great detail as how to identify this issue and correct it. I think you will be pleased. Truly and beautiful gem of a book.

THANK YOU. I actually HAVE this book on my shelf! How embarrassing, I better actually go and read it now.

Robert Flesher wrote:

Dr.Wael Deeb wrote:

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Strange....never encountered such a problem

Of course you have Doc. We all do. You just are not thinking along those lines. Everytime you lose to Houdini or Komodo or others you have missed something perhaps 10-12 ply deeper in the position. Often when you miss tactical ideas it is for this very reason that Carl pointed out. Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy.

On the same topic I would suggest "Invisible Chess Moves" that just won book of the year http://www.chesscafe.com/Reviews/boty.htm

Is that good? I saw a big splodge on the front cover and didn't know what to make of it.

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

Ever tried to play blindfolded? Helped me a lot many years ago. When I went to college, friend and I drove about 50 miles one way every day for a year, commuting, before I moved to be closer. We played chess every day. When I drove, he used a little plastic peg-board, and I played "blindfolded" (unable to see the board). I found it helped my play a LOT...

Werewolf wrote:As an OTB player I'm just shy of 2200 elo. I've spend quite a bit of time trying to find what's holding me back and one of my problems is the visualisation of chess positions during analysis.

I often get the board muddled and miss things and when the position I had imagined actually gets played. Over the board it looks very different to how I saw it in my mind a few moves back. I'm starting to think this may be a residual image problem as I have a good eye for tactics (weirdly).

Does anyone know how to beat this? Has anything good been written on this topic? I notice that quite a few players are closing their eyes these days or turning away from the board - is that to visualise a 2D board in their mind which they can move the pieces around at will??

Any help appreciated!

How about blindfold practice? I think any player over 1800 can probably play 1 game blindfold, or at least do it with some practice. I don't know if it will help your chess but it seems like it might.

I think that I remember hearing that xboard has a blindfold mode, not sure if it does or how it works. You can run Crafty too I'm pretty sure in a terminal without display - or just cover the screen except for the prompt.