Welcome to the final part of the Why Blindfold series.
We've covered a lot of ground, hitting the science of how we learn, the mechanics of working memory, and the importance of difficulty.
And we begin the ending back at the beginning. Where else?
I remember the sensation of that first game after I tried blindfold training.
It was an odd feeling, really. But exhilarating.
I felt like a passenger in my own awareness for a moment. Normally, I would look at a Chessboard and feel mildly overwhelmed by all the squares and pieces.
But this felt different. My mind had a mind of its own.
I looked at my opponent's move, and my brain told me "well, that doesn't work because of this move". I hadn't noticed any of that yet. I was still looking at the move itself. But my brain seemed confident.
And not the kind of confident I was painfully familiar with. The kind where your brain yells, "this is definitely the move", you play it, and get checkmated immediately.
This one was different.
I checked the move my brain had given me, and it worked. I had to look 3 moves down the line to see the finish, a feat I'd struggled to do accurately beforehand, but it worked. That surprised me.
And it kept happening through the game. Patterns and ideas I'd been studying started showing up on the board. My brain spotted them, pointed them out to me, and I stumbled along behind.
It's the strangest experience I've had learning anything ever in my life. I've since learned it doesn't happen as profoundly as that for everyone, but I'm glad it happened to me. Without that first "seeing the Matrix code" feeling, I would never have looked further into this blindfold world.
The first thing I learned is that conceptualization, or visualization as I called it then, can be trained. And it should be trained. Something this important shouldn't be left up to chance, hoping it improves while we work on other things. Blindfold training is how we do that.
Much of the mental experience of Chess is semi-blindfold anyway. We're constantly making decisions based on information we can't actually see at the time. Removing the crutch of our eyes forces our brains to get better at juggling that information. And, as long as we consciously connect it back, those improvements flow through to our regular game.
Even if we're convinced of the benefits of blindfold work, it's still a challenge to get started. It's easy to get discouraged. It's important to remember that the difficulty of blindfold training is why it works. If we embrace that challenge, and see the struggle for clarity itself as the point, then we can get the benefits and enjoy it quite a bit along the way as well.
I'm far from the first person to realize all of this. I started this series with a quote from the legendary grandmaster-turned-psychologist, Nikolai Krogius, from 1976 (50 years ago!).
And he explained in one paragraph what it's taken me 5 parts and 6,500 words to say.
"It may be, in blindfold play, more than in other forms of training, that dynamic qualities of thinking and attention are most easily improved. The nature of the game presupposes the need for a constant, accurate comparison of past images with the present position. This demands systematic control and the application of willpower to overcome distraction. It is particularly important not to let the exact positioning of pieces slip from one's mind, and such sluggishness and indifference are incompatible with blindfold play."
Nikolai Krogius, 1976
Blindfold work trains our "qualities of thinking and attention", our working memory. It's directly applicable to the regular game because Chess requires a "constant, accurate comparison of past images with the present position".
The "systematic control and the application of willpower" are the systems and habits the brain builds to handle all that information. And it's the desirable difficulty that makes it all work, because "sluggishness and indifference are incompatible with blindfold play".
Krogius knew all of this then, and we've spent 50 years catching up to him.
Blindfold training doesn't make you a better Chess player. It makes your working memory better at holding, juggling, and accessing the information stored on the Chessboard.
At conceptualizing.
When your brain can handle the board, you're more aware of what each move does. Tunnel vision reduces. You can go as deep into each line as your calculations demand.
Full board awareness. In the current position, and in future ones.
You still have to know what to do with that extra awareness once you have it. Blindfold won't help much there. But that's where the rest of the Chess improvement world comes in.
Chess is hard enough without a fog descending over the board whenever things get complicated. Pushing the fog back won't stop you having problems, but it can help you earn better problems.
Your problems stop being about one-move blunders, forgetting details, and not being able to "see" it.
Instead they become about the frustrating nuances of endgames, the annoyingly important move order of your opening, that elusive positional idea you haven't mastered yet.
Those are still problems. But they're better problems. Ones you can be prouder of than sometimes, out of nowhere, hanging your queen for free.
The feeling like your brain is working for you, like you have the mental space and clarity to explore a position and make good decisions, is available to you.
And I know this because it happened to me, and I regularly hear it from others.
Giacomo wrote: "I definitely see the reduction of blunders and the clarity of positions as I play. There is still so much work to do, but it's outstanding to see how effective this training is."
Cory said: "I can clearly see 7 moves deep. I can learn all chess related things faster and easier now, as I have a much clearer memory, image, and story in my head."
Or as D.J. said, something many of us would love to happen, "I just stopped hanging pieces."
It takes work to get there, but you know the work, and you know why it's worth doing.
When conceptualization is no longer the problem, then your Chess becomes about the Chess. Not whether or not you missed something, or forgot something, or could see your line through to the end.
Just the Chess.
Why blindfold? That's why.
Here's to the journey,
Aiden
P.S. If you want to put this into practice, here are some places to start.
This article will guide you through how to include blindfold training in your schedule. The single most impactful piece is the "conceptualization stretch". You'll see what I mean when you read it.
For free blindfold exercises, insights, and lessons every day of the week, check out the Chess Visualization with Aiden Rayner podcast (Apple | Spotify).
To shout out another free tool I like, you can train semi-blindfold tactics with Listudy's free Blind Tactics trainer. It doesn't replace full blindfold training, but it's an excellent tool for linking our blindfold work back to our regular Chess.
And, lastly, Don't Move Until You See It is the only 100% conceptualization-focused training platform of its kind. Obviously I'm biased as heck, so do with that claim what you will. But if you'd like to see for yourself, you can find out more about the Don't Move Membership there.
