"I keep guitars where the neck's a little bit bent and it's a little bit out of tune and I want to work and battle it and conquer it and make it express whatever attitude I have at that moment. I want it to be a struggle."
Jack White, It Might Get Loud (2008)
I'm going to guide you through the first several moves of a blindfold game. Play along as far as you can.
If you hit your limit before we're done, no stress. The struggle is the point.
You'll find the rest of the exercise at the end.
1. e4 e5
You know this position. You've seen it plenty of times.
If you're new to blindfold work, the exact details may be a little fuzzy. You might have to work out that the light-squared bishop can see a6. Or the queen's eyeing off h5.
But holding this position's not tricky. Long term memory's doing most of the work.
2. Nf3 Nc6
This is where I fell over on my first attempt at blindfold work. The knights came out and I couldn't work out how they interacted with the pawns.
I was an e4 player at the time. I shouldn't have had to work it out.
But I'd never had to actually think about it. My eyes always told me in the moment what the knights were doing. The knowledge wasn't integrated.
The result in games was that I'd often move my knight and blunder a central pawn. My eyes couldn't save me all the time.
The issues we find when we're blindfolded are a reflection of the issues we have when we can see.
3. Bc4 Bc5
What are the bishops doing now?
Well, the bishop on c4 hits f7. Many of us know that immediately. Our early experiences getting crushed by the Scholar's Mate burn the detail into our psyche.
But did you notice that Bc4 left the g2 pawn undefended? Or Bc5 left g7 undefended?
The vacated square. So easy to miss. In blindfold, and in our actual games.
4. c3 Qe7
Once c3 hits, many of us are on our own. If you don't play the Italian, c3 seems strange. It doesn't develop anything. It blocks the natural development square for the knight.
The tiniest bit of fog descends.
The temptation is to simply think, "That's weird", and move on. That impulse makes sense. If your working memory is approaching capacity, your brain wants to think about each new move as little as possible.
But then Qe7 is strange as well. Two "weird" moves back to back. The fog's getting thicker.
A move ago, perhaps you felt clarity. But now you're uncomfortable.
We can take that uncomfortable feeling for what it really is: error feedback.
Your brain knows when it's clear about a position. And it knows when it's foggy and unsure.
The latter is an indicator that you've missed something. Or not tied something into the wider position.
Or simply maxed out what your conceptualization is capable of right now. That's ok too.
Error feedback is a core pillar of effective learning. The faster we notice an error, correct it, and try again, the faster our knowledge or skill grows.
Blindfold training is a constant error feedback loop. You try, you get foggy, you restart. On the second go through, you notice more, tie things together more, and get just a little bit further before the fog descends again.
So let's restart.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5
Again, you run through the ways these moves affect the position. We need repetition for details to stick, for them to be automatic.
This second go around, your brain's doing a better job of chunking the information together. You reach the tricky 4th move feeling a bit more confident.
4. c3 Qe7
This time you don't skip over c3. You take the time to tie it into the position.
You notice it stops Black's knight from jumping forward to b4. You notice it blocks the diagonal to White's king. That it supports a possible d4 push. That it opens up a diagonal through the now-empty c2 square for White's queen.
You do the same for Qe7. You notice it defends the e5 pawn and the bishop on c5. You notice it leaves the c7 pawn without a defender.
The position feels clearer now. Easier to juggle, hold, explore.
(That's all the moves for now. You can pick up the rest of the exercise at the end.)
The struggle to get from unclear to clear is the bit that matters.
It trains your brain what to do with this information. How to chunk it, tie it together. Juggle it more efficiently.
And it trains you to notice and appreciate all the things each move does.
These benefits tend to stick. Because blindfold work demands the exact conditions that foster effective learning.
Researcher Stanislas Dehaene posits there are four pillars of effective learning.
The first pillar is Attention. We need full attention and focus on the task at hand. No distractions.
Well, good luck doing a blindfold exercise if you're distracted.
The second pillar is Active Engagement. We must create and test hypotheses, come up with ideas, try to work things out. Passive learning doesn't work very well.
With each move, you're tying the position together, looking for details, exploring what could happen in the position. Because if you don't do that, you get foggy. That's active engagement.
The third is Error Feedback, which we've already discussed.
The last is Consolidation. This is the repetitions, going back through the exercise when we've lost the position.
(The consolidation pillar is also about having good sleep, which admittedly blindfold training does not force. Nothing's perfect, I guess.)
Blindfold training hits all four pillars because it's so difficult. The difficulty is desirable, as long as it doesn't go too far.
If your attempts at blindfold feel impossible rather than very hard, that's a sign you need to change something.
Researchers Elizabeth and Robert Bjork (discussed in Part 3) wrote:
"Desirable difficulties are desirable because they trigger encoding and retrieval processes that support learning, comprehension, and remembering. If, however, the learner does not have the background knowledge or skills to respond to them successfully, they become undesirable difficulties." (emphasis mine)
When it's too difficult, it stops working.
If blindfold work feels impossible, you can add an aid or two to bring the difficulty down. Here are some ideas.
- look at a blank board as you go
- write down the moves or key piece locations
- take notes on the main ideas or dynamics in the position
- set up a selection of pieces on a board (maybe the pawn structure, or the kingside, or just the Black pieces)
- literally just follow along on a board to start
It's not "perfect" training to use these aids, sure. But "perfect" training is pointless if it's simply too difficult to get started.
Training you can do beats "perfect" training any day of the week. As long as you still feel the struggle, you're still getting quality training.
Over time, as you build strength and confidence, you won't need the aids so much.
However you go about your blindfold training, let the struggle be your guide.
That's your signal there's an improvement opportunity here. Don't shy away from it.
You want to work, battle it, conquer it.
Because it's exactly the struggle for clarity that makes blindfold as effective as it is.
Here's to the journey,
Aiden
P.S.
Here's the rest of the blindfold exercise: 5. d4 Bb6 6. d5 Nd8 7. Be3 Bxe3 8. fxe3 d6 9. Nbd2 Nf7 10. O-O O-O
What is White's best move?
