People often look back on their life and say, “If only I knew then what I know now.” As someone interested in chess you probably realize just how true this is when it comes to improving chess visualization skills. If you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, right from the beginning, it takes years to get a developed visualization ability; that is, if you ever get there at all. Here are some tips that can help you on your path to conquer chess visualization skills:
1. Solving thousands of puzzles:
Of course, you won’t learn too much by only looking at diagrams and considering forward moves without actually making the moves on a board. The choice of puzzles is not obvious, personally I do not recommend:
a) Exercises announcing in advance the number of moves it takes to mate:. In fact knowing the number of moves it takes to mate is a key clue which helps the brain generate possible solutions in the solving process and, therefore, the fields of imagination will be reduced considerably.
b) Exercises that reveal the tactical device to use. Unless you are trying to learn the basics of tactics, knowing in advance which technique to use does not let you calculate the variations to the best of your ability.
c) A lot of mating exercises. Mating exercises can be a valuable method to develop your chess visualization skill because they are generally based on forced moves, but to train by this method will not allow you to stimulate the maximum of your potential.
2. Reading variations from annotated games without moving pieces:
When you study an annotated game, don’t rush to make the move on the board. You should strive to follow the moves and visualize how the board should look, then compare your vision to the actual board. It is very helpful, isn’t it?
3. Pattern recognition:
Having a highly developed chess visualization ability is primarily a matter of obtaining a large mental “database” of familiar tactical patterns. Thanks to this knowledge you’ll be able to visualize unfamiliar patterns to discover if clever tactics exist and if so, to find and play them. As we all know: repetition is the mother of skills. If we repeat the same material, sooner or later we will remember it and finally understand it. The more patterns we know, the easier it is to visualize the following moves.
For more training tips check out my blog: http://AngryBishop.net
https://youtu.be/4jZIYLpZoOg