The black art of calculation - Blindfold Chess with a Twist!

En route to the next level of training!

In a previous article, I showed how much fun and valuable it is to play (or at least try to play) Blindfold Chess.
I'll introduce today a modified form of blindfold play that will provide even more benefits to your over-the-board game.

BCT! (Blinfold Chess with a Twist!).

This is a little known training exercise that I used to practice at my Chess Club "Caissa" in Paris during the days when the extraordinary Mme Chaude de Silans was the owner of the club; You'll need a chessboard, a partner (no computer GUI can play this as far as I know) and a clock (optional though); This goes as follows:

• Decide upfront how many moves who want to "skip":
  • let's call it the "skipping factor; "The best pick is between 2 and 5, so let's say 2 for the purpose of this explanation but I usually pick 3
  • the game can now begin!
• The white player announces his/her move but without playing it on the board i.e. e2-e4
• The black player announces his/her reply but without playing it on the board i.e. e7-e5.
• At this point, the board is unchanged but the players already played 1 move each.
• Then The white player announces his/her next move but without playing it on the board i.e. Ng1-f3
• The black player announces his/her reply but without playing it on the board i.e. Nb8-c6.
• At this point, the board remains unchanged but the players already played 2 moves each.
• The white player announces his/her next move, say, Bf1-b5 but, as we reached the "skipping factor" (3 in this example), the white player has to play on the board the move announced 2 moves earlier i.e. e2-e4.
• The black player announces his/her reply, say, a7-a6 but, again, we reached the "skipping factor", the black player has to play the move announced 2 moves earlier i.e. e7-e5 in this example.

At this point, the board shows the position below:

Where, in reality, the game already reached the position below:



and then you keep playing along the same lines; In our example this could go like this:

• The white player announces Bb5-a4 and play Ng1-f3 on the board
• The black player announces Ng8-f6 and play Nb8-c6 on the board
• The white player announces O-O and play Bf1-b5 on the board
• The black player announces Bf8-e7 and play a7-a6 on the board
• etc...

This exercise is both fun and extremely useful when it comes to improving your visualization and calculation skills, give it a try!