Following recent discussions, I dug out my old chess files. Here are my mnemonics for chessboard.
The scheme tries to use the algebraic coordinates with the digit translated into Major System. The a file and e file are a challenge so here I used w on the a-file and y on the e-file. For a couple of squares I couldn’t make this work , hence the choice for g6. It’s not really necessary to encode the coordinate in the name, just a bonus.
I have a quirky aversion to using people in my mnemonics. I chose simple, concrete nouns that are easy to weave into a narrative.
Some tips for those embarking on this kind or project:
Very few players actually visualize a graphic of the board. The goal is to know the board in the way you know your own town. Think a bit about how you have learned your town, your landmark locations and the routes that connect them. Your mental map may be every bit as complex as a chessboard.
Players do not try and take in the whole board in one view. Practice seeing the board in quarters or 4x4 section, perhaps one for each quarter and a fifth in the center.
This is useful when you want to do the knights tour The knight can visit each square only one time. You have to learn the link method and connect each square. You start by telling a story, then you can start any where on the board. I have fun demonstrating this blind folded.
Great idea. I guess it can be used to recall opening moves with enough practice. do you have separate images for the chess pieces maybe? If so, would you please share. Would the chess pieces name vary depending on whether the piece is white or black? I can definitely see a use when one is playing an unfinished game of recalling where all the pieces still in the game are located. That in and of itself is of immense value to me. Well done!
There are a lot of good reasons to memorize the board if you are a serious chess player.
My main goal was to be able play chess blindfold so that I could read a game and variations without a board. This is very useful.
Strong chess players have to “know” a great deal, from opening variations, endgame positions , various tactical devices and important games. In actual play, one has to play at least a few moves in one’s head - intimate knowledge of the board will increase your visualization.
And you get an 8x8 memory palace grid which is useful for other things.
Chess is as much about the squares as it is about the pieces. To an experienced chess player, the squares are not a homogenous collection, each has a distinct character and he will have strong associations as do the varied locations in your mental map of your town. Memorizing the board, promotes this intimacy.
I don’t have a need for such images. This sort of thing has to be tailored to one’s own brain and knowledge. Different heads need different kinds of support.
I know the pieces. I see them as agents with personalities. On the board they emit a presence just like people. More particularly they project a pattern of potential moves, like the knights star. The opponents pieces have a malevolent or threatening presence. My pieces feel friendly and ready to help. The pieces themselves aren’t that significant, what matters is the moves they project or the squares they cover.
Again, this is rather idiosyncratic but I think a lot of players see the board similarly.
Chess to me feels like a capture the flag mission where the king is the flag, the board is the land and the pieces are the army.
The land is filled with holes and hills. At first you battle for the big hill in the middle of the land (in the opening, the centre of the board) by moving pawns and pieces.
In the middle game you go at it; attacking the opponents army (attacking pieces), taking their land (attacking or claiming squares), making outposts for your troops on a hill (putting pieces on good squares, creating for example a monster knight), etc.
In the endgame, when both armies only have a few soldiers left with maybe a few tanks or planes here and there and the land is mostly destroyed and filled with holes, finding hills becomes number the number one priority (in the endgame, right squares are everything. Getting your king on the good squares, moving your pawns at the right time to a square, moving your knight to a good position, etc. 1 mistake and it could be all over.)
I haven’t played any chess games in a while. I’ve watched many chess tournaments instead and seeing chess as a capture the flag game has improved my understanding of higher level chess. Especially the endgame and late middle game. I could predict and understand a few moves in the endgame between Magnus Carlsen and Jan-krzysztof Duda, as an example.
People think of chess as a calculation game. Calculation is crucial but chess is a pattern recognition game. This is why computers failed to play well for a long time in the days when they relied on brute force calculation. And the brain is a better pattern matcher than it is a calculator.
Magnus Carlson once explained that he nearly always plays the first move that comes to mind. He uses his time on the clock to check his intuition. Most experienced chess players do something similar.
This ability depends on having a large library of patterns in one’s head. Some of these memories are actual positions, others are abstractions culled from looking at many games. To Be a strong player one must have a strong memory
Bobby fischer hated that. He didn’t like how chess was becoming all about memorization.
That’s why he created Chess960, also known as Fischer random chess.
When looking at it from a distance, I think he was mostly right. Looking at today’s grandmasters and super grandmasters, memorizing lines and openings is the biggest and arguably the only differentiator between them.
It seems everyone can be beaten by a well prepared opponent. The world cup 2021 is a great example. Super grandmasters were knocked out left and right by much younger and/or much lower rated grandmasters. That was a crazy tournament.
I always look forward to the point when both players are out of their preparations. That’s when the real battle often starts. Their time on the clock goes down much faster, pressure rises, it’s great.
Wesley So is my favourite super grandmaster right now. He is incredibly accurate when playing without preparation. He is the chess960 world champion too and, I think, together with Ian Nepomniachtchi, the only real threat to Magnus Carlsen.
Upon reflection I suspect you are asking for piece names/images in order to build and image of a particular position. This may work but most blindfold players don’t do it this way. They remember the moves and if they have any questions about the current locations of pieces, they they rebuild the position by retracing the moves. This can be done very fast.
ZVUV: Thank you for sharing this chess board grid. The pictures are great and based on the location other pictures can be used. Once you have memorized the pictures you can easily go from one square to another and you can start anywhere. I love to have someone pick any square and then I run the knight around touching every square ONLY once. The I do it blindfolded. It is a great demonstration of the power of a trained memory. Well worth learning.
