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I'd like to approach this topic as a way to improve my visualization skills. What are the best ways to improve this skill?
I have a few blindfolded games at the club level that managed to make it into the mid-game, but as for solving positions or tricky tactics I'm lost.
Blindfold chess is really a very good way to help with visualization since it forces you to do just that.
That said, it is difficult in the beginning, and takes practice. Before you jump in with both feet, you might want to start with a smaller exercise that practices the same skills. That is, find interesting games that are relatively short (under 25 moves), and practice reading them without a board, but REALLY keeping the position in your head. Read the entire game in your head, including light notes, and then at the end, set it up on a board, and play it out and see how it compares to what you had in your mind's eye. The goal of this is not to actually analyze...you are just visualizing.
As you get better, then feel free to try and play full games blindfolded.
I played and even won blindfold games. But I did not do a lot of them. What helped me was descriptive notation. That made it so much easier and logical to visualize the board. I would never have been able to play with the algebraic notation.
What you really need is a way to ensure remembering the moves andor the current board position. I suspect that goes more to psychology and other factors than to chess.
