Blindfold chess
Blindfold chess is played without seeing the board or the pieces, so each player must hold the whole position in memory and name every move aloud or through notation.
Also called: blindfold
In blindfold chess the players do not look at a board. Moves are called out, typed or sent in algebraic notation, such as Nf3 or e4, and each player has to track the position entirely in their head. Sometimes only one player plays blindfold against an opponent who can see a board, and sometimes both do. Some strong players even play several blindfold games at the same time.
The skill needed is visualization, which means seeing the board and pieces clearly in your mind without any physical help. Players who practice it often notice that their calculation in normal games improves, because they are used to picturing positions several moves ahead. Beginners can start by closing their eyes after a few moves in a casual game, or by solving simple puzzles from notation without a diagram.
Blindfold chess is a showpiece at exhibitions and a useful training method, but it is not used in standard rated events. Mistakes in remembering the position are common, so players agree in advance how to settle a dispute, usually by checking against a board kept in view of an arbiter.
Also worth reading is Correspondence chess. Correspondence chess is played over a long period, with moves sent by post, email or a website, so each player has days to think about every move.
It sits close to Simultaneous exhibition. A simultaneous exhibition is an event in which one strong player plays many opponents at once, moving from board to board while each opponent has time to think between visits.
Time controls change what a player should practice, and the improvement plans by rating band show how the habits behind "Blindfold chess" differ across rating ranges.
Related terms
Visualization is the ability to hold a chess position in your mind and picture how it changes after a series of moves, without moving the pieces on the board.
A simultaneous exhibition is an event in which one strong player plays many opponents at once, moving from board to board while each opponent has time to think between visits.
Correspondence chess is played over a long period, with moves sent by post, email or a website, so each player has days to think about every move.
A chess clock is a pair of linked timers of which only one runs at a time; after each move a player presses their side to stop their own time and start the opponent's.
A time control is the rule that sets how much thinking time each player gets in a game, and whether extra time is added per move, which decides what kind of chess is being played.
Checkmate, or mate, ends a chess game at once: the king of the side to move is under attack, and none of that side's legal moves can remove the attack, so the player who delivered it wins.
Guides that go further
See whether a base time and increment counts as bullet, blitz, rapid or classical.
Average chess rating and a good chess rating
What share of active Lichess players are rated above 800, 1200, 1500, 1800 or 2000, by time control.
What a rating measures, how FIDE, Lichess, US Chess and chess.com compute theirs, and why the numbers differ.
Want to spot this in your own games?
A first lesson starts with your games: George reviews them and builds a study plan around what he finds.