Welcome to the 96 new subscribers who joined since the last newsletter. Join the 1,129 others receiving chess perspectives ranging from chess history to chess improvement.In the podcast episode I talk about:* The 30 days blindfold chess challenge* The 2016 World Chess Championship, A Russian Spy, and The Mueller Report* My own chess improvement, the newsletter/publishing business, and why I will try to shift my mindset from chess improvement to chess enjoyment.Remember to follow the podcast in your local podcast player....
Welcome to the 96 new subscribers who joined since the last newsletter. Join the 1,129 others receiving chess perspectives ranging from chess history to chess improvement.
In the podcast episode I talk about:
* The 30 days blindfold chess challenge
* The 2016 World Chess Championship, A Russian Spy, and The Mueller Report
* My own chess improvement, the newsletter/publishing business, and why I will try to shift my mindset from chess improvement to chess enjoyment.
Remember to follow the podcast in your local podcast player.
Are you ready for a challenge?
I have made a 30-day training challenge to motivate myself, and hopefully, also others to do some blindfold chess training every day for 30 days. Here are the rules for the challenge:
* Play at least one blindfold game each day
* Solve min. 5 blindfold puzzles each day🧩
* Play more blindfold games than regular games
If you want to Tweet about it you can use the hashtag #30DaysofBlindfoldChess
Blindfold training material
Here are some good blindfold training resources that I plan to use for the challenge:Blindfold Chess Puzzles (link)This site has a really simple and useful layout. The tactics are based on the Lichess puzzle database. You can adjust the number of pieces and the difficulty.
Blindfold Chess (link)Another option is to practice blindfold chess against an engine. Here this site is perfect. If you don’t like the layout there is also this site: https://chessinsights.org/blindfold/
Lichess blindfold modeUnder preferences > Game display you can pick ‘Blindfold chess’. I have made an alternate account for blindfold chess practice. It is not 100% blindfolded since you can see the board, but it is fun to play against real opponents and it is challenging as well.
If you want to play without the empty board you can enter moves on Lichess too. You just have to into Game behavior > Input moves with the keyboard. Then you just have to put a post-it over the board on your screen.
Blindfold chess books (link)Finally, you can also invest in some blindfold books. I have made two books so far. Another new book with good reviews is ‘Cognitive Chess: Improving Visualization and Calculation Skills by Konstantin Chernyshov.
Apps and programsOther good options for blindfold training are listed here:
* Chessvis App
* NoirChess
* The Tarrasch Chess GUI (includes Blindfold training options)
* Chessfish
* Blind tactics on Listudy
I hope you will find the resources useful and the podcast interesting!
/Martin
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saychess.substack.com
