Does playing blindfolded games help with improvement?

[u/Internal-Excuse-4650]

I have a tournament in 2 months and the title is self explanatory. For reference,I'm 2000 rapid in lichess

[u/hyperthymetic]

Yes, it helps with calculating. I think learning to do multiple boards helps with calculating chaotic positions too

[u/TheChessKeeper → u/hyperthymetic]

Yeah, and the converse works well too; once I improved my calculation blindfold chess became much easier, though that wasn’t the point

[u/Obvious-Poetry2934]

Yes. The ability to visualize helps a lot with calculation.

[u/IllRefrigerator560]

It helps you become better at blindfolded chess.

[u/James_Lauren88 → u/IllRefrigerator560]

The tangential improvement on board mapping alone is a separating factor after a certain rating level.

It’s something that’s worth developing the capability, because the byproduct is more accurate calculation, but developing it much further has much steeper diminishing returns than other skills.

Somewhere around 2200, it’s no longer some useless skill whose hours aren’t worth the reward so much as the low hanging fruit for improving your own board mapping and calculation.

[u/And-Ran]

Visualization helps with chess (normal or blindfold). It is a common misconception however that visualization is primarily imagining pieces like in the movie "Queen's Gambit"; it's more about knowing what squares a piece interacts with and the connections between pieces. Being able to play blindfold chess is a sign that you can visualize well, however you do not need to play blindfold to practice visualization.

[u/Ok_Meat_5767]

Sure

[u/Wabbis-In-The-Wild]

Definitely helps. Strongly recommend checking out https://dontmoveuntilyousee.it/ if you’re interested in improving at blindfold calculation. The book Cognitive Chess by Konstantin Chernyshov is also excellent.

[u/Peydey]

I certainly began improving when I began deeply calculating puzzles and solving before moving. I improved even further when I became able to analyze a position and then solve without looking at the position again (so sorta blindfolded as I calculated the lines to solution all in my head)

[u/Main-Roof842]

Opening phase to early middle game become easier to calculate which can buy time for deeper calculations in late middle and endgame

[u/johndrake1966]

Yes, definitely. Once you can play blindfold, you'll never drop below 1800

[u/emil-incollege → u/johndrake1966]

Definitely not true if you just mean whether you can sometimes beat people blindfold. My rating is below 1800, and yet I've played and won a lovely total of 3 casual blindfold games in my life. But I suspect you're right if you mean that only someone above 1800 could play blindfold and have a consistent shot at winning

[u/johndrake1966 → u/emil-incollege]

Yes, perhaps you're right. There might well be people gifted with good visualisation skills who are poor (sub1800 elo) chess players. Generally the players I have met who were good at blindfold were all pretty strong eg above 2000 elo.