Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
You are supposed to already know chess piece movements (how pawns and pieces move and capture) as well as chessboard coordinates!
Visualization
… is the ability to mentally move pieces on a chessboard without touching them, creating a mosaic of your pieces several moves ahead. For instance, imagine the queen & knight checkmate position (a setup) if it is possible to make sure it is really up there meaning it can be done because you know operational capacities of chess pieces (you can achieve this knowledge through non-stop solving tactical puzzles on the front page on LICHESS.ORG). Without visualization you cannot calculate moves and variations on a chessboard, you cannot employ tactical patterns. Without visualization you can’t play with all of your pieces (tunnel vision), you can’t build your strategy (moving your pieces with a goal in your mind). Apart from visualization you can do nothing. Seeing the invisible gives the advantage of a night vision device in a night combat.
Visualization, Calculation and Tactics (Tactical Skills) are closely interconnected and practically inseparable, which, nevertheless, can ignite scholastic disputes about the priority of one or another of them over another. We are not going to argue about putting the cart before the horse, but rather accept all three as one whole, while still understanding the essence of each of them. Further in this book you will find (intense!) training of these three aspects using practical examples like digging Openings (the very first moves of a game) and Reading the engine’s thoughts.
Visualization classics. Robert Byrne vs Bobby Fischer, 1963/1964 US Championship
Black to play
In the classic Robert Byrne vs Bobby Fischer, 1963, The Brilliancy Prize game, excellent visualization skills assisted Bobby Fischer to see his winning chances half a dozen moves ahead, the chances that followed from the specifics of the position and operational capacities of his pieces he had on the board. Visualization assisted him to see what live commentators of the game did not see right there on the spot.
On the right there is the image Fischer must have seen in his head when going for that particular variation. Black should win. The white’s king either captures the black’s Rook or escapes check on f2. In both cases, the white’s queen is left undefended and is going to be captured by the black’s queen… I want you to carefully consider this example and become very envious of such a talent, which can undoubtedly be developed.
Some experts consider calculation a tool that should be used from the very first moves in a game because it is much simpler, less time-consuming, and less energy-consuming than memorizing positional patterns and constantly keeping associative thinking engaged (connecting the emerging position on the chessboard with a position you already know). Other experts are rightly confident that positional chess and positional patterns are absolutely important to learn for any chess player, including modern chess prodigies. It is quite possible that personally for you your talent, your superiority in one of the listed aspects (visualization, calculation, tactical ability), is the main driver of personal success in chess… as well as the reason for the inability to reach higher peaks like becoming the World Champion. Your personal success (and failure) is determined by how you or your coach prioritize these three interrelated aspects (visualization, calculation, tactical ability), thereby long-term shaping your chess style. Viktor Korchnoi believed that his first coach in his youth failed to realize his greatest talent as an attacking chess player by mistakenly insisting on developing positional thinking. One of the contenders for the chess crown in the 1990s believed that Garry Kasparov always had an incorrect positional assessment and that he won his games thanks to his tactical superiority over his opponents and thanks to his gushing energy. Mikhail Tal has made no secret of the fact that he wins by leading his opponents into a dark forest of options only Mikhail Tal saw a narrow way out (nevertheless, having begun to meet with the chess elite of those days, Mikhail Tal was forced to rebuild his style)… Why am I talking about all this to you, a beginner chess player? I don’t want to be the gravedigger of your talent or lead you down a wrong path. Just remember that there are multiple paths to success and the ability to switch to one mode or another when necessary. Don’t make final judgments. Don’t prioritize. Instead, just “play the instrument” that you excel at and that gives you an advantage over your opponents.
Image: Wikimedia, Levan Ramishvili from Tbilisi, Georgia, Public Domain
You should already know chessboard coordinates—the universal language of chess!
With your eyes on the board with red exclamation sign above go play the following sequence of moves:
4. Qh5+ Ke7 (4… g6 5. Qxe5+ Qe7 6. Qxh8 +3.6) 5. Qxe5+ Kf7 +3.2. Check the diagrams below
The White is +3.4 (more than 3-pawn advantage). But more importantly, black are lagging behind in development, while white’s pieces are ready to pounce on black’s king and force him into a mating net after 6. Bc4+ d5 7. Bxd5+ Kg6. If you can mentally move pieces in the diagrams above, then your visualization is really working for you, and you are much better off than others who still can’t do that.
Image: Wikipedia, Lewis chess men, Knight, Public domain
Andre Lilienthal’s lifehack
When asked, “How do you find your wonderful combinations?” Grandmaster Andre Lilienthal (1911-2010, 99!) replied like “You fellas mentally move the pieces on the board looking for variations, but I can already see the final checkmate position.” In his prime, young Garry Kasparov could see the final position a dozen moves away as well. Try this lifehack for yourself, and maybe it will work for you!? In a nutshell, this is, sort of, adjusting the raw data to the answer.
If the tactical pattern is more applicable to the game above, then Lilienthal’s lifehack definitely fits the following game.
Laszlo Wiesel vs Andre Lilienthal,
1931 Hungarian chess Championship tournament, Budapest.
A46 Indian Game: Knights Variation. General
lichess.org
Coaches and tutors for chess & vocabulary
They say this game was played blindfold by Paul Morphy against two opponents. What kind of visualization did Pau Morphy have?!
A well-developed and trained ability to see final positions can sometimes play tricks on even top GMs and lead to oversights in simple positions where even an intermediate-level chess player wouldn’t make a mistake. The colossal tension in games of the elite also contributes to such blunders. In January 2026, reigning World Champion D. Gukesh recalled this bitter irony in Round 6. Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2751 vs 2754 Dommaraju Gukesh:
Champions League Visualization work out
Blindfold game You vs Stockfish level 1 (800-1000)
Lichess.org – Play against computer – click on the “hamburger” icon on the right and enable the Blindfold mode.
Your goal is not to play a game, but to blindfold play just a few moves to keep changes happening on the board.
Next time try harder and play a few moves deeper into the game.
Next time, play deeper, even though the computer won’t play your script, and so on…
A-League Visualization, Calculation, Tactics workout
A try-harder visualization and tactical exercise
Black to play
Both kings are weak (vulnerable), so both white and black need to take care of their kings to avoid a sudden double attack on the king (check) and an attack on a hanging piece. Such tactical opportunities of your opponent are very effective because they eat time on your clocks for considering all the possible threats.
Black is rook up, but a bunch of pawns down: three pawns against the white’s six. The best way to win for black is to trade queens and knights and stay with the Rook against the opponent’s (white’s) pawns. In this specific position the plan is going to work. Pay attention to the fact that after … Re7-e1+ white’s king can retreat only to the g2-square. After this, by putting their queen on c6-square the black pins the g2-king and make queen trade possible. The problem is the white’s knight controlling the c6-square from d4, so black needs to kick it off or remove from d4-square. It can be done if black bring their knight to f5 to attack the preventer on d4: … Ng8-h6-h5. After considering all possible responses from the opponent, the player with the black pieces begins to implement his plan.
Image: Wikipedia, Lewis chess men, Bishops, Public domain
White is one move away from queening their b-pawn b7-b8=Q to avoid defeat. But now it’s black’s turn to play! Black needs to prevent white’s pawn from reaching the c8-square. The key here is to first find the right plan and then achieve it with precise moves.
The black’s queen puts the white’s king in check, driving the king onto the white’s pawn promotion square, allowing the white’s king to approach the white’s pawn and attack it together to capture it. This plan ensures a win for black.
The black’s king desperately tries to stay close to his pawn to protect it from the white’s queen. But the queen drives the king onto the pawn’s promotion square, forcing the king to block the pawn’s path. The queen’s immense mobility and “tremendous scope” are still not enough to win this game and the player on whites still needs to find and employ quite a tricky strategy to exploit the black king’s position to gradually bring the white’s king closer to the pawn, ensuring the queen’s safe capture of that pawn.
Your winning strategy with white pieces in this game: your queen attacks the opponent’s king and drives the opponent’s king to occupy the queening square, while your king moves closer to the queening pawn to assist your queen in eliminating the unlucky Cinderella.
Black to play
Remembering / Learning/ Applying / Synthesizing for future use (combining ideas to create new)
* Remembering tons of things and ability to recall the information when it is needed. Those two qualities are innate to varying degrees in humans and are refined through repeated practice and repetition. The ability to memorize and utilize extensive information, among other things, is the reason why some people are better in chess than others.
Beginner chess players at a young age are often unable to remember new information and ignore the advice of their coaches, simply enjoying the game itself with the meaningless movements of pieces on a chessboard. Unmotivated beginner chess players at a young age tend to not develop the need to memorize information, despite frequent defeats by opponents who have already embarked on the path to improvement. For some beginner chess players, the need to memorize information is developed through repeated practice, thousands of games played, and thousands of hours spent.
Learning by repetition is vital for building and strengthening neuron connections and pass information from short-term memory to long-term memory. Chess is all about remembering things, recognizing patterns and learning. Some people have a harder time remembering things than others and remembering things for them is extremely hard and boring due to their individual cognitive abilities and capabilities of their brain. You cannot learn if you do not remember things.
You’ll have to find, recall or build from scratch your adaptability to the new world you are about to enter. You need to become prudent, attentive to the detail, and patient. If you lack these qualities, chess will help you develop them. Your sense of fulfillment will strengthen you psychologically. The bitterness of defeat and your own helplessness will depress you, but it’s always 50/50 in the life of every chess player regardless of rank. However, a feeling of fulfillment can outshine most negative emotions. That is the best part of chess you are going to experience. If you try harder.
First time reading the engine’s thoughts
Full set vs single king
In the pre-computer era, analyses of multiple opening ideas and variations lasted forever, constantly changing its evaluation with each new authoritative analysis published in chess periodicals or applied in a live game. Decades were spent cultivating legions of thinking chess players doing analytical work all by themselves. In the modern era of readily available powerful computers, gadgets and chess engines installable on everything that goes with computing… everyone knows everything because all you have to do is kick an engine to show you best lines in no time. Thanks to this, the number of top Grandmasters has increased exponentially, yet they sometimes remain unaware of what ordinary masters of the past knew better than some of the modern GMs. Learning from the computer and memorizing the key algorithm for success, but not letting it discourage you from independent mental work and independent analysis of a position, is the primary goal of any chess player who wants to build their calculation ability and strategic thinking. For that way you’ll have to first analyze things yourself and check your analysis on Stockfish after you are done with your own analysis.
White to play
You already know rules of the game and how pieces move on the board.
Go set this position on lichess.org Board editor (top menu, TOOLS, Board editor) and play it with white pieces against level 8 (2600+) Stockfish. Go checkmate the black’s king the fastest way. Set time control for 15 minutes. Then play it with black pieces and check how the computer manages the task. The fastest way! That is the point! For that way you need to plan your action:
(1) Which of white’s heavy pieces are capable to checkmate the other guy?
(2) How are you going to launch them into the action?
(3) Calculate the number of moves you spend for every plan to accomplish.
(4) Choose the shortest line.
My plan is this. White’s queen jumps into the action d1-h5. One of the rooks joins the king hunt, as well. I am going to do the queen + Rook linear checkmate. For that way my queen stops the black’s king from getting too far from the edge of the board. Then one of the Rooks rolls out and joins the action. Which of them? Doesn’t matter. Let’s use the a-rook.
1. e2-e4. Black’s king would move from the edge of the board 1… Ke8 to… any square on the 7th rank (horizontal line of squares).
2. Qd1-h5. It stops the other guy from going further from the edge of the board. Black’s king comes on the 6th rank so it would just move along the rank.
3. h2-h4. Launching the king’s rook into the action. Black’s king is still on the 6th rank.
4. Rh1-h3. 5. Rh3-g3. 6. Rg3-g6 and to CHECK the other guy while being defended by the queen on h5. Black’s king moves back to the 7th rank. 7. Qh5-h7+. 8. Rg6-g8#. Black’s king is checkmated inside eight moves. That is the easiest way to checkmate the other guy from an intermediate player’s point of view. Now let’s check the computer’s idea.
Full set versus king + pawns
Such sparring sessions with a full-power computer are very useful for beginner ranks if the game is followed by a thorough analysis of missed opportunities, blunders and wrong strategy! Such analyses should become your usual thing, routine, and then your habit, your ritual.
Full set versus king + queen + pp
These exercises are just invaluable. This is the fastest way to learn how to play the right way, not to lose tempos and time, learn what it takes to understand the real strength of the pieces, learn the chessboard geometry, etc, etc. Just read the engine’s thoughts by replaying its moves back and forth. Find your joy from understanding things that will help you win your live games versus your human opponents.
Over the coming weeks or months you should play these odds (handicap games) until you remember all the ideas and learn to implement them instinctively, automatically, intuitively, without thinking.
Long-period concentrations and mental endurance/stamina is another absolutely necessary quality to develop for an ambitious chess player. History knows many cases where talented chess players failed to reach the top without developing the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. This quality is developed through practical play, focusing on the problem, analyzing constantly changing positions, and solving chess problems. You cannot and you shouldn’t stay concentrated for the entire period of a long game. It is recommended to interrupt intense mental stress with some walking to give the brain time to catch up with the brain. Two-thirds of the neurons in the human brain are responsible for motor activity, which a chess player is deprived of during a game. Compensation for this can be achieved by walking during games with long-time control and walking between rapid or blitz games. Giving your brain short breaks during the game with your eyes off the board is also a solution.
Understanding what is happening on the chessboard and what you did wrong depends on the extent to which a beginning chess player develops the capabilities of his own pieces and those of his opponent, as he develops basic knowledge of how to conduct games in technical or chess formations. As a beginner chess player, you may have to play and lose hundreds of games before you get your bearings and your memory accumulates enough data for you to understand the performance capabilities of your pieces that your brain stores as patterns. Besides, you have quite a little idea about your clandestine capabilities and talents sitting within you. Try harder to blow the cage. And keep playing despite the losses.
Visualization Skills. Ability to visualize the end-up position a few moves away. The internet offers many resources for building and improving this quality. This book discusses this further.
The story of Samuel Reshevsky’s
outstanding Visualization Skills
One of the conditions for being able to play chess at all is your visuospatial memory—your brain’s ability to remember visual & spatial information (placement and arrangement of pieces). If you remember the way from your house to the nearest grocery store, then you have these abilities. To learn to play chess, you need to adapt these abilities to chess.
Analyzing chess positions without moving pieces dramatically improves your visualization skills and your practical chess. On the other hand playing blindfold chess will make you really much better because it improves your board perception. If you do this kind of exercises from an early age then you will do wonders like eight year Samuel Reshevsky did have been blessed with exceptional visual memory. Confirmation of his outstanding visual memory was acknowledged in his childhood. Sammy was put through some intelligence tests. People in charge of testing had learned interesting facts. Sammy (1911-1992) had learned chess at the age of four, as Magnus Carlsen would a million chess years later. At the age of eight Sammy was easily beating adult chess players in simultaneous games. According to test results his long-term memory was no better than his adult rivals. But his visual memory (a part of his informative memory) was many times greater than the undeveloped visual memory of his adult chess opponents. Sammy’s great Visualization Skills boosted his tactical abilities as well.
I still have that big question buzzing in my head. How good was little Sammy on the chess coordinates?
image: Wikipedia, public domain
Eight year old Sammy Reshevsky (1911-1992) in Paris, France in 1920 is giving a simul to old folks who considered themselves decent chess players. Sammy the kid crushed most of them, full of erroneous delusions of their superiority over the kid. This kid in the image by that time had already learned chess for about four years, daily, and in his not yet fully formed brain of an eight-year kid had already formed a mass of neural connections, a tenth of which all the old people in this photo did not have. So who was supposed to be stronger?
15… Ra8-c8. Rook came to double-defend the double-attacked c6-knight (by white’s d5-bishop and c2-queen). White to play.
To better understand what is happening on the board in your live game as well as in the game analysis you can draw arrows for your Candidate Moves to aid your visualization working on the LICHESS.ORG board with your mouse right there while playing your live game on your computer. When playing on a physical board, arrows can be drawn mentally, even in different colors. This could enhance your visualization and help you retain it in your short-term memory. It is believed that when mentally calculating moves, colors are not perceived, and the coloring of the chessboard even interferes with concentration. However, due to individual differences in the development of visual and cognitive centers we have in our brains, some will find such a practice practically useful at least in outlining the candidate moves. Wikipedia. ‘Reshevsky was a tough and forceful player who was superb at positional play but could also play brilliant tactical chess when warranted. He often used huge amounts of time in the opening, which sometimes forced him to play the rest of the game in a very short amount of time. That sometimes unsettled Reshevsky’s opponents, but at other times resulted in blunders on his part. Reshevsky’s inadequate study of the opening and his related tendency to fall into time pressure may have been the reasons that, despite his great talent, he never became world champion; he himself acknowledged this in his book on chess upsets. This shortcoming was similarly noted by GM Larry Evans in commentary contained in Fischer’s book My 60 Memorable Games.’
The phenomenal Samuel Reshevsky, despite his phenomenal visualization skills, never learned to seriously study openings and always spent a lot of time at the very beginning of the game, which later led to problems with timing. At the beginning of his chess career, Having moved up to the major league and playing with strong Grandmasters, Samuel Reshevsky was forced to dodge in the opening and look for ways to equalize and seize the initiative, spending too much time on his clock.
A dose of inspiration!
Blindfold K+RR checkmate by a beginner?! – Yes. You can do that!
You can blindfold checkmate the opponent’s king with two of your rooks on the board (you already know how they move on a board). Check the image at left, remember positions of rooks: a5 and b4.
Take your yes away from the diagram and checkmate black’s king. Write your moves on paper.
Upgrading your visualization with blindfold games versus LICHESS.ORG’s engine
Image: Wikipedia, Bubba73, © CC BY-SA 3.0
Lichess.org (or lichess app) – Play against AI – select your settings. Enable the Sound settings for speech synthesis and enable Keyboard Move Entry in the settings. You can play a game using the notation input box to enter your moves with computer moves announced. Play the moves on your physical chessboard in order to sometimes check the piece arrangements when things get too complicated for you. Once you have got the visual, move your eyes back to the blindfold diagram and keep going.
This practice develops visualization. Another huge benefit of playing against the engine is the general improvement of your chess. This aspect is discussed further in this book.