The second handicap

I decided to press on with removing the next couple of pieces from the board - the tiles representing my pair of rooks. It may be that I'm doing this a bit too gradually and carefully, but I'm interested in how I find each stage. The way I envision this going is something like the below.

Basic Semi-blindfold
Handicap (i) - Own K & Q removed
Handicap (ii) - Own K, Q and 2xR removed
Handicap (iii) - Own K, Q, 2xR and 2xB removed
Handicap (iv) - All own pieces except pawns removed
Handicap (v) - As (iv), + opponent K & Q removed
Handicap (vi) - As (iv), + opponent K, Q and 2xR removed
Handicap (vii) - As (iv), + opponent K, Q, 2xR and 2xB removed
Handicap (viii) - All pieces except pawns removed
Handicap (ix) - As (viii), + own c d e and f pawns removed
Handicap (x) - All pieces removed, all own pawns removed
Handicap (xi) - As (x), + opponent c d e and f pawns removed
Handicap (xii) - All pieces and pawns removed
Handicap (xiii) - As (xii), plus game board removed

So that puts me at Handicap (ii) right now. I expect it to get a fair amount more difficult by (iv), and a lot more difficult by (viii). Getting to (viii) is my main target for the foreseeable future - I'm sure that once you can visualise all the pieces reasonably then it will be very helpful when calculating longer variations in normal games. Eventually reaching (xii) would make me very happy. As for playing blindfold without a board, I'm not so bothered about this. While it's a nice party trick I'm not sure it would benefit normal 'sighted' play, because on those occasions you will always have a board in front of you.

Focusing on the present, I played a game today semi blindfold minus the tiles for my king, queen and rooks. The change didn't seem to have much impact on the game, if only because there were few tactics and I achieved a winning position without any real complications. See below for the game (annotations are included in the game viewer).

Play chess online

It's rare for a game to go quite this smoothly. I was happy with how it went, but think I need to start playing against higher rated opponents. Although the outcome of the game is less important than the practice in working towards blindfold play, difficult complications are more likely to arise against a stronger opponent. Also I would be interested in getting a more accurate picture of what rating my handicapped play strength really is (...and it would be a bit unfair and embarrassing to show too many wins here).


The image above shows the final position as it looked on my chess board. Time to suck it up, remove a couple more pieces and pick some >1500 opponents.