At the centre of every skill you will ever need to improve your chess, is visualization skill. Once you have honed your visualization skill, all other skills will naturally follow.
What is it like to have excellent chess visualization skills? You will basically be able to see chess moves in your mind before you actually make these moves on the board, and you will be able to think about the consequences of your moves before you actually make the moves.
Chess visualization forms part of practically all the other chess skills you will ever need to acquire because in the process of developing your visualization skills, you'll also develop other skills. Here's how:
- As you visualize the outcome of your move in your mind, you will actually be improving your chess strategies. As your visualization skills improve with practice, you will be able to have a very clear picture in your mind of the resulting positions for every move that you will contemplate, and this will improve your overall chess strategy knowledge of position evaluation.
- As you consider in your mind whether a particular move will be a good or bad strategy, you will be in fact developing your chess planning abilities.
- While you are visualizing the chess patterns and combinations in your mind, you will actually be improving your chess tactics knowledge.
- As you use your visualization skills to consider various moves and all your opponent's possible responses, you will in fact be improving your chess calculation proficiency.
- While you visualize and clearly see in your mind your moves before you make them, you will be improving your decision making ability which helps you to decide on the best moves and check to make sure that you are not making any blunders.
Now, we have outlined that improving your visualization skills is pivotal to all other chess skills you need. The next question is: what is the best way to improve your visualization skills?
Many methods have been invented to train visualization, not the least of them being the art of playing blindfold chess. Modern technology has made chess visualization training software possible - which is designed specifically for the purpose of training visualization ability.
Chess visualization is indeed the best way to improve your overall chess proficiency because when you excel at this skill, you improve on all other necessary skills. Your ability to "see" a clear mental picture of unfolding moves before actually making the moves on the board, also gives you the confidence you need to successfully play competitive chess.
