Temposchlucker

. . . The past 25 years my physical strain consisted mainly of dragging my body between my couch, car and computer. Since I feel less fit lately I (we) decided to become a member of a local fitnessclub. Today I had my first workout. I wonder if it is possible to combine chess visualisation exercises with cardio workouts?

. . . I'm now 3 weeks busy with visualization exercises. It basically boils down at the moment to doing DLM's microdrills with no board and no pieces. I'm making considerable progress. It is already easier to evaluate a position away from the board. This is going to be a long process so it is ideally suited to do it for 15 minutes a day over a long period of time. In general two weeks would be enough for any visualisation exercise, I guess, so I can do a lot of different exercises in a year or so. Right now I'm busy with knightvision exercises. After the basic visualisation exercises I intend to continue with visualisation of long lines with no branches. Slowly adding complexity to the exercises, step by step. While playing I noticed that after visualisation of a future position, evaluation is dearly needed. In order to evaluate, I must be able to recognize the patterns in the position first. Since most positions during a game are of positional nature I have restarted i...

. . . Wormwood said: I wonder how motion patterns fit into all this. I have no idea what the english term for them are, but I mean the procedural muscle memory related to any complex physical movement. like throwing a ball. - studies show those patterns develop roughly before you turn 14 or so, after which it becomes very difficult to acquiring new patterns. which is the reason why a right-handed adult has extreme difficulties learning to throw with his LEFT hand. so, when we work these chess things right into muscle memory, we're actually offloading the task from our conscious mind, much like what you're talking about, but into a different type of unconscious memory. now, the question is, are visualisation drills neglecting this resource completely, as the processing of problems happens without physically moving any pieces. or, are the drills still having the same effect motion pattern-wise, due to simply THINKING of moving the pieces. I'd be inclined to think the latt...

. . . In order to transfer a task from conscious processing to unconscious procedural processing, a certain degree of intensity is needed. When you are young it is easier to learn things since your level of consciousness is somewhat higher. When you grow older more tasks are done on automatic pilot. Transfer will not take place when operating on automatic pilot. Yet it is perfectly possible to learn new things when you grow older. The only thing is that you have to maintain a higher level of consciousness during learning. . . . It will feel a bit out of your lazy comfortzone, but it is not impossible at all. You can compare it with the intensity of consciousness you felt during learning how to drive a car. If you think about it, is amazing how many tasks you learned to perform automaticly in the 40-100 hours or so that you had driving lessons. Usually when you learn something quite new it is easy to maintain that high level of intense focus. But when the automatic pilot takes over, pla...

. . . Remarkable that nobody commented on the picture of my previous post. That illustrates the power of pattern recognition! Probably I would gain the most points if I followed the road that Phaedrus mapped out . And I sure will once. Yet at the moment I'm amusing myself with visualization exercises. For the following reasons: I want to settle this issue once and for all, the Chess Exam pointed out that I'm bad in calculation and I'm curious if my assumptions will stand the test. Besides that it's fun. Ok, now where are we standing? Let's stretch matters a bit. Plateauing starts when automatic training takes it over from conscious training. Automatic training results in no transfer of conscious tasks towards the procedural memory. So the training is automatic, but in the real OTB deal you remain dependend on conscious actions. Conscious training OTOH, does lead to transfer of tasks. So the training will be conscious, while the real deal will be greatly automated. ...

. . . From elsewhere on the web: George Koltanowski, probably the best blindfold player ever, gives the following hints to playing blindfold chess: Cut up a (paper) chess board into four parts ... and memorize the squares. (Pay special attention to the color of each squares and diagonals.) Take an empty board and try to play over very short games of chess. Set up positions ... and work very hard at VISUALIZING the next 2-3 moves. | (DON'T move the pieces!) Practice your new craft whenever you get the chance! (Three times a week.) Don't be afraid to lose. Of course I couldn't restrain my curiosity to have a look at what would be my next challenge in case I manage to obtain perfect board vision . So I simulated perfect board vision by using an empty board and I solved the following exercise from papa Polgars first brick. diagram 1 . . . White to move. Mate in two. Solution: [ 1.Qd4 ] While I w...

. . . This week I have been busy with board visualization exercises. It is quite difficult to maintain a non-distorted picture of the board in my head. The details continuously fade away so I must constantly refresh them. My rule of thumb is that everything that has to be maintainened consciously by repetition has to be transfered to procedural memory. Thus freeing the short term memory for more intelligent tasks. The brains are quite efficient and they don't like to transfer tasks from the conscious part of the brain to the procedural part. From our youth on we are much more familiar with rows and columns than with diagonals. This makes it much easier to imagine rook moves than bishop moves. Even the playing of a zillion chessgames doesn't inspire the brain to transfer the visualisation of the diagonals into procedural memory. Conscious reconstruction of the diagonals seems to be "cheaper" than unconscious visualisation. I started to consciously "build" th...