this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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Chess

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# Player Country Elo
1 Magnus Carlsen ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด 2839
2 Fabiano Caruana ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 2786
3 Hikaru Nakamura ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 2780
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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

What does it mean to visualize a chess position?

I don't exactly "render" the board or pieces. It's like when you look at a board, and then make connections and feel whatever you feel, I just recreate those things.

I assume it's similar to other people, but the phrase "not being able to create images" sounds like people do "render" things in their head.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's not the same as seeing it visually, but yeah I'd say it's a mental "render". Sort of like how having a song stuck in your head isn't the same as actually hearing it.

You move the pieces around in your mental picture of the board to reassess what the potential position would look like.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's so far removed from how my brain actually works, it might as well be magic. I simply stare at the board and make mental notes which spaces would have which pieces, but there's nothing visual to it. Take away the board and I can't do a thing to plan my next moves.

For the record, I also never have any songs stuck in my head. When listening to stuff, I can recognize wrong notes and such, but I cannot in any form listen to music in my head. Heck, I can barely hum the tunes of my favorite songs after listening to them hundreds of times.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's incredible how our brains can accomplish the same things in different ways.

It's not like the average player can picture the full board state and play blindfolded chess like some GMs can, but I'd expect that it's pretty normal to visualize pieces on potential spots for tactics.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I can imagine what the board state would be if my piece is there, I just don't create a mental picture of it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

It's not the same. Aphantasisa is the total absence of being able able to picture things mentally. I have it to a degree except it takes me some effort to picture things. I can't imagine scenes from books. I get like a fleeting image.