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Blindfold chess trainer

Hear the moves. Say the square. No board on the screen.

A short sequence of moves is read aloud, you say or tap the square where the piece ends up, and you know at once whether the board in your head held. Blindfold Squares runs in the browser, free to start, with no account and no download. Level 1 plays right here.

Press Start, then listen. Tap one of the five squares offered, or turn voice on and say the square.

Blindfold Squares · Level 1 · 1 move

One move. Where does the piece land?

Loading the drill…

Blindfold Squares: all 4 levels All six coordinate drills

How a round works

  1. Step 1:Hear the piece and its square

    A knight, bishop or rook is named on a starting square, for example a knight on g1. Nothing is drawn.

  2. Step 2:Follow the moves in your head

    Its moves are read aloud, one at a time. Picture each square it lands on: at level 1 there is one move, at the top level there are 4.

  3. Step 3:Say or tap the square

    Name the square where the piece ended, out loud or by tapping one of the five offered. You hear whether you were right, then the next piece is named.

The ladder: from one move to a whole sequence

What changes from level to level is only how many moves you keep track of: one at level 1, one more at each level up to 4. The piece is a knight, a bishop or a rook, chosen per question; it never returns to a square it has visited, and there is no clock. A level passes at 80 percent.

Level 1 is free with no account. Levels 2 to 4 are in Pro, and with a free account a 3 day streak earns 72 hours of Pro, no card.

  1. Level 1: 1 move

    Free

    One move. Where does the piece land?

  2. Level 2: 2 moves

    Pro

    Follow 2 moves in your head and name the final square.

  3. Level 3: 3 moves

    Pro

    Follow 3 moves in your head and name the final square.

  4. Level 4: 4 moves

    Pro

    Follow 4 moves in your head and name the final square.

Where it fits: squares, then one piece, then a position, then a game

  1. Squares

    Until the coordinates feel natural and you know the colour of any square without counting. Name the Square and Square Colors are the two drills for it.

  2. One piece

    Keep track of a single knight, bishop or rook through one move, then two, three and four. That is this trainer; knight jumps and long bishop moves are where the picture tends to go, often around the third move.

  3. A position

    Replay an opening line you know in your head and name where every piece stands at the end. Week three of the 4 week blindfold chess plan.

  4. A game

    Play a slow game with the pieces hidden: the blindfold setting on Lichess or chess.com, or in our app a blindfold game against Stockfish by voice, with a free account.

Why by voice

With no board on the screen there is nothing to glance at, and with no typing there is nothing to look down for: you listen, you picture the square, you say it. That is the only honest blindfold test, and it works with the phone in a pocket on a walk as well as at a desk. If you would rather not use a microphone, or cannot right now, tap one of the five squares offered instead; no microphone is required, and the moves are read aloud either way.

What this trainer does not do

It does not play full games, and it does not rebuild a position from notation. It trains one thing, keeping track of a piece you cannot see, and hands you on to a blindfold game elsewhere once that feels easy. Blind chess and blindfold chess mean the same thing, playing or training without seeing the board; we say blindfold. For a whole game by voice there is Stockfish in the app, with a free account.

Questions

Is there a free blindfold chess trainer?

Yes, this one. Level 1 of Blindfold Squares plays on this page with no account and no download: one move at a time, by voice or by tap. Levels 2 to 4 add a move each and are part of Pro; with a free account, a 3 day streak earns 72 hours of Pro, no card.

How do you practice blindfold chess as a beginner?

In steps. Learn the square names and colours until they feel natural, then track one piece through one move with no board, then two, three and four, then replay an opening line you know in your head. Full games come last, not first.

How long does it take to learn blindfold chess?

It depends on where you start. Ten to fifteen minutes a day is plenty, because accuracy drops before you notice it, and the steps are the same for everyone: square names and colours, then one piece for one move, then up to four, then an opening line in your head. Our 4 week plan lays that out with one goal and one test a week, so judge by the test, not the calendar.

The 4 week blindfold chess plan

Is blindfold chess bad for your brain?

Not for a club player doing short drills or the odd game. The old warnings were about masters playing dozens of games at once for hours. Blindfold work is tiring, so stop when the squares go blurry and come back the next day.

What blindfold chess trains, and whether it is safe

Can you play blindfold chess on Lichess or Chess.com?

Yes. Both have a blindfold mode that hides the pieces while you play an ordinary game, and that is the step after this drill, once a 4 move sequence feels easy. In our app you can also play a blindfold game against Stockfish by voice, with a free account.

Do I need to know chess notation?

Only the square names, like e4 or g1: a letter for the file and a number for the rank. The moves are read aloud in plain words rather than as notation, and you answer with a square name or a tap. If the names are not instant yet, start with Name the Square.

Name the Square drill

Does it work without a microphone?

Yes. The drill starts in tap mode: five squares are offered and you tap the one the piece ended on. Voice is a button you turn on when you want to answer out loud, and the moves are read to you either way.

Guides and what's new

What's new, : Blindfold Squares on its own page. The blindfold chess trainer now has a public page: level 1 plays free with no account, moves read aloud, answer by voice or tap. Levels 2 to 4 stay in Pro. All changes

Keep your scores and your streak.

A free account, no card. Your rounds on this page come with you.

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