Blindfold chess training: a 4 week plan

Blindfold chess training works best as a short daily habit with a clear order: squares first, then one piece, then a known opening line, then a slow game. This plan takes four weeks at 10 to 15 minutes a day. Each week has one goal and one test. Pass the test before you move on; if you fail it, repeat the week. Nobody is graded on speed, and a week repeated is a week well spent.

This guide is the schedule. For what blindfold play trains and whether it is safe, read blindfold chess benefits first.

The plan at a glance

Week	Goal	Daily session	Test to pass
1	Know every square without looking	Square names from both sides, then square colours with no board	Any square named in under two seconds, board flipped; 20 colours right in a row
2	Track one piece	Knight, bishop and rook routes of one to four moves, no board	Four-move routes at 80 percent, with the colour of the final square
3	Hold a whole position	A five-move opening line replayed in your head, then questions about it	Every piece that moved, named on its square, without a mistake
4	Play	An eight-move line, then a slow blindfold game	Reach move 15 of a game without asking to see the board

Before you start

Two rules hold for all four weeks. Train from both sides of the board, because half your games are as Black and "e4" has to be the same square from either chair. And stop when the picture goes blurry. Blindfold work is tiring, and ten accurate minutes beat twenty minutes of guessing.

You can do the whole plan with no app at all: a friend reading moves, a notebook, or a book's game scores read silently. The drills below make it faster because they check every answer. Name the Square and Find the Square are free at every level. Square Colors, Knight Paths, Diagonals and Blindfold Squares have a free level 1, and their higher levels are in Pro. Three days of training in a row earn 72 hours of Pro once, with no card.

Week 1: know every square without looking

Spend the first five minutes on square names, then five on colours. Name the Square shows a lit square and you say its name; Find the Square works the other way round. Do levels with the board flipped, because most players lose accuracy as Black at first.

For colours, the rule is to number the files a to h as 1 to 8 and add the rank: an even total is dark. a1 is 1 plus 1, dark. b5 is 2 plus 5, light. Learn the anchors so you stop counting: a1 dark, h1 light, d4 and e5 dark, e4 and d5 light. Level 1 of Square Colors is free and shows a faded board; look away from it. Without the app, write ten random squares on paper each morning and answer from memory.

The test: any square named in under two seconds with the board flipped, and twenty colours right in a row with no board. Most people need the full week for the colours.

Week 2: track one piece

Now the board goes away. A piece starts on a named square and moves; you follow it. Take a knight on g1: f3, e5, c4. Where is it, and what colour is the square? c4, light. A knight changes colour on every jump, so after three jumps from a dark square it must stand on a light one. Use that check on every answer.

Say each square under your breath as it is named. The common failure is trying to recall the whole route at the end; update the square after every move instead. The Blindfold Squares drill reads a knight, bishop or rook route aloud and asks for the final square. Level 1 (one move) is free; levels 2 to 4 add one move each and are in Pro. Free alternative: write a four-move knight route, cover it, read it back from memory, then check it on a board. Knight Paths level 1 helps if the jumps themselves are slow.

The test: four-move routes at 80 percent, saying the colour of the final square as well as its name. If three moves pass and four collapse, stay on three for a few more days.

Week 3: hold a whole position

Take one opening line you already know and replay it in your head, every day, from the start position. Here is a common line of the Ruy Lopez:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7

After the last move, answer without a board. Where is White's king? g1, with the rook on f1. Where are the three knights that have moved? f3, c6 and f6. Which piece is White's a4 bishop aimed at? The knight on c6. Which white piece attacks the pawn on e5? The knight on f3. Then check yourself on a real board.

Spend ten minutes on the line and its questions, and keep five minutes of Blindfold Squares or board-less knight routes as a warm-up. If you are not sure how to read the moves, the chess notation guide covers it.

The test: replay the line and name the square of every piece that has moved, both sides, without a mistake, three days running.

Week 4: play

Extend the same line by three moves, so the position has more to hold:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O

Now both sides have castled. Where are the four rooks? a1 and e1 for White, a8 and f8 for Black. Which white piece looks at f7? The bishop on b3, along b3, c4, d5, e6. Questions like these are what a game asks of you every move.

Then play. Lichess has a blindfold mode that hides the pieces. Choose a slow time control, so the clock is not the thing that beats you, and expect the game to come apart somewhere in the middlegame. When it does, note the move where your picture diverged; it is usually a capture you forgot to update. If you prefer no screen, a friend can read their moves aloud while you answer with yours.

The test: reach move 15 of a slow game without asking to see the board. Winning is not part of it.

After the four weeks

Keep a short version going. Five minutes a day of square names or routes holds what you built, and one blindfold game a week extends it. Add a second opening line when the first feels easy. For a wider routine that fits this around tactics and openings, see the daily chess training routine, and for the stages of visualization in more depth, read how to improve chess visualization.