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Visualize this!

Visualization is perhaps the most important skill of a chess player. It is often said that it the ability to play through moves in your head is the strongest indicator of playing strength. I am not in a position to validate or challenge this statement, but I think we all can agree that visualization is important when it comes to chess. The question is how we can learn this crucial skill. There are, of course, many possible roads to take. One is to get a book on visualization training. And that is what I did. And of course, this review is about that book.

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What can you expect from this book?

Chess visualization course is not just a book. It's actually a series of books. Or, at least, it was. The book/series is self-published, so it can be difficult to track down. I have only seen the first book myself, but I read on some random site that there are actually four volumes. I can at least find the cover page of the second one by image searching. But the only book I can find is the first one (on Amazon). It seems that the content has been moved to a digital format that can be found through the author's homepage www.chessvis.com.

Although this can be seen as a kind of tactics book, it is quite different from any other book that I've seen. There are 800 exercises (not puzzles) in the book. I have not gone through them all, but from what I've seen, none of them ask you to "solve" anything. You are not required to find the best moves - only to play through the moves in your head and visualize the resulting position. Let me give you an example. Take a look at the position below, and visualize the following move sequence: 1...Bxd5, 2. cxd5 Ne2+, 3. Kh1 Nxg3+, 4. hxg3. What is the material count after the given moves? 


The position and move sequence is from one of my own (braindead) games, where I obviously blundered horribly. It was blitz, what can I say? Actually, that is no excuse. Anyway, this is the type of exercise that is given in the book. 

As the title suggest, this book is aimed at improving your visualization skills. The structure is very simple. Like most tactics books, it has chapters ordered by theme. But the themes are not the same as you will find in your usual tactics books. To be honest, I don't really understand the logic of the different themes. Some examples are "even exchanges", "pieces of different value", "before and after", "rabid knights" and "seeing farther". It is not entirely clear to me why the material is structured in this way, but I don't think it matters that much. A more important aspect is the progression throughout the book.

Each chapter contains exercises that increase in difficulty - in terms of visualization depth. In the first chapter, the exercises range from 4 to 10 ply (half-moves). And in the final chapter, the exercises range from 12 to 19 ply. Somewhere in the middle, there are even exercises that require you play through as many as 30+ moves in your head. These are, however, very simplified positions where very few pieces take part in the action - mainly king and pawn endings.

I found this to be an entertaining book, and I can see how it could be helpful to continually "stretch" your visualization abilities. Personally, I found it slightly too easy, and would have liked to have some kind of puzzle element as an additional spice. For instance, the reader could be prompted to visualize a number of moves, and then find the best move. I think others may have thought about this option as well, as this feature is available on the chessvis page. I haven't tried the app, but I assume that it will have the same feature.

Dan Heisman recommends this book on his homepage. Heisman suggests the book for players rated 1300-1700 USCF. I think this seems quite reasonable. But you shouldn't focus too hard on rating, as visualization skills may vary quite a bit regardless. Instead, I would suggest that you test yourself and see how many moves you can play through in your head. Maybe this is a book for you! However, if you are looking for something more challenging, perhaps you'd want to try out the endgame visualization book by Martin Justesen (SayChess).

Who should read this book?

Chess visualization course is an excellent book for anyone looking to build up fundamental visualization skills. The book starts at a level that should be achievable for most players, and provide some exercises that could be challenging for players as high as 1800 strength. But the sweet spot is probably (as indicated above) between 1300 and 1700 strenght. 

About this book

Author:Ian Anderson
Title:Chess visualization course
Type of book:Miscellaneous, Tactics
Level:Beginner, Intermediate
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