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How do people with aphantasia play chess? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/chess@lemmy.ml
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[โ€“] 10 points 2 years 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.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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