Blind Chess Trainer app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: Marcel Nijman
First release : 21 May 2011
App size: 9.65 Mb
Train yourself to play blind chess.
Being able to play blind chess will help you to concentrate better, and it will improve your imagination, because you have to constantly keep a mental image of the position.
So, how does the training take place? There are five stages:
1. NORMAL CHESS
In this mode, you can use the app as an ordinary chess app. Once you have a good feeling for the interface, you can move on the the next step.
2. NO COLORS
The pieces of both players are shown in the same color (gray). So, during the game, you have to remember which piece is whose.
3. NO PIECE DIFFERENTIATION
All the white pieces look the same, as well as all black pieces. You can see when pieces come into contact with each other, but you have to remember which piece is which.
4. NO COLORS AND NO PIECE DIFFERENTIATION
All pieces look the same. This is very close to playing actual blind chess. All you can see on the board is how the pieces are positioned.
5 BLIND CHESS!
Congratulations, you are ready to play blind chess! The board is empty. Or, rather, all pieces are transparent. You can enter a move as usual (by dragging or tapping), and the reply will be displayed in the title bar at the top of the screen. If you have mastered the previous stages you will definitely notice an improvement in your ability to play blind chess.
During the game, you can ask yourself some questions, like:
What is this piece doing here?
Why would it have been moved here?
Which square did it come from?
All this will help you to see the game as a story line.
Good luck with learning to play blind chess!
Latest reviews of Blind Chess Trainer app for iPhone and iPad
No option to "flash" the pieces or get a correction for errors made in the game! How does the developer expect the user to improve without ongoing support? Also no info or help section. This app needs some work!!!!
Great aps. I like the different levels you can do for blind chess training. However it needs extra features. E.g. After a game you should be able to email the game moves for further analysis. Maybe in PGN notation. Also it needs to balance the computer playing strengths the way shredder does so you get challenge every time by winning a few and loosing a few.
It does what it says it does, and that is to get you into the blind mode of playing chess. That said, I would like to also echo the ability to vary levels (but this is second to) email via pgn format. I dont care about the flashing although I just discovered that if you turn the iPhone or iTouch horizontally, you will see the board. I didnt understand immediately why the pieces were the same color, but after the 6th move, I realized it. Then the other training sessions just made me laugh, I am not playing checkers! and finally, blind chess! is just a killer! Great job and I would love to see more improvements. However, I wouldnt let these cries for upgrades to stop anyone from buying as it really will help you concentrate harder, and thats the point right?
This is a wonderful little app, we love it. However, a few features of ChessWise should be adapted: 1) variable engine strength 2) save/load PGN 3) email game (maybe even auto-email so I could get my daughters games automatically, like on ICC :-)) Can you work on it a little bit more please? ---- Update 2/9/13: Now the engine strength can be set, which is great and it deserves five stars. Can I suggest two more features (on top of email/save pgn) that would be easy to program: Count the number of flashes and the number of illegal moves. These would provide good feedback on ones progress.
I bought this a week ago or so, and during that time I certainly cannot have become adept at blind chess. However, the app works as described with no flaws, and it seems ideally suited to acquiring the ability to visualize the game without helps. Learning to see the pieces in the minds eye without helps is probably key to learning the game as a whole. ...... I think that in the long run, the real blind chess one should play isnt just sans pieces but sans board. Now that would be one interesting app to program! But it could be done easily enough. Just list moves, with no board. Present. A-H and 1-8 would be needed as input buttons, and a board flash button. Also, please consider making it possible to set up a position.