Cracking Chess Visualization and Working Memory: Expert Tips from Aiden Rayner

[@jorgemonasterio8361]

Can & Aiden: fantastic. This is one of my favorite topics

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I knew you would love this one :)

[@jorgemonasterio8361]

​@@Dr.CansClinicDo you think you would get the same benefit of doing Aiden's visualization exercise while looking at an empty board? Watching you, you had a very good sense of what square colors are and what squares can reach other squares. I am not sure how you do that without the strong apple visualization.

[@lumosity2500]

I didnt believe in coaching until i found you! I was fixed at certain rating, but your videos really helped to surpass that, so thank u so much What is extraordinary about your channel is that you cover a very interesting topic to me which is mental visualization and i really appreciate that you are still bringing this topic again Never stop uploading visualization videos, and hope you all best Dr Can❤

[@Dr.CansClinic]

❤️ So motivating to hear your kind words. Really happy to have helped you!

[@tenderloins_]

Love these podcasts! You deserve so many more subs. Also a huge fan of your course The Art of Awakening Pieces. You patched a big whole in my game with that course and got me looking at the game in a very different way. Much love and keep it up!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

That is so motivating to hear, I am really happy the exchange course helped you change your mental models! Love and peace.

[@simonvegas793]

This is so so useful and informative. Wow. The quality of your podcast conversations is actually insane.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Amazing feedback, thanks! Quality emerges with good guests!

[@EliDollinger]

Fantastic episode. I learned a lot. I especially like the point that emotions use up working memory. I also like the concept that you should train harder than you compete. Aidan's Kindergarten Cop reference was very funny. I am a little surprised that no one tried to do an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. In regard to the blindfold problem, I appear to be equally adept at both verbal and visual. I automatically use verbal at first, but I can easily create detailed and accurate mental imagery if I wish.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you, Eli! I should have asked Aiden to make Arnold impression there - next time!

[@JazzLispAndBeer]

I got cptsd and have started to play chess in order to connect my feelings to my cognition. This was Gold. Thank you very much!

[@simonvegas793]

I have experience of that myself. I hope chess helps and wish you well with your recovery.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your honesty and for your kind feedback. Wishing you well with your recovery. Chess heals!

[@sincity7890]

i really enjoy in these chess talks , because of time difference they come to me in sunday morning , there is no pressure , take my time . have my coffee and just chilling

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Nice! Do you live in Australia?

[@sincity7890]

@@Dr.CansClinic it's Croatia but i'm buisie or sleeping so this is my morning thing 😁

[@ChessWithMouselip]

Awesome! I subscribed for a month awhile back but I had so many subscriptions I was getting subscribed to death. It was nice to see a Lifetime Membership offered and I grabbed it since I had the opportunity.

[@omamoka63]

The verbal side of the game is pretty important to me. I kind of listen to a narrative while playing. The funny thing about it is, that although I'm a Finn, my "chess stories" are in english or german. The reason for that is probably the fact that when I was young, there weren't too many chess books in finnish. But there were Sportverlag's bis- series and other stuff in german. I hadn't started studying german at school yet, so I had to "pribe" my elder brother to teach some german to me to get access to these books. I guess it was this mixture of studying two fascinating things simultaneously for one uniform goal that formed the basis for my "chess speech".

[@Dr.CansClinic]

This is a beautiful story.

[@mrodock]

On the second move I definitely replaced the knight on c3 on f3, and was wondering why Can had mixed it up, yikes!! Thanks for another great interview!!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

😅 Aiden was right. Thank you!

[@jamesleach9444]

Brilliant, I especially found the check list discussion very interesting and relevant for me, many thanks.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you.

[@dimebagdonny]

Great podcast, Dr. Can! This is the best podcast I've ever seen. I didn't know Aphantasia existed let alone that I have it until about 5 years ago (I'm 50 now). Finally someone has something on the topic of Aphantasia in chess! I have searched deep and wide for a long time and nothing until now. I guess all I needed to do was find a Cognitive Scientist who's also a titled chess player. I haven't watched it all, but it definitely has some extremely useful information. I could write a book chapter on all of the useful information I've found in this video.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

That is amazing to hear, thank you so much! I really enjoyed this episode too. Could indeed become a book chapter!

[@anthonyjaglal]

A really fantastic video 👏💯I can identify with those concepts, from actual experience, i played someone who couldn't see checkmate right under his nose,as he was distracted by his own ideas on a certain sector of the board , and lost attention to general view of the board

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your kind feedback - it is a very common issue indeed.

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

This episode is one of my favorites! And that says a lot as I like all your episodes Dr. Can! 😀 Especially what is said about the FFF. It gives me a framework, whyyyyy I sometimes make 'stupid' mistakes. It seems stupid, but there is a very logical explanation to be found. And I am happy I did very well with the visualisation/conceptualisation exercise. I could see (I do see it, and I know now that is not the same for everyone. Important to know by everyone!) everything. Except, the d7 pawn wasn't there, so I assumed my Queen would be taken immediately by the c8 Bishop. And I took the Rook instead of the checkmate hahaha! I will repeat this one. It was something I could do while laying in bed just before sleep. It was very relaxing too.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Mark, you are an amazing student - hearing this feedback is so valuable to me. I know you watch almost every single video of mine. FFF - You are not 'stupid', our working memory is limited!

[@GaaikeEuwema]

Ah cool! Aiden Rayner. I really like his approach. Visualization is probably the most important and most underestimated aspect of chess learning. I guess because children learn it automatically. But adults need to train it consciously.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad you liked it!

[@peterintoronto6472]

For a long time I tried various checklist mnemonics, but they were too clunky and ended up being long and got impatient. So I went back to the old stand-by, checks,captures,and threats (CCT) and then added a V for overall view, which gives CCTV, closed circuit television -- easy to remember -- and nicely closes the circuit back to the game. Just another version....

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you, Peter! I remember you mentioning the closed circuit television before. Good that the checklist persisted over time! :)

[@GaryWalters-tk2lp]

Thoroughly enjoyed this podcast, learnt so much too. The principle of odd odd / even even and cage was a brilliant tip and came in really useful for the blind chess challenge! That simple aspect helps you visualise much more effectively 👍 On the blind challenge I was able to see the pieces that I'd moved on the board and areas around those pieces but I couldn't visualise the whole board and although I could see the main pieces, even those on there starting positions, the pawns somehow vanished, especially on the queen side? I followed the sequence through and did find the mate but strangely enough when we moved the bishop to c4 earlier I couldn't see that it was eyeing up the f7 pawn! Only when we had taken the g7 pawn with our queen did it then become visible, that was bizzare to me as i know f7 is a target in so many openings, I've always struggled with correctly identifying the notation squares and yet I'm typing this without a board in front of me and they have suddenly all become very easy to see, amazing episode thank you for a great podcast guys 👍👍👍

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your kind feedback, Gary!

[@greatdanelegend7001]

I also took the rook in the blindfold exercise but I was surprised I could visualize up until that point at all as someone who's only approaching 1400. The steps method has some exercises like this too, where you are supposed to visualize short games where people hang a piece or checkmate before move 5, but I liked the exercise on the podcast because you also had to think about what the pieces are doing

[@jamesleach9444]

and....i. got the mate! surprised myself! and could pretty well see the board...

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Well done! Do you think you are more on the verbal or visual side?

[@jamesleach9444]

@@Dr.CansClinic from that I guess visual, but I've never tried this before, the thought of blindfold chess I've always found amazing, but I don't think I could do it..

[@Merrick12345]

I've been a Vienna player for a little while now, so it was easy for me since I know the copycat variation pretty well. It was easy until the last move where I played Queen takes knight with check. Problem is there is no check. I blundered my queen. 😅 I inversed the queen and king positions.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for your honest feedback :) It happens. Good that you followed right until that moment. Many could not.

[@mattchess356]

Think I will go with "What would you say you do here?" from Office Space and then think of the two Bob's grilling the piece with questions

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Love it!

[@adolfohuet3974]

After the opponent moves you must ask yourself: “who let the dogs out?…”

[@Inspiredsongsavenue]

How many years does it take

[@adomaskuzinas2137]

Exactly 19 years

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

@@adomaskuzinas2137 Haha, too funny! 😀

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

What do you want to accomplish?

[@ChessAndKungFu]

I did Aiden's free 5-day course and could feel my brain getting stronger. I wasn't playing games at the time, but I gained 300 puzzle elo in a few weeks after having plateaued for a long time. I feel like the good effects have worn off now, so I want to go back and do it again. Very helpful.

[@jaybingham3711]

All I know is if Aiden Rayner was at a gathering with my good friend...Raidyn...we would be in need of fleshing out some tricks to overcome the auditory stress arising from never quite knowing who is saying what to who.😊