Chessvis

## Description

Visualize the chessboard and win more games.

A famous chess coach said: "Don't think about the pieces being exchanged, visualize how the board will look when the pieces are gone". Move a piece and you affect two places. But it's illegal to physically move the piece and see the effects -- you must learn to visualize. Chessvis is designed to help with that process.

The operating premise for Chessvis is:

1\. Games below the master level are won by a tactic
2\. A tactical opportunity is present BECAUSE your opponent has made a less than optimal move
3\. You have to be able to notice when a tactical opportunity is present

Noticing requires two things:
1\. familiarity with the "signs" that a tactic might exist (loose pieces, pieces protected by just one other piece, poorly protected king and so on)
2\. and since you aren't allowed to move the pieces around, the ability to visualize how to completely accomplish the tactic

The objective of Chessvis is to improve your chessboard visualization skills.

Chessvis focuses on these areas:

Tactics & Mates - Interactively solve tactics and mate puzzles.

This includes a unique "Back it up" feature to improve your visualization skills. The program presents a tactic or mate problem but shows the diagram from some number of moves before the actual tactic or mate sequence starts. You're provided the "backed up" moves in order to visualize them and then solve the problem from a board position that exists only in your mind.

Move Following - Track a sequence of moves and then update the board to that point. Follow a game from the beginning, some random location within a game or specify the number of pieces you want to follow. Again, it is about building up the "memory muscle".

Who's Guarding Whom - An interesting exercise to mentally track piece movements and how they interact.

Static Boards - Look at and memorize a board layout, then recreate it. Not easy, but you control the number of pieces so the idea is to build up the "memory muscle".