The purpose of blindfold chess training is to improve your ability to visualize the board in your mind, in order to improve your ability to mentally determine the outcomes of long variations.
You will play a game of chess against stockfish in which the board will only update after a certain number of moves, forcing you to visualize the moves based on the PGN data. This will help you become a better chess player, and with enough training, will allow you to play entire games of chess while blindfolded.
The rules of this game mode are as similar to over-the-board chess as possible: no ability to draw arrows, step backwards in time, flip the board, see captured pieces, or see stockfish evaluation. These features act as a crutch that leaves online-first players at a disadvantage when playing over-the-board chess.
Start by clicking the 'New Game' button, and then selecting your preferences. You can specify the color you want to play as, the difficulty of your stockfish opponent, the number of turns before the board updates, the starting position in Forsyth Edwards Notation (FEN). If you're not familiar with FEN, you can learn about it here.
Once you have selected your preferences, click the 'Start Game' button to begin playing.
If you want to read more about chess vision training and other game modes, we recommend reading through this blog post: Getting Started with Odin Chess .
All data in this game mode is presented in algebraic notation (sometimes called chess notation). If you are new to algebraic notation, or you need a refresher, we recommend reading this chess notation tutorial .