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Indistinguishable Chess. All pawns and pieces appear the same in color and size, for both sides. The board has no 'dark' squares.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Nov 3, 2008 12:42 PM EST:

Mr. Muller: I thank you for your comment but I disagree with the statement, 'The tiniest reminder of where the pieces are would be enough to make them remember 100% accurately during the entire game.' I do agree that such reminders are very helpful. But, the truth is club players over-look much game information, perhaps the most common being long-range bishops. Now, if we remove some visual information (such as square colors and piece colors) the club player's brain must put in some extra energy to enhance this lower visual input. Since his mind is working harder, and since he is, by nature of the game, going to miss things, then it seems he will be missing more.

As a side note, when in the Navy a group of us were sitting at a table with a chessboard (no pieces). A shipmate acted as if he made the move ' 1. Pawn to King Four.' So I responded with a phantom move. He then made move two... etc. We had quite a crowd gathered around to watch this game with no visible pieces. In relation to your comment it was easy to visualize where the pieces resided. At one point, late in the middle game, a guy came by and took his hand and swiped at the board. Some of the spectators yelled 'No!' and it was interesting because we could visualize our phantom pieces falling over, falling off the board and table. We had to mentally re-set the board. But we were then able to play the game to its conclusion.