Memory Palace in Chess • page 1/2 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

I discovered a technique that all of the top memory competitors in the world use called Memory Palace or Journey Method.

It involves encoding information to people, objects, and actions and placing them in an imaginary palace of a place you know well. The objects, actions, and people the information is encoded to are placed in sequential order in the palace.

When you want to recall the information you remember the journey then decode the information based on your system.

I have been working on and practicing memory palace system and am just looking for anyone else who may be interested in practicing this technique with me. If you are interested just send me a message.

I discovered a technique that all of the top memory competitors in the world use called Memory Palace or Journey Method. It involves encoding information to people, objects, and actions and placing them in an imaginary palace of a place you know well. The objects, actions, and people the information is encoded to are placed in sequential order in the palace. When you want to recall the information you remember the journey then decode the information based on your system. I have been working on and practicing memory palace system and am just looking for anyone else who may be interested in practicing this technique with me. If you are interested just send me a message.

NM MrPushwood

#2

What an amazing new idea! Giordano Bruno had the very same notion (back in the 16th century). So (presumably) did Koltanowski in more recent times.

#3

Akbar2thegreat

#4

@zweb
What do you mean exactly? Please clarify.
And don't think that strong players are so because of memory, that's a great excuse.
Or do you mean for squares on chessboard.
I don't get what you mean.

@zweb What do you mean exactly? Please clarify. And don't think that strong players are so because of memory, that's a great excuse. Or do you mean for squares on chessboard. I don't get what you mean.

NM ThunderClap

#5

I in 1984 had seen KOLTY Koltanowski at age 80 perform his KNIGHT TOUR BLINDFOLDED calling out the names and numbers he had put on squares ... Like Texas to 08662 to Cherry to 007 to Grandma's House to New York to 3375 all around the board !

NM ThunderClap edited

#6

KOLTY performed at the1984 National Open in Las Vegas ... I won the Class C" prize (400$) & 140 rating points to boot !

zweb

#7

@Akbar2thegreat
This is a system of memorizing openings by using objects, actions, and people instead of chunking related moves to pawn structures like chess players typically memorize openings.

You remember the journeys of people, objects and actions through an imaginary space and then translate those through a code system into chess moves.

This mimics techniques used by world memory competitors where the memory palace greatly eclipses the performance of chunking techniques.

Your point about strong players being strong just because of memory is true, they have many other skills. This is why I believe the area of memory can kind of get a pass on its optimization.

If for example there were memory competitions where competitors needed to memorize then recreate extensive chessbase files that specialists using memory palace would eventually far outperform top chess players and then eventually some top chess players would also get involved in these competitions and migrate memory palace back to practical play at least in some circumstances.

This also allows the inclusion of many "stupid computer moves" that don't chunk well with a related pawn structure or look extremely anti-positional. Stupid moves coded into a memory palace look the same as captures and checks.

@Akbar2thegreat This is a system of memorizing openings by using objects, actions, and people instead of chunking related moves to pawn structures like chess players typically memorize openings. You remember the journeys of people, objects and actions through an imaginary space and then translate those through a code system into chess moves. This mimics techniques used by world memory competitors where the memory palace greatly eclipses the performance of chunking techniques. Your point about strong players being strong just because of memory is true, they have many other skills. This is why I believe the area of memory can kind of get a pass on its optimization. If for example there were memory competitions where competitors needed to memorize then recreate extensive chessbase files that specialists using memory palace would eventually far outperform top chess players and then eventually some top chess players would also get involved in these competitions and migrate memory palace back to practical play at least in some circumstances. This also allows the inclusion of many "stupid computer moves" that don't chunk well with a related pawn structure or look extremely anti-positional. Stupid moves coded into a memory palace look the same as captures and checks.

zweb

#8

@thunderclap amazing and eventually doing many tricks like this is also a fun benefit. This technique also greatly increases the ability to play blindfold simul

zweb

#9

https://www.chessgames.com/player/georges_koltanowski.html

JimNorCal: <tjshann>: ... (Kolty) put on an amazing exhibition of memory--he asked members of the audience to name any object, and wrote in the name of each object on a square on a display chessboard. After studying the board for a minute or so, he turned around and asked someone to put a knight on any square (e.g., on "car keys") He then proceeded, blindfold, to do a Knights Tour of the board, naming the object on each square the knight landed on."
I imagine that it would be quite easy to mess up the "tour" and get yourself to the point where you cannot traverse each square once and only once.

Probably Kolty memorized a working sequence, in which the final square was a knight's move away from the initial square. Then, no matter which starting square was chosen, he could just start "in the middle" of his memorized pattern, go to the end of his pattern, wrap around to the initial square in the pattern and finish up the sequence. Regardless of any tricks he came up with to simplify the task, quite an astonishing accomplishment.

https://www.chessgames.com/player/georges_koltanowski.html JimNorCal: <tjshann>: ... (Kolty) put on an amazing exhibition of memory--he asked members of the audience to name any object, and wrote in the name of each object on a square on a display chessboard. After studying the board for a minute or so, he turned around and asked someone to put a knight on any square (e.g., on "car keys") He then proceeded, blindfold, to do a Knights Tour of the board, naming the object on each square the knight landed on." I imagine that it would be quite easy to mess up the "tour" and get yourself to the point where you cannot traverse each square once and only once. Probably Kolty memorized a working sequence, in which the final square was a knight's move away from the initial square. Then, no matter which starting square was chosen, he could just start "in the middle" of his memorized pattern, go to the end of his pattern, wrap around to the initial square in the pattern and finish up the sequence. Regardless of any tricks he came up with to simplify the task, quite an astonishing accomplishment.

DigitalDestruction

#10

Charlie Storey has a great method specifically for Chess called "The Fruit Tree" and "CCTV 2.0". Definitely worth a look.