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Blindfold Knight Route

Here is a possible fun application that I created. This was suggested to me for improving board visualization and hence I created this app. Download the zip file from this link http://www.harishsrinivasan.com/knightroute/knightroute.zip.




  1. Unzip the file
  2. Inside the folder, you will find an application named knightroute
  3. Start it up
  4. You are to answer 10 random questions on knight hops. for eg. d5 d1? , one of the correct answer is d5 e3 d1
  5. For fast answering, just type in the answer and hit enter and it will go to the next question...and so on
  6. When you are done with 10 questions, it will give you a score.
  7. Max score is 100 and is obtained if all 10 questions are answered within 7 seconds
  8. Beware, there is negative points for incorrect answer.
  9. If you take more than 20 seconds for every correct answer, then the score is 1 pt for each correct answer making it 10
  10. So for all correct answers, your score can range anywhere between 10 and 100
  11. Post your best score in the comments!!!
The app is very primitive. I am thinking of adding more capabilities for training in future. Any suggestions for improvements are most welcome.

8 comments:

  1. Oh and yes, no using the a chess board otb or on the screen for help. This is meant to be blindfold -- to improve visualization.

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  2. Harish,
    I fail to understand.
    You said : d5 d1?
    and as possible answer is: "d5 d3 d1". Was that "d5 e3 d1" or "d5-c3-d1"? Or maybe it is something that I never heard about.
    Marijan

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  3. I guess I read wrong. sorry.

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  4. no, you were right, I had it wrong intially a typo. I just fixed as your comment came in. thanks

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  5. It is definitly good. Thanks. It could help but I would never win any contest because y the time I write all those squares it takes to much time, so I could never write it under 7 sec. I tought there would be no need to write begining and ending because you gave it in the question, but I guess you need them for computer to calculate properly.

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  6. thanks for suggestion. Yes I could implement it so that you dont have to input original squares. but lets say for a question b4 a6?, then you will have to enter nothing as it is direct jump. this is why I programmed it so that user enters initial squares as well. sometime you can get question like b8 b8?, then we will have to enter b8 c6 b8.

    I uploaded a update to the zip file as of 00:30 feb 27th. I fixed some problems (bugs) that I found.

    May be someday I can program it to recognize voice and then you wont have to enter, but that will be very tough work for me :)

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  7. first atempt 20; second attempt 21; third attempt 13!?

    Nice and fun tool. I need some work!

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  8. My personal best score is 80. But I did get lucky with a couple of direct jumps.
    I am looking into more adding more training features for visualization into this. What other exercises are good for improving visualization?

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