Eric Pazandak

I first became aware that some people might actually "see" what they are talking about when I was 13, and a friend insisted that they could. Others, over time have claimed the same thing, so I've come to think it's probably true. Fifteen years later, a friend who was a chess master, talked me into learning to play chess for a month using the Queen's gambit opening, and playing at his club. I played a guy who had an 1850 rating, (mine was 1500 as a beginner) and got into a complicated situation, where we traded pieces for 17 moves. At the end, I was a pawn up. My friend later asked how I could visualize all of that and if I had a supercomputer for a brain, when I told him I knew exactly what was going to happen, unless my opponent screwed up, which was unlikely. I told him the truth; I could not visualize any of it. I suspected that my thinking in simple if-then statements, was less of a cognitive burden, and an advantage over visualizing. I've only just heard of aphantasia, which seems to have served me well. On a spatial abilities tests, I usually scored above the 99th percentile, but I was young. Those images are in there somewhere, I think they're just utilized differently.