I played my first 'blindfolded' game today. I wrote down the moves but didn't have a board in front of me.

Here is the game.

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. e5 Qe7 6. O-O Ne4 7. Qe1 Ng5 8. h4 Nxf3+ 9. gxf3 Qxh4

I am a 1600 and was playing a significantly lower rated player.

I was able to visualise the board but tactics I considered and ruled out because I didn't think they worked turned out to be the best moves after all. For instance I considered playing 7.Re1 for a minute or two but ruled it out over some weird worry about black playing d3. Because I wasn't able to see the pieces I didn't realise that wasn't a problem. I was also worried about d4 hitting my bishop. I played h4 because I knew it would hit the knight but temporarily forgot about my own knight even though I didn't play f4 because my knight was blocking the f pawn.

I resigned the game because I saw no good way to develop my pieces or get cover for my king quickly.

Conclusion: I was able to follow the game and could have continued on further but my ability to calculate tactics was greatly reduced. It was difficult to work out all moves a piece could make from it's current location, especially in the case of knights.

I seriously recommend people try playing without a board. I have been practicing my notation for a while and recently listened to a few episodes of the BlindChess podcast. It helps a lot to get started.