[RV86]

Agreed -- my own personal experience with this sort of phenomenon is via chess.

I am a much stronger player over the board than I am online and I think the visual representation/spatial relationship is a large part of it. I just engage in a different way.

While different visual representations may seem equivalent on some level, the way our brains process them may be very, very different.

I would imagine many of us also experience a similar phenomenon via writing by hand vs. typing.

I am suddenly inspired to write our head UX guy a letter.

[zokier]

Have you tried playing online chess with physical board, replicating the moves? If your hypothesis is correct then that should boost your performance.

[RV86]

I have not, but I will!