Friend, someone has to break it to you: as you can see by others in this thread and coming from a fellow complete aphant:
No, they don't play it poorly. With chess it's like anything else, a high bandwidth. I can't see shit for example but I can conceptualize really well - don't need no pictures for that.
You have your gifts, I'm certain of that. Don't let the hand given to you by life hold you back! Instead look out for the things that make you capable🤗
Oh no I was specifically thinking of Aphantasia + Dyspraxia&ADHD (and working memory deficite in general) in that comment. I didn't really state it clearly though, I had made it sound like aphantasiacs in general in the first half but that's not what I mean. I quite literally cannot think ahead many moves thanks to that combo lol. I guess that's why there's apparently no chess masters confirmed to have both aphantasia and ADHD though, despite there existing many with the former and some with the latter.
It's actually similar with mathematics, I am completely screwed when it comes to mathematical visualization lol. But otherwise I'm definitely a math person, which checks out for aphantasiacs.