-
India’s biggest chess event for the visually impaired
-
Ex-National Champions along with several International players and FIDE rated players will represent their respective state
-
Top games will be shown live on a Website
-
Live commentary of the games will be broadcasted on Internet Radio ‘Radio Chess’ (unique initiative of AICFB)
Mumbai: February 2018: The 13th edition of India’s highest national chess championship for the blind ‘AICFB National A Chess Championship for the visually challenged’ will be organized by All India Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB) from 3rd to 11th February 2018at Andheri sports complex, Mumbai.There will be a selection of Indian team for the forthcoming ‘World Team Chess Championship’ in the month of July 2018. Total 14 players have been selected to take part in this prestigious tournament on the basis of their performance at National ‘B’ Chess tournament. National ‘A’ chess championship is considered to be the strongest chess tournament in India. In this tournament, 9 International players who have represented India in the past world championships including medal winners in Olympiad will be present.
The winner of this championship will be crowned as India’s ‘National Blind Chess Champion’ for the year 2018. These top players will form Indian teams for the forthcoming ‘World Team Championship’ and ‘World Junior’ for the blind to be held in Bulgaria in July 2018 and Poland in August 2018 respectively. India has got an opportunity to participate in ‘World Team Chess Championship for the Blind 2018’ on the virtue of finishing the 7th in the world in last ‘Chess Olympiad for the Blind’ held in Macedonia June 2017.
Dr Charudatta Jhadhav, President of AICFB said, “Chess is the only game where blind persons are at a level playing field with the sighted. Our motto is to create a structure to encourage blind persons to come forward and hone their talents. We want to create an opportunity with a platform for the visually challenged to show their capabilities to the world.”
Dr Charudatta Jhadhav is a chess champion himself and a National Award winner for the Best Disabled Employee of the year, along with his team is spearheading the event and have done a lot of other initiatives for the blind. He is currently working at TATA Consultancy Services as Head of Accessibility Centre of Excellence as part of Corporate Research and Innovation unit. He has launched a ‘Talk64’ specially designed speech enable chess software for the blind, World’s first dedicated internet radio for Chess for Blind “ Radio Chess”, Produced world’s first DAISY chess book in 2007 (accessible chess book with audio and text synchronized) and many other such initiatives to support and encourage the blind in chess.
India has emerged as one of the strong chess playing nation in the world. India’s performance at the World Chess Championships and Olympiads for the blind in the last decade has seen an upward curve. Currently, India is amongst top 10 in the world basis of the recent performances. There are 60+ member countries in International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) which is the world chess federation for the blind. The details of the players who represent top countries are title holders of Grand Master (GM), International Master (IM) and the top players who have the ratings between 2300 to 2500. India stood 5th and 7th respectively in the last two chess Olympiads held in 2012 and 2017. National A Chess Championship for the blind is the strongest chess event of the country and is held regularly since 1999.