Mumbai: The 16th edition of the “AICFB National Chess Championship for the Visually Challenged" commenced today at Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini Keshav Srushti, Bhayandar West, Mumbai. Mr Ravindra Dongre, Advisor at AICFB Mr Sajandas Joshi, Founder Member of the AICFB; Mr Raghunandan Gokhale, Former President & Founder Member of the AICFB and Dronacharya Awardee in Chess; and Dr. Charudatta Jadhav, President of the AICFB & President of the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), inaugurated the tournament and declared it open.
The players were motivated and inspired by Dr. Charudatta Jhadav, a visually impaired chess champion himself, to raise awareness of chess for the blind in order to gain acceptance and alter public opinion. " Having completed 25 years of AICFB, we want to take an active step to develop an infrastructure for blind chess and encourage more visually impaired individuals to pursue chess," he added, referring to all the players as the organization's ambassadors.
On the top table, Sanjiv Kar of West Bengal opted for the English opening and played against
Kishan Gangolli of Karnataka, who is the top seed player of the event and a former National Chess Champion for the visually challenged. He played calmly and won the game.
On the second board former champion Darpan Inani of Gujarat played against Amol Sakpal of Maharashtra opted for an unusual opening and tried to be aggressive, but experienced playerDarpan defended the game and forced Amol to accept his defeat on the 31st move.
On the third board, Shivangoud NM of Karnataka played against defending champion Soundarya Kumar Pradhan. Soundarya opted for French defense and played aggressively, but Shivanagouda failed to sustain the attack and surrendered on the 37th move.
A total of 56 players (all visually challenged) have been selected to take part in this prestigious tournament on the basis of their performance at the state and zonal chess tournaments conducted all over India.
There will be a selection of the Indian team of four players for the forthcoming World Individual Chess Championship in the month of October in Greece. Twelve players in the categories of totally blind (B1) and partially blind (B2 & B3) will be selected for the upcoming Asian Para Games that will be held in October in Hangzhou, China.
About AICFB: All India Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB) has been established in 1997 to promote the game of chess amongst the blind in India. AICFB is a non-profit organization, affiliated to International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) the apex world body for chess for the blind and AICF (recognized by Government of India). Through this affiliation, we integrate our blind chess players with rest of the world.
For further details, please contact:Anshu Ahuja Phone: 9987 423 546 Email: [email protected].
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