Manipal 01+02: National-B for the Blind gets underway

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 27/12/2015

Manipal is a modern day seat of learning in India, with its stature as the country's leading educational hub growing exponentially day by day. The All India Chess Federation for the Blind, in association with the Manipal University, is hosting the National B Championship for the Blind, which got underway on 26 December 2015. To make this celebration of chess complete, the University is also organizing an Open FIDE tournament alongside the National B, with a simple idea of promoting the game. ChessBase India brings you an illustrated report.

Manipal 01+02: National-B for the Blind gets underway

The All India Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB), in association with the Manipal University, is hosting the National B Chess Championship for the Blind at T.M.A. Pai Hall in Manipal, a picturesque educational hub in Udupi, Karnataka.

The AICFB, traditionally, has never charged any entry fees and all the players competing in this prestigious event are playing on the basis of merit, by qualifying from their respective zonal tournaments.

The Manipal University is organizing this tournament along with an Open rating tournament, with a simple idea of building an audience for this sport, where the visually challenged player can truly play at a relatively higher level, compared to other games.

Remarkably, the organizers are providing quality boarding and accommodation facilities, and not just that...

..the tournament venue provided excellent conditions for the players to compete.

The players are allowed to touch the pieces while playing, so they can 'feel' the position.

Many players were using the Braille Slate, technically known as the 'Slate and Stylus', which they use to record their moves in Braille.

Some partially sighted players, though, preferred to write their moves in the score sheet.

So, how do our friends understand which piece is standing on which particular square?

When you take a closer look at the board, you will see the notation for files and ranks in Braille, which the players feel with their fingers to figure out the placement of the pieces.

Look at the board carefully. The light squares are placed below the dark squares, which allows the players to feel the colour of the squares. Now, look at the tip of this bishop -- it's flat.

Now, look at its black colleague, who is carrying a pointy end. All the black pieces carry this 'pointy end' at their tip, which helps the players distinguish white pieces from the black ones.

Nevertheless, some people have their own chessboards that help them keep track of the position.

Chess is, after all, a game played in your head

The top seed of the event: Kishan Gangolli (2044) of Karnataka, who is only partially sighted, moved to 2.0/2.

Darpan Inani (1995) of Gujarat also moved to 2.0/2. See that machine that is faithfully sitting beside Darpan?

If you don't want to write or record the move on a Braille slate, you can use this device to simply log your move by announcing it.

Fourteen-year-old Aryan B Joshi (1639) of Maharashtra

Vaishali Nrendra Salavkar (1524) of Maharashtra is the top women player among her colleagues.

Back in August,we had reported the release of Algorithms, a documentary on blind chess. Charudatta Jadhav, who is the head of Innovation Strategy at the TATA Consultancy Services, is the crucial man who has revolutionized chess among the visually challenged, he himself being completely blind.

[Note: ChessBase India will bring you a detailed interview with Mr. Charudatta Jadhav, where he describes the complete details of the current situation of blind chess in India, and how you and me, we, can help our friends who can't see.]

Ranking List after Round 02:

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Kishan Gangolli	IND	2044	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	3	Krishna Udupa	IND	1829	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	4	Patil Shirish	IND	1823	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	5	Gaurav Gadodia	IND	1784	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	7	Swapanil Shah	IND	1755	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	10	Samant Milind	IND	1686	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	11	Aryan B Joshi	IND	1639	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	15	Soundarya Kumar Pradhan	IND	1591	ODI	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	18	Venkat Reddy S	IND	1575	A P	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	19	Kakade Atul	IND	1574	MAH	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00

Check the pairings for Round 03 here.

Manipal University FIDE Open, 2015

The Open tournament that is being held alongside the National B for the Blind has attracted some 370 odd players from across the country.

The excellent playing conditions, coupled with a friendly set of organizers, has enabled the tournament to begin on a positive note.

IM M.S. Thejkumar (2439) is the top seed and had no problems moving to 2.0/2.

IM G.A. Stany (2421) is the second seed and also reached 2.0/2.

IM D.V. Prasad (2345), who in his heydays had defeated Mikhail Tal in this fine game, is also at 2.0/2.

IM P.D.S. Girinath (2317) of the South-Central Railways

Al Muthaiah (2297) of Tamil Nadu

M.G. Gahan (2255) of Karnataka

National U-17 Champion FM Rajdeep Sarkar (2223) of West Bengal

Arvind Shastry (2209) of Karnataka

Likhit Chilikuri (1867) of Karnataka

Nandini Saripalli (1745) of Goa, who helped us bring this report to you by clicking many of these pictures.

Ranking List after Round 02:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Thejkumar M. S.			IND	2439	SWR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	2	IM	Stany G.A.			IND	2421	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	4	IM	Girinath P.D.S.			IND	2317	SCR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	7		Vijay Keerthi K.			IND	2248	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	8	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	U14		IND	2223	WB	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	9		Arvind Shastry			IND	2209	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	11		Nambiar Vivek			IND	2149	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	12		Anilkumar O.T. *			IND	2060	KER	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	14		Ojas Kulkarni	U16		IND	2000	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00
	16		Gavi Siddayya			IND	1971	KAR	2,0	1,0	0,0	2,00

Check the pairings for Round 03 here.