Panaji: Kishan Gangolli wasn’t in the best of mood during the lunch break on Tuesday.
India’s best visually impaired chess player by a mile – he’s won eight national titles – had just drawn a game and it’s something that could hold him back at the international chess championship.
I made an error,” he admitted to TOI at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium on Tuesday.
Errors from Gangolli on the chess board are rare, particularly when playing at home. He won six consecutive National Championships for the visually challenged from 2013 to 2019, then added two more, and has lost just one game. If he has not won the national title, the worst he has done is to finish second, twice.
Gangolli is the reigning Asian champion and would have been defending his title in Goa at the International Purple Fest.But there were not enough entries from other Asian countries prompting the organisers to instead announce an international tournament that has attracted 31 players from United States, Sweden, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Austria and India.
FM Jorgen Magnusson (Sweden) is the top seed at the championshipwhile India’s hopes rest on Gangolli.
Born with 75% visual impairment, Gangolli competed in sighted tournaments, won too, and it wasn’t until 2011 that he realised there were tournaments for the blind too. Since then n he’s been a cut above the rest.
It’s not easy for visually impaired chess players in India. The government sends us for international championships, but if we win, there are no cash prizes (unlike others). There are no jobs on offer, no sports quota,” said Gangolli, the only Indian to win four medals at the Asian Para Games, which includes a gold, two silver and three bronze.
Despite the super achievements, Shimoga-based Gangolli has at times been left dejected. He almost decided to walk away from the sport, and return to studies for a regular job, but there’s an unfulfilled dream that has kept him going.
“I have won almost all the top tournaments, except world championship. I want to become the first (visually impaired) International Master (IM) from India,” said Gangolli.
For the IM title, he will need 2400 ranking points and three norms. Gangolli has over 2000 points. “There were more, but I lost a lot of points,” he said.
Gangolli plays one or two tournaments abroad each year, which is clearly not enough. After struggling initially, he travels abroad on his own. There is self-confidence; sound-based gadgets, apps and magnifiers help,but what he needs most is money and recognition.
“We are doing the best we can,” said Manish Thool, secretary of the All India Chess Federation for Blind (AICFB). “We have 14 state affiliates and 10 academies that aim to spread the game across the country. We have new chess software programmes, mobile applications and books. There are over 3 00 FIDE-ranked players, but it’s true that countries like Russia, Poland and Ukraine are much ahead of us.”
If some one can catch up with them from India, it’s Gangolli. But he can’t do it alone.
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