All India Chess Federation for the Blind, Goa

Goa will host the 11th 'World Chess Championship for the Blind', this year. Many Grand Masters and champions are expected to take part in the event.

The tournament will be inaugurated on October 9, 2006, and will end with the felicitation of winners on October 18, 2006. The rounds will be played every day from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The top eight games will be relayed on the website www.aicfb.org.

This is the first 'World Chess Championship for the Blind' to be held in India. According to sources, as many as 150 participants, including 15 International Masters (I.M.), three International Women Masters (I.W.M.), six F.I.D.E. Masters (F.M.) and 30 F.I.D.E. rated players from 40 countries will be competing for the prestigious title.

The top six players will represent I.B.C.A. as a team at the forthcoming sighted Chess Olympiad in December 2006. Furthermore, this championship is also being seen as a platform for selection of the world team that will play the F.I.D.E. Olympiad (Federation Internationale des Echecs or World Chess Federation Olympiad) in Germany in the year 2008.

Chess is the only game where visually impaired players have the same rules as that of the sighted players with minor changes to the equipment.

Visually impaired players use a specially adapted board with raised black squares, a nail on the top of the black pieces and peg holes in the board to keep the pieces in place. (See November 2005, 'Eye News').