Chess Olympiad: On the Braille board, the game has just begun

A Braille chessboard separates Sai Krishna from his opponent. As the latter waits for Krishna to make his move, the 23-year-old gently feels the board laid out before him. His nimble fingers then touch a piece. “This is a black one,” Krishna mumbles, a faint smile crossing his lips.

Krishna, who works as a judicial assistant in Chengalpattu court, has been visually challenged since birth. Growing up, Krishna didn’t have too many friends to play with. That is when his mother introduced him to the game of chess to keep him engaged.

“After all, chess is a game played mostly in the mind.” Ever since Krishna has set his sights on bigger goals.

“The rules for blind chess are exactly the same as that of mainstream chess, including the time controls. That makes it a level-playing game wherein we play on an equal footing with ‘sighted’ players. That gives us a lot of confidence,” Krishna says.

There are small changes, though. While the board and the pieces look almost the same, the black pieces have a pin fixed on their heads to help distinguish them from the white ones. The black squares on the board are also raised about 3-4 mm above the white squares. Unlike regular chess (wherein one must move the piece they touch), blind chess players are allowed to touch the pieces and feel the squares to determine if it’s black or white. Each of the pieces has a nail at the base, which fits into the tiny hole in the squares, fixing the piece securely on the board. After making a move, the players have to say it out loud.

“Now, if I am going to move a pawn, then I must announce the destination square and which piece I am moving. Without announcing the moves, blind chess becomes difficult,” adds Krishna.

Last year, Krishna won a Gold at the National Team Championship for the Visually Challenged. The tournament was organised by the All India Chess Federation for the Blind between October 25 and 31. A total of 23 teams from all over the country participated and two teams from the state—Tamil Nadu A (Krishna’s team) and Tamil Nadu C team—won the Gold and the Bronze respectively.

Each team had four players and they were able to achieve the feat with the support of the Tamil Nadu Braille Chess Association (TNBCA) based in Chennai.

Aiming for the Chess Olympiad

The TNBCA is hoping to get a player from Tamil Nadu accommodated in the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) team for the upcoming Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai between July and August 2022.

The decision to hold the event in Chennai was taken after the Federation Internationale de Échecs (FIDE), the global organisation which governs international chess competitions, decided to strip Russia of the right to hold the 44th Chess Olympiad due to its invasion of Ukraine.

In 1994, the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) became a full member of FIDE and since then one team from the IBCA participates in the Chess Olympiad. This international team of blind players competes with sighted players, on the same basis as national teams.

Soon after the first such initiative, the IBCA team held the Indian ‘sighted’ team to a thrilling 2-2 draw in the 1999 Chess Olympiad. Again in 2006, IM Krylov Sergey, who was representing the IBCA, drew with Super Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk during the 36th Chess Olympiad.

“Usually during the Olympiad, a player from the host country is given an opportunity to be part of the IBCA team. This time, since the Olympiad is going to be held in Chennai, we are hoping to see one of our players from Tamil Nadu in the IBCA team,” says R Vignesh, general secretary of TNBCA.

He goes on to explain, “While Darpan Inani, from Gujarat with a FIDE rating of 2,150 is the highest-rated player in the country now, one of our players Marimuthu, has a rating of 1,630.”

Hailing from Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district, 21-year-old K Marimuthu has been the state champion for five consecutive years. He was the captain of the Indian D team in online Para-Olympiad 2020. In 2019, he won second place at the Goal National Open.

“The IBCA team will have five players. Marimuthu is considered as one of the best players in the country right now, according to the IBCA and the All India Chess Federation. So, we are hoping if he gets a chance, it would be a huge morale booster for all the blind players from the state,” Vignesh says, adding that the list of players for the IBCA team will be announced only a week before the competition.

Through the mind’s eyes

The TNBCA has an interesting history. It all started when K Muthuraman, a visually impaired person, got a place in the chess rating in 2005 by winning a game in the National Open Championship Rating Tournament in New Delhi that was organised by FIDE.

“He was the first such visually challenged player from Tamil Nadu and third from India to play in the FIDE tournament,” says Yasodhai Prabhu, TNBCA president.

Born on April 24, 1978 at Vadalur, a village in Cuddalore district, Muthuraman was blind by birth. After completing school from Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Poonamallee, he went to Presidency College in Chennai.

With a doctorate degree in history, Muthuraman worked as a temporary teaching staff in the same college for five years. He then served in the Government Arts and Science College in Villupuram for three years, before joining as a permanent staff in Government Arts and Science College in Tindivanam.

Muthuraman started playing chess when he was in Class 7. He got rigorous training under a coach named Mahesh and began competing at the state and national level tournaments at the age of 19. Having participated in many competitions, Muthuraman founded the TNBCA in 2012.

“In 2003, a friendly match was organised between five-time world chess champion and grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who played blindfolded. They both played the game by announcing the moves and imagining the board in their heads. Although Anand won the game, Muthuraman still got the prize,” writes his friend M Balakrishnan, in an obituary after Muthuraman passed away on December 23, 2017 due to health related issues. His dreams, however, did not die with him. He wanted at least two blind players from the state to play in international level tournaments.

“When it started, there were only 50 to 60 blind players. But now we have 150 players. Of that, around 80 play in state-level competitions and 30 to 40 players play in national-level tournaments. Last year, TNBCA’s Marimuthu participated in the Blind Chess Olympiad, which was conducted online,” says Prabhu.

The TNBCA is affiliated with the All India Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB). India’s first visually challenged chess player Charudatta Jadhav, helped establish the Federation in 1997. The very next year, it was granted affiliation by the International Braille Chess Association.

Mind your moves

While chess is played mostly in the mind, moving the pieces – forward, backwards or sideways – to protect the King needs strategy. While a sighted person can gauge this by observing the opponent’s moves and behaviour, blind players lack this natural advantage.

“They can only hear the opponent’s moves and are unable to study the mind of the opponent or their facial expressions. But if it’s a classical game, the blind players have more time to make their moves. This, however, becomes difficult in a rapid game,” says Vignesh, who is also a blind chess player and coach.

When there is a game between a sighted person and a blind player, he adds, the former can take breaks. “But if there is no volunteer to assist the blind player… say, to take them to the restroom, it may add to the pressure and affect their game.”

However, Vellore-based coach Manikandaswamy believes the ability to see or the lack of it doesn’t count much when it comes to chess.

“Chess is a mind game, remember that. If there are two sighted persons playing against each other, both of them visualise the game differently. A 10-year-old can beat a 40-year-old player who has much more experience. How? The young player may calculate the move in a different way. So, issues like age, experience, or the lack of sight don’t matter. With proper understanding of the basics and continued practice, the blind can become equally competitive,” he says.

Although the game can be learnt by sighted persons at any age, it is suggested that the earlier a child gets introduced to it, the better it is.

There are certain advantages that sighted people enjoy. “They can update themselves by reading books. But there are no Braille Chess books available in the country as of now,” says Manikandaswamy.

The same applies to coaches for blind children. There are no coaches in Tamil Nadu at present to teach a blind person above the age of 14, says Vignesh.

“When visually impaired children come to us, we ask them to touch and feel the board and the pieces. By doing so, they adapt to imagining the board in their minds. But to teach at a later stage becomes difficult since their observing capacity slows down with age,” he adds.

But things have improved over the years. Earlier, they had to record their moves on a Braille sheet, which was time consuming. But now they can record the move in a voice recorder, says Vignesh.

There are also apps specially designed for blind players. A lot of aspirants undergo online coaching.

Chennai-based quiz master and chess coach Jaikar is optimistic about the future.

“Although the blind players don’t enjoy the same advantages as the sighted ones, they have extrasensory perception and good memory skills. If they get good sponsorships and training, India may soon get a blind chess grandmaster,” says Jaikar.