Blind cricket is a version of the sport of cricket adapted for blind and partially sighted players. It has been governed by the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) since 1996. So far, five Blind World Cups have been held: New Delhi, India (1998); Chennai, India (2002); Islamabad, Pakistan (2006), and India (2018). In 2012, the first Blind World Cup T20 was held in Bangalore, India. Blind cricket relies on common use of the 'sweep shot', in order to provide maximum chance of the bat hitting the ball.
The 37th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between May 20 and June 4, 2006, in Turin, Italy. There were 148 teams in the open event and 103 in the women's event. In total, 1307 players were registered.
The National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy, due to ties with FIFA, also known as the FIFA Santosh Trophy, or simply Santosh Trophy, is an semi professional inter-state national football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the sport's governing body in India. Before the launch of the first national club league, the National Football League in 1996, the Santosh Trophy was considered the top domestic tournament in India. Many players who have represented India internationally have played in the Santosh Trophy. The tournament is held every year with eligible teams who are divided into zones, must play in the qualifying round and can progress into the tournament proper.
Rohini Khadilkar is a chess player holding the title of Woman International Master (WIM). She has won the Indian women's championship five times and the Asian women's championship twice. She was the first female chess player to receive the Arjuna Award in 1980.
Alampur Saibaba Goud is an Indian ophthalmologist and founder-chairman of the Devnar Foundation for the Blind. He is also a social entrepreneur, and active in the voluntary organization at Secunderabad in Telangana, a state of India. He works in the field of providing aid to visually challenged and visually disabled children in India.
The Irish Chess Union, is the governing body for chess in Ireland since its formation in 1912. ICU is a member of FIDE since 1933 and the European Chess Union. The ICU promotes chess in Ireland and maintains the chess rating for players registered with the ICU, which are published monthly. It runs competitions such as the Irish Chess Championship and selects teams to participate in international competitions for Ireland.
The 39th Chess Olympiad, organised by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place from September 19 to October 4, 2010, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. There were 148 teams in the open event and 115 in the women's event. In total, 1306 players were registered.
The Blind Chess Olympiad is an international chess competition for the blind in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event takes place every four years, and is sponsored by the International Braille Chess Association. The Blind Chess Olympiad is the largest sporting event in the international field of chess for the visually impaired.
The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is an organization for blind and visually impaired chess players. The IBCA is a FIDE-affiliated chess organization as well as a part of the International Blind Sports Federation. The International Braille Chess Association originated informally in 1951 with the organization of the first international correspondence chess tournament for blind players; the tournament included 20 players representing 10 countries. It first organized an over-the-board tournament in 1958, with representatives from seven countries. Today, it has grown to encompass over 50 member nations around the world. The IBCA hosts two major competitions: the Blind Chess Olympiad and the Blind World Chess Championship.
Reginald Walter Bonham was a blind chess player from St. Neots, England known for his achievements in both blind and sighted chess. After founding the International Braille Chess Association in 1951, he became the Blind World Chess Champion in 1958 and the Correspondence Blind World Champion in 1957, 1959, 1961, 1964 (jointly) and 1966. He died in Worcester, England at the age of 78.
The All India Chess Federation is the administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the association is affiliated to International Chess Federation, the world body for chess. Indian chess has players like Viswanathan Anand, Koneru Humpy, Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh, Harika Dronavalli, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Vaishali Rameshbabu, among others. The organisation is in charge of managing both open and women's chess. AICF's current headquarter is in New Delhi.
The 40th Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, was an international team chess event that took place in Istanbul, Turkey, from 27 August to 10 September 2012. The city also hosted the event in 2000.
Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, founded in 1997, is a non-profit organization providing education, accommodation, food, vocational training and placement based rehabilitation. It is based in Bangalore, India with centers across India and abroad. The organization is affiliated to the World Blind Union and received Special UN Consultative Status in 2015.
Darpan Inani is a prolific blind Indian chess player and a Chartered Accountant from Vadodara. He won 2 gold medals - individual as well as team gold medal - at Para Asian Games held in China in October, 2023. He had a career peak FIDE elo rating of 2135, the highest ever elo rating to have been attained by any visually impaired player from India as of January, 2024. He won a bronze medal on his respective board in the 16th World Chess Olympiad for visually impaired held in Greece in 2021. He was also a bronze medalist at the 2013 World Junior Championship in Belgrade. He is the youngest player to have ever won the National blind chess championships. He is the only Indian visually impaired chess player to have ever won international first prize at the Creon Open chess tournament in France in August 2018. This was a historic moment for Indian chess when a visually impaired player won first prize in international open sighted tournament in his rating category. He is honoured with the Yuva Ratna award by All India Marwari Yuva Manch in April 2018 in Siliguri, West Bengal. He is the recipient of the Navratna Award - 2018 awarded by Yuma Television. He has featured in a commercial for HDFC Life.
Jawahar Lal Kaul is an Indian social worker and the founder of the All India Conference of the Blind, an NGO working towards the rehabilitation of the blind. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, which bestowed on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his services to the field of Social Work.
Marcin Tazbir is a Polish chess grandmaster.
Akshat Khamparia is an Indian chess International Master. He is the first player from Central India to hold an 'International Master' Title.
Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of FIDE title of Woman International Master. She won the Ukrainian Women's Chess Championship in 1978 and is a two-time Women's Chess Olympiad individual gold medal winner.
Jessica T. Lauser /LAWser/ is a visually-impaired American chess player and the current, 6-time reigning U.S. Blind Champion. She is the first-ever woman to win the annual national tournament for blind and visually-impaired players, which she did in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024.
Soundarya Kumar Pradhan is an Indian para chess player from Odisha. The visually challenged chess player was selected for the Indian team that took part in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games. He won the Men's Team Rapid VI-B1 gold medal on 28 October 2023 along with Darpan Inani and Ashwin Makwana. He also won a silver medal in the individual event.
