Digital transformation of blind chess in India - ‘OmniChess’ an innovative technology platform for blind chess. - AICFB

In the last 20 years, blind chess of India came a long way. There are several important milestones achieved by All India Chess Federation for the Blind, AICFB during this period like winning medals in world championships, organized official world championships and Olympiad, created country-wide network to promote the game of chess establishing state units, conducted national selection cycle with official national championships for men, women, and juniors, initiated strategic programs to improve overall standards of blind chess like Chess in Schools, Talent hunt, talent development, production of accessible chess study materials, development of speech enable chess software ‘Talk 64’, conducting coaching camps across countries and conducting dedicated FIDE rated national tournaments, etc. AICFB and overall blind chess of India had an extra-ordinary journey achieving several landmarks in a short time despite limited resources and support.

To redefine the future of blind chess, last three years AICFB was working on an ambitious plan to create a countrywide digital ecosystem not only to scale chess activities to the next level but the vision to be one of the top countries in the world of chess. Today on an auspicious day, AICFB is launching ‘Omni Chess’ an online portal for blind chess, the first step of digital transformation. This online platform will be the backbone of the future growth of blind chess. This dream become reality because of exceptional contribution by Asim Parera CEO My chess app, Entire team of Tressel Labs, and TecEnvision. With the help of these technology partners, AICFB has enable technology ecosystem to transform blind chess. This online platform has not only digitized entire administration of blind chess but created end to end chess playing digital infrastructure for blind chess players of the country. With this blind chess players will not have dependencies on others in preparing for professional tournaments. They can independently use chess technology like mainstream chess players. Prior to this platform, there was a huge gap in the availability of accessible chess digital infrastructure for blind chess across the world. Adoption of this platform will give launching pad to budding blind chess player to pursue his/her ambition as professional chess players and make an impact at top level.

The ecosystem created by the ‘Omni Chess-I’ platform consist of

Chess intranet, administrative solutions
Global accessible chess Library system, GACLS
Online Tournament Management System, OTMS
Online Chess learning System, OCLS
Players performance Management System, PPMS
Online Chess League, OCL system for implement talent development framework.

The ‘Omni Chess-I’ is the brainchild of Dr. Charudatta Jadhav, President of AICFB. He is the key architect of this innovative platform, all the systems are ideated, conceptualized by him. The first version of ‘Omni Chess-I’ is launched with the feature of chess intranet and online library. The next version will have remaining systems planning to launch in the next 4 months.

AICFB in collaboration with My Chess app, Tec Envision, and Tressel lab has already launched the first leg of this initiative ‘Chess Mitra’ mobile platform on Dasahara 2019. The Chess Mitra along with all mobile chess games will be integrated with Omni Chess-I platform. The chess Mitra consist of several mobile chess apps such as

My chess apps-

‘Chess Move’- Playing with computer engine or playing online
‘Annalise this’-Move by move analysis of games
‘IChess’- Solve chess positions and puzzles
‘FollowChess’- Watch live games across the world
‘Kebo’- Read the chess study material and books
‘RadioChess’ Dedicated internet radio for blind chess by TecEnvision

AICFB would like to thank all technology partners, players, coaches, arbiters, sponsors, supporters, and well-wishers for their whole-hearted support to blind chess. We strongly believe, with such innovations, support from everyone including AICF, Government of India ministry of sports and Sports Authority of India, we will surely achieve our collective vision to make India one of the top countries in the world of chess. We are taking a confident first step towards our collective vision for our beloved country and request you all to come forward and support us in this ambitious journey.

Dr. Charudatta Jadhav

President, AICFB

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