Chief Arbiter: IA Manjunatha M
16th AICFB National Chess Championship for Visually Challenged was organised by All India chess federation for the blind from 13th March to 18th March 2023.The prestigious chess championship for the visually impaired was inaugurated on 13th March at Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini Multipurposehall,Bhayender,Thane. This championship is the final level selection process from which players will be selected for Indian team for forthcoming Individual IBCA World Championship to be held in Greece and Asian Para games which will be held in China later in this year.
This championship was inaugurated by Sri Ravindra Dongre chief advisor of AICFB, in his speech appreciated the efforts of AICFB to promote the blind chess in India. Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale, Dr Charudutta Jhadav president AICFB and IBCA, Dr
Manish Thool Sec AICFB and Sri Sajanlal Joshi founder member of AICFB shared the dais.
A totally 51 players qualified from different parts of the country who fought to wear the championship crown (qualified from four different zones. West Zone 20 players, South Zone 17 Players, East Zone 8 players and North zone 6 players) among them 50 players were fide rated players, 3 female players (Rathi Himashi of Gujarat, Vaishali Narendra salvakar of Maharshtra qualified from women’s National chess championship for Visually Challenged)
while Megha Chakraborty of west Bengal qualified from East Zone). Sam Peniel P of Tamil Nadu was the youngest player qualified from Junior National Chess Championship for Visually Challenged. Abdul Samad S from Kerala 57 years was the senior most player.
Kishan Gangolli former National Champion who retains title for six times consecutively was the top seeded with ELO rating of 2113, Darpan Inani of Gujarat(2027) and Soundarya Kumar Pradhan of Odissa (1880)defending champion were seeded 2nd and 3rd respectively.
This championship was conducted in Swiss league system consist of 9 rounds. The top seeded player won their game easily in the early stage. In the third round Ashvin Makwana of Gujarat shared the point with Darpan Inani was major upset. Tournament became more
interesting from 4 th round Soudraya Kumar defeated the Darpan and Singh Suray paratap of MP beat Patra Subendu of Odissa. Kishan Gangolli and Soundarya Kumar Pradhan shared point in the fifth round to jointly lead the race up to 7 th round. Somender of Delhi who was
also a team member of 2022 IBCA Olympiad stopped Soundarya by sharing the point. While Kishan Gangolli beat Hariharan Gandi of Tamil Nadu and maintained the sole lead. In the 8th round on 1 st board Kishan drew with Samant Milind of Maharshtra,in the same round Aryan B Joshi of Maharashtra played a beautiful queen ending to beat Soundarya Kumar Pradhan with this Kishan’s way was clear in the last 9 th round Kishan took quick draw against Ashvin Makawana to clinch the crown of Onward Technologies 16 AICFB National Chess
Championship 2023.
The organizers provided wonderful venue Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini registered as a Society in 1982, (RMP) was initiated as a unique leadership development academy with an aim to nurture, impart training and capacity building of elected representatives, social workers, as well as people running institutions, organizations, and start-ups. The Knowledge Excellence Centre (KEC), a sprawling 15-acres campus nestled amidst the hills and green swathes of Gorai, serves as a perfect venue for all social and business needs providing modern amenities and facilities including a Helipad in the oasis of tranquillity. With facilities that can hold up to 1000 attendees along with accommodation and food for up to 250
individuals on campus.
Dr Charudutta Jhadav President IBCA and AICFB. and Sri Umesh Moree representative of Rambhau Mhalgi Prabhodini were the chief guests of the prize distribution function Dr Manish Thool Gen Sec AICFB, Mr Gaurav Gadodia former Asian gold medal winner for visually challenged and Legal advisor of AICFB were present on the dais. Totally One lacks cash prize distributed to following players
1st prize Kishan Gangolli – Rs 35000/- + Trophy, 2nd Prize Aryan B Joshi Rs 25000/- Trophy, 3rd Prize Soundarya Kumar Pradhan – Rs 15000/-, + Trophy, 4th Prize Makwana Ashvin K, 5th Prize Rs 8000/-, 6th prize Rs 7000/-.
Viral Trivedi west zone secretary did the master of ceremony. Chief arbiter IA Manjunatha M presented tournament report. IA Pravin Panthawane and IA Nanda Kumar N K worked hard to conduct the event smoothly and successfully without any protest.
To check the final standing of all players click here