Blind Game

Blind Chess The practice of «blind chess» is common among chess players—a player makes moves and announces them verbally without looking at the board. For visually impaired individuals, this is a given, not a complication to the game. Blind chess matches follow a similar principle, with the added feature that players can touch the pieces during the game. Because the athletes cannot see the board, they must keep the entire game constantly in their minds. To improve their skill level, it is necessary to develop memory and spatial reasoning. Constant training and solving chess problems help with this. Within the community, chess players interact closely: they spend time together, play online, and help each other travel to competitions. In many ways, blind chess exists thanks to the enthusiasm of individuals—state grants are insufficient to fully cover the costs of competitions and team maintenance. Due to the military crisis in Ukraine, the International Blind Chess Association (IBCA) has prohibited Russian visually impaired chess players from participating in international competitions. For many, traveling to competitions was their only opportunity to travel beyond the country’s borders and explore the world.