Blind chess

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An unfolded pegboard of about standard size made of light and medium brown, grained wood. The black fields are increased by about 5 mm compared to the white ones. The turned wooden figures are set up for the start of the game (left white, right black), on the heads of the black figures you can see embedded screws.
A chess board for the blind: the white fields are set lower, the black pieces are provided with metal screws.
A very small pegboard, the size of a paperback book, lies open on a wooden table. Like the figures, it is made of light and very dark wood. An increase in the black fields cannot be seen, the black figures are marked with nail heads at the top. On the left edge of the picture, right next to the chessboard, is a wooden chess clock with round dials. A chess player is sitting across from us behind the chess board. He is sitting very close to the table and you can see little of his gray-blue sweater with a diamond pattern. The picture shows in close-up how he touches the pieces on the board with the fingers of both hands.
Hands of a blind chess player during a game

Chess is called blind chess if at least one of the players is blind or visually impaired (then also visually impaired chess ). Blind chess should not be confused with blind chess (playing chess in your head without looking at the board) or chess blindness (overlooking very simple ways to play during a game).

Blind chess

The blind players use special plug-in chess games in order to be able to feel the pieces without them slipping or falling over. So that the blind player can distinguish the white from the black pieces, the black pieces are provided with balls or nails attached. The white and black fields on the board can be felt through slightly different heights. This pegboard was developed in 1848 at a school for the blind in London.

In addition to playing with each other, it also enables the blind to take part in tournaments with sighted people. The official rules of the World Chess Federation ( FIDE ) for tournament chess and the so-called two-board rule with stipulations for games between blind and sighted players apply. The blind man announces the moves he has made aloud and executes them on his game of pin chess; the sighted has a normal chess board in front of him and transfers the announced move to this board. The sighted person must also announce the moves he has made. According to the FIDE rules, a piece in blind chess is considered touched when the blind player takes the stone out of the hole. Then he has to move with this stone according to the touched-guided rule.

Classic mechanical chess clock for the blind

For the blind there are special chess clocks without glass, whose hands and dials can be felt. Since the fishing mode has become more and more popular in leagues and competitions , the blind also need digital chess clocks. Outwardly, these do not differ very much from ordinary digital chess clocks, but they have earphones and a voice output that announces the remaining time to think about and the number of moves to the visually impaired player.

In 1924, a chess notation in Braille was developed to record games, the so-called Marburg chess script .

Chess is one of the few sporting activities that sighted and blind people can practice under almost the same conditions.

The first chess club for the blind was founded in Chemnitz in February 1924 . Since 1958, when the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) was founded, chess for the blind has also been organized internationally. In addition to national championships, world and European championships are also organized for the blind. Since 1994 a selection of the IBCA has taken part in the Chess Olympiad . In 1998 she achieved her best result to date with 52nd place.

In a comfortably furnished room there are two square tables lined up one behind the other with colorfully patterned tablecloths. Two chess players sit on the left and right at both tables. The front two can be identified as Dieter Riegler from Heidelberg (left) and Olaf Dobierzin from Leipzig (right) by labels next to them and labeled with their names. Riegler - with closed eyes - is blind, Dobierzin - with glasses - severely visually impaired. At the back of the table are a bottle of mineral water, a wooden box for the chess pieces (inside a white stuffed animal - possibly Riegler's mascot) and a modern chess clock with a digital display. Each player has his own chess board for the blind. Riegler opened with d2 – d4, both boards indicate this position. Riegler leaned back and waited, Doberzin concentrated on his countermove, bent over his board.
Dieter Riegler - Olaf Dobierzin, 2013 German championship in blind chess in Mühlenbach (Black Forest) .

For a long time Dieter Riegler was considered to be the strongest German visually impaired player. The German Blind and Visually Impaired Chess Federation (DBSB) also sent him regularly to the general German chess championship, where he achieved remarkable results. Internationally, the Yugoslav Dragoljub Baretic was considered one of the strongest blind players in the world. He took part in the 1962 B tournament in Hastings . One of the most successful blind players is the Russian Sergey Krylov ( Elo rating 2393, as of April 2007), who won the world title three times (1978, 1982 and 2004).

See also

Web links

Commons : Chess for the blind  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Blind chess  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

  • Harry Schaack: Bayern Munich for blind chess. Germany's most successful blind chess player Dieter Bischoff. In: KARL. The cultural chess magazine, 2, 2005, pp. 32–36. Karl-Verlag, Frankfurt ISSN  1438-9673 .
  • Michael Negele: In the realm of the blind , magazine Schach 2014/4 pp. 48–55.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 34th German Championship in Blind Chess 2013 in Mühlenbach (Black Forest) on TeleSchess