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Come 21st July 2018 and the five visually challenged Indians- Kishan Gangolli, Soundarya Pradhan, Aryan Joshi, Ashwin Makwana, and Subhendu Patra- will grill it out on the sixty-four squared checkerboard in Sofia, Bulgaria for the World Team Chess Championship for the blind.
These five were selected through their results in the National Blind Premier held earlier this year. They will be accompanied by coach IM Sagar Shah, also co-founder and CEO of the chess media company Chessbase India, and President of International Braille Chess Association(IBCA) and All India Chess Federation for the Blind(AICFB), Mr. Charudatta Jadhav.
The World Teams has the top-most teams selected by their performance in last year's Olympiad. India finished seventh at the competition last time and won a spot for this championship, hence. Kishan Gangolli will be the leading player of the team, being the current highest rated Indian visually challenged player. He had also won a bronze medal at the Olympiad,2017 and is the reigning champion of the national A for the visually challenged.
The other team members have also got some stellar performances in the past. Aryan Joshi is the youngest player on the team and also holds the distinction of being a national para-swimmer, having won medals at the state and national level. He will also be representing the country at the World Junior Chess Championship for the Blind in August this year. Soundarya Pradhan is the only 100% visually challenged player on the team and has been a strong player for quite some time now with an ELO Rating of over 1800.
For the match in Sofia, the team has worked extremely hard. Special efforts have been made by coach IM Shah. He has conducted regular sessions through Skype with the players and has made sure to get some good training for them by conducting a week-long in-person camp in Mumbai prior to their departure for the championship. The players have also received a chance to participate in numerous strong open Grandmaster championships before the World teams including the Kolkata Open in May and the Bhubaneswar Open in June. Some even played at the Mumbai Mayors Cup in June.
The most memorable event for the team was, however, getting the chance to interact with former World Champion Vishy Anand. Meeting Anand made them get some vital tips on how to handle tournament pressure, playing with confidence, and much more.
With the kind of effort that has been put into the preparation for this tournament, one can only see chess for the visually challenged growing in India, a country that is emerging as the powerhouse of Modern Day chess. All eyes are now on these young men who are about to take on the world by storm.
