An Overview of Blind Chess Tournaments
Whether you're visually impaired, someone you love is visually impaired, or you're curious about how others enjoy chess, here's an overview of blind chess tournaments.
With a few accommodations, blind players can play chess competitively, just like sighted competitors. In fact, it's a popular sport for visually impaired people.
How Blind Chess Games are Played
You may wonder how different it is for a visually impaired person to play a chess game compared to their sighted counterparts. Blind players use a special, adapted chess set. It is designed to let players distinguish colored squares and pieces through physical touch alone.
Here are the main modifications to a chessboard and pieces for blind players:
- Adapted boards are usually at least 20x20cm.
- The black squares are raised by 3-4mm, allowing players to determine which squares are black.
- Each square on the board has a hole in the center. Each piece has a peg at the bottom that allows players to fix the piece into the square.
- All the black pieces have pins on top of them.
Here's an example of a chess set designed for blind players.
As you can see, a player can distinguish the parts of the board through physical touch as though they can "see" them.
In a blind chess tournament, a visually impaired player makes a move and then announces it so their opponent knows what has changed. Then, if they are notating for a tournament, they must either write down the move in Braille or record it on a tape recorder.
To make the announcement as clear as possible, the following names should be used instead of announcing notation using letters:
- A - Anna
- B - Bella
- C - Cesar
- D - David
- E - Eva
- F - Felix
- G - Gustav
- H - Hector
A player must announce what a pawn turns into when they promote.
Touch Move for Blind Players
Sighted people know that if you touch a piece, you must move it. But at a blind chess tournament, this touch move rule doesn't quite make sense. Touching the board is part of seeing where the pieces are.
So, the rules of touch move are different at blind chess tournaments.
Related: Rules of Chess: 10 to Know Before Your Next Tournament
A player "touches" a piece when they remove its peg from the hole in its square on the board.
The move is "completed" when:
- A player removes the captured piece from the board if the move is a capture.
- The player places a piece into a different square.
- The player announces the move.
Sighted players only really play by the first two of these rules for touch move.
Today, chess clocks for blind players announce the amount of time each player has.
Old versions of adapted chess clocks were actually analogue clocks with small dots on the face to allow players to use touch to see where the arrows were pointing.
Related: Chess Clocks: Time and How it Affects Your Game
While the rules for blind chess tournaments are mostly straightforward, tournament directors have the discretion to decide how to alter these rules to fit their local community.
Chess Associations for Blind Chess Players
Blind chess players have their own chess associations. Just like chess players in general have official international and national tournaments, blind players have their own, as well.
The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is affiliated with FIDE and is the international chess body for blind players.
First established in 1958, the IBCA later became a unit of the International Braille Sports Association.
The United States Blind Chess Association (USBCA) is the national chess body for blind or visually impaired players. It was initially founded in the late 1960s and held correspondence tournaments, where players sent moves in braille by snail mail. Then, in the 1970s, the USBCA began holding over-the-board chess tournaments.
The USBCA is separate from USCF. But it is a member organization of the IBCA.
Other countries have their own IBCA member associations.
For instance, the All Russian Blind Association has many members who play chess and hold workshops. This is why there were as many as 11,000 blind chess players in Russia in the 60s, which is noticeably high compared to other countries.
In total, there are over 60 IBCA member countries. Other national chess associations that are members include, for example:
- British Braille Chess Association
- Ireland Braille Chess Association
- Austria Braille Chess Association
- Italy Braille Chess Association
- German Braille Chess Association
The IBCA holds many tournaments for blind players across the world, including:
- Team Olympiads
- Individual World Championships
- Feminine Individual World Championships
- Junior Individual World Championships
- World Team Championships
- European Open Championships
- Panamercian Championship
- Asian Championship
- FIDE Olympiads
As you can see, blind chess players have a network of opportunities to play chess matches throughout the world at the women, junior, and team level.
Related: Understanding the Mindset of a Chess Champion
Chess Tournament Life for Titled Blind Players
While visually impaired chess players can cope with challenges and master the game, they face unique barriers that sighted people might not realize.
There is likely only one blind Grandmaster today. Marcin Tazbir is a visually impaired Polish Grandmaster who had a peak rating of 2561. Tazbir has been playing chess since he was a kid. He represented Poland in the World Junior Chess Championship and European Junior Chess Championship several times.
Tazbir described his vision as normal until he was 18 when he was diagnosed with a condition that affected normal growth and development of his eyes. Later, he became a Grandmaster at 25.
He has played in tournaments for sighted players and has had to overcome barriers with travel and accessibility.
In an interview with ChessBase India, he described how he has to wear special eye contacts and use eye drops every day to manage his condition. One time, when he was traveling between countries for a tournament, his eye drops were confiscated.
Once, he had to play without contacts and couldn't see the time on the clock, so he moved very rapidly.
Despite what he has faced, Tazbir believes that even those who are totally blind can still become a Grandmaster like him. "It's harder of course, but you can overcome it," he said in the interview.
Recent Blind Chess Tournament Results
In 2024, Tazbir took first place in the IBCA European Individual Chess Championship. IM Predrag Nikac from Montenegro coming in second.
At the 2023 IBCA World Championship, Tazbir and Nikac also placed first and second, respectively. FM Alexey Streltsov from Israel came in third.
In 2024, the IBCA held the Women’s World Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired in India. WIM Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko from Ukraine emerged victorious.
She's been competing on first board in Women's Chess Olympiads for the IBCA since 1994.
What About Blindfold Chess?
It's worth noting that blind chess and blindfold chess are two different things.
Blindfold chess is a chess variant in which a player wears a blindfolded. They see the board only through mental visualization. This can help you avoid chess blindness.
Some of the greatest players in the world have played impressive chess blindfolded.
For example, Timur Gareyev is known as the Blindfold King. In 2016, he set a record by playing 48 games simultaneously in Las Vegas for 19 hours. He earned 35 wins, seven draws, and six losses.
A sighted player might enjoy the novelty of playing blindfold chess. It is also a way to build memory, visualization, and mental endurance.
Some might think blind players are essentially playing blindfold chess. But as we've discussed, blind players use touch to "see" the board.
So, a blind player can still play a blindfolded game by relying only on spoken notation and not touching the board. This can still help blind players work on visualization and memory, just like it helps sighted players.
Directors can hold tournaments for both blind chess and blindfold chess. So, when you enter either kind of tournament, you should double-check what event you're signing up for.
Advertisements for blind chess tournaments may use the phrase "visually impaired." They may also reference blind chess associations and special rules.
Ads for blindfold chess will likely use the word "blindfold."
FAQ: An Overview of Blind Chess Tournaments
Blind players play chess on a board that distinguishes black and white pieces and squares through different shapes. This allows a player to use touch to "see" the board. Players must announce their notation after moving to make their opponent aware.
Yes, there are blind chess players. Aside from GM Marcin Tazbir and WIM Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko, several players have earned chess titles. For example, Chris Ross is a fully blind candidate master and is Britain's strongest blind chess player. He is a 2015 IBCA Olympiad silver medalist.
Chess for blind players is chess with an adapted board. Competitors play by rules that use physical touch in place of sight. With accommodations, blind chess compares similarly to the chess sighted players are familiar with.
Blindfold chess is a fun chess variant. Players must use only memory and visualization to play the game. Unlike blind chess, players must rely only on internal visualization and cannot check to see the board state.