Pune, April 6 (Representative) The National Chess Championship for visually challenged being organised by the All Indian Chess Federation for the Blind (AICFB) and the Rotary Club of Pune Heritage kicked off here at PYC Hindu Gymkhana on Wednesday. The championship was jointly inaugurated by Vikas Kakatkar, President of the Maharashtra Cricket Association and Pankaj Shah, DG, Rotary District 3131. Kumar Tamhane, President of the PYC Hindu Gymkhana, Vinayak Pethe – President of the Rotary Club of Pune Heritage, Manish Thool, General Secretary of All Indian Chess Federation for the Blind and Dinesh Kapur, CEO, Sava Healthcare were also present at the event.
Chess coach Raghunandan Gokhale (Dronacharya Award Winner), Shiv Chhtrapati Award Winners Chandrashekhar Gokhale and Jayant Gokhale, youngest Grand Master of Pune Abhimanyu Puranik and Kedar Godbole of Rotary Club of Pune Heritage also marked their presence on the ocassion. All the top seeded players sailed into the second round with fighting victories in the first round. Top seeded Darpan Inani made short work of his teammate from Gujrath Chirantan Mesariya in just 12 moves, the release said. As many as 55 visually challenged players from across the country are fighting to find a place in Indian teams participating in upcoming international tournaments in China, Macedonia and France. There are Para Asian Games in China, World Team Championships in Macedonia and World Junior Championships in France.
National woman blind champion Vaishali Salavkar fought hard against six times champion Kishan Gangoli from the black side of King’s Indian Defense but Kishan won the game in 38 moves. Olympiad top board medalist Aryan Joshi tricked A R Ramesha in the London Opening to join Darpan and Kishan (Karnataka) at the top. Playing with Black pieces in Sicilian Alapin Opening, top seeded Darpan Inani set up a beautiful trap in which Chirantan fell headlong and lost a piece after which Chirantan sportingly resigned the game in 12 moves. Megha Chakravorty of West Bengal tried hard to hold Swapnil Shah (Maharashtra) even though the latter was ahead by a pawn. Grandmaster Abhimanyu Puranik was thrilled to watch blind players playing so well. The matches will be played in rounds till Saturday.