World Individual Championships for the Blind begin in Cagliari, Italy

by Nanda Kumar - 07/04/2019

The 14th IBCA World Individual Championships 2019 for blind and visually impaired began on the 6th of April 2019 at Cagliari, Italy. The top four finishers of Indian National A 2019 are participating in the event. Kishan Gangolli, Aryan Joshi, Subhendu Kumar Patra and Krishna Udupa. In the first round Kishan was paired against the only GM in the field, the top seeded Marcin Tazbir. He fought valiantly, but in the end lost the game because of time pressure. Aryan Joshi lost his game to IM Piotr Dukaczewski. Krishna Udupa also lost his game. Subhendu Patra was the only Indian who scored on day one as he drew his game against an opponent rated 377 points above him. Report from Italy by Nanda Kumar.

14th IBCA World Individual Chess Championship 2019 (for blind and visually impaired ) began on the 6th of April, 2019 at Cagliari, Italy. IBCA President Dr.Charudatta Jadhav officially declared the event open during inauguration ceremony. There are 86 players from 26 countries in the fray and will fight to be crowned as the “IBCA World Champion for the Blind”

We have four Indian players who have qualified for the tournament. They are the top four finishers of the National A 2019:

Kishan Gangoli – 1950 Elo

Aryan Joshi - 1864 Elo

Subhendu Kumar Patra - 1747 Elo

Krishna Udupa - 1740 Elo

Round 1

Kishan Gangoli lost to Grandmaster Tazbir Marcin of Poland in 27 moves in Queens gambit accepted variation. Tazbir is the top seed of the event and the only grandmaster in visually challenged chess. Kishan was paired with Tazbir in the first round itself and although he played well, he went down because of time pressure. Aryan Joshi also had a tough opponent in IM Piotr Dukaczewski of Poland. The Mumbai lad opened the game with 1.e4 and Dukaczewski chose the Pirc Defence. Aryan lost in 41 moves. Subhendu Kumar Patra managed to fare better than Kishan and Aryan. He played the Ruy Lopez and drew his game against Aguilar Sevilla (2124) of Spain. Being rated 377 lower than his opponent, it was commendable that Subhendu managed to hold the draw. Experienced trainer and player Krishna Udupa tried his level best but he could not succeed scoring a point against Spanish player Manrique Fernandez (2120).

Charudatta Jadhav is the IBCA President

Overview of Indian players after round 1

SNo	Name	Rtg	FED	1	Pts.	Rk.
44	Kishan Gangolli	1950	IND	0	0,0	51
54	Aryan B Joshi	1864	IND	0	0,0	59
66	Patra Subhendu Kumar	1747	IND	½	0,5	47
68	Krishna Udupa	1740	IND	0	0,0	70

Results of round 1

Rd.	Bo.	No.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	44	Kishan Gangolli	1950	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Tazbir Marcin	2540	1
1	11	54	Aryan B Joshi	1864	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Dukaczewski Piotr	2225	11
1	23	66	Patra Subhendu Kumar	1747	0	½ - ½	0		Aguilar Sevilla Diego	2124	23
1	25	68	Krishna Udupa	1740	0	0 - 1	0		Fernandez Manrique Agustin	2120	25

Round 2 pairing

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Rtg	No.
2	22	13	FM	Komissarov Alexey	2207	½		½	Patra Subhendu Kumar	1747	66
2	26	67		Hengles Roberto Carlos	1740	0		0	Kishan Gangolli	1950	44
2	27	45		Wolanski Michal	1935	0		0	Krishna Udupa	1740	68
2	34	78		Tishuki Daut	1547	0		0	Aryan B Joshi	1864	54

The starting rank:

The tournament is quite strong with 1 GM and 6 IMs participating.

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg
1	GM	Tazbir Marcin	1122452	POL	2540
2		Smirnov Alexey	4168437	RUS	2451
3	FM	Babarykin Stanislav	4101898	RUS	2401
4	IM	Tuka Oleg	14114453	UKR	2367
5	FM	Dimic Pavle	937428	SRB	2333
6	FM	Magnusson Jorgen	1700880	SWE	2301
7	IM	Nikac Predrag	908975	MNE	2297
8	FM	Wassin Sergej	14103494	UKR	2262
9	IM	Mueller Oliver	4633385	GER	2253
10	FM	Grigorchuk Sergey	14114879	UKR	2236
11	IM	Dukaczewski Piotr	1103520	POL	2225
12	CM	Ross Chris N	410411	ENG	2224
13	FM	Komissarov Alexey	4176545	RUS	2207
14	FM	Pribeanu Mihail-Dacian	1209094	ROU	2198
15	CM	Jandric Damjan	921475	SRB	2196
16		Adiyaman Rene	12910414	GER	2195
17	WIM	Zsiltzova-Lisenko Lubov	14101360	UKR	2191
18	IM	Nizam Rasim	2906708	BUL	2166
19	IM	Stachanczyk Jacek	1116657	POL	2163
20	FM	Draganov Ruslan	4108736	RUS	2162

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