International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is the apex body of chess for the blind and is affiliated to FIDE (Federation Internationale Des Echecs – the world body of chess for sighted).
FIDE Olympiad 2014 Tromso
Blind and visually impaired chess players participated in the chess olympiad in Tromso 2014.A FIDE commission for disabled chessplayers was set up. Chairman is GM Thomas Luther.
The Olympiad in Tromso (2-8-2014 to 14-8-2014 was a success. In the open section the IBCA team came 78th. There were 177 countries. It was a pity that the strongest player IM Daniel Marin Pulvett (Elo 2425) could not come. He tried very hard, but the government of Venezuela would not give him the money for the flight they had promised. He was supported by his coach IM José Sequera Paolini and his family. Both were very sad that they could not participate in such an important event. Under these circumstances it is a good result that the IBCA team became 78th out of 177.
The players representing IBCA were: IM Pjotr Dukczewski, IM Yuri Mehskov, FM Jacek Stachanczyk, and FM Oliver Mueller.
In the women section IBCA came 82th. There were 136 teams. The IBCA team was weakened, because Daria Pustovoitova, a strong female player was ill and could not participate.
Here the IBCA was represented by: WIM Lubov Zhitsova-Lisenko, WCM Anna Stolarczyk, FM Debovska, WCM Shafiga Valner and Yryna Zarubinskaya.
See standing for open section:
standings open section
See standing for women section:
standings woman section
There was also a meeting chaired by GM Thomas Luther concerning the disabled chess players. FIDE agreed to reestablish a disabled commission with GM Thomas Luther as its chairman. This is a great success for all disabled chess players as there will also be a budget.
A last remark. We who live in free democratic countries should be very happy that we are able to travel freely. Some of us just cannot imagine the difficulties some chess players had to overcome in order to take part in the chess olympiad.
Christine Beutelhoff
