News

Chess Results link for 2024 Individual European Championship ,Ploesti (Romania) : June 15th – June 25th 2024.

Click Here

IBCA Presidential Board Minutes : 16 Dec 2023

Dear IBCA member countries, dear IBCA Officials,

Please find attached the minutes of the IBCA Presidential Board meeting that was held on December 16, 2023.

Download

Announcement about Players from Countries not Members of IBCA

Dear Chess Friends,

The IBCA Presidential Board took the following decision during the meeting held on December 16, 2023:

“Players who do not have an organization in their country are allowed to
participate in IBCA events under the IBCA flag, without having to pay any
additional fee. Such players will have to send a formal request to the IBCA
presidential board.”

Be sure to contact me for more information.

Best Regards,

Olivier Deville
Secretary IBCA

Invitation for IPCA Online New Year 2024

Happy to Announce!!!

IPCA Online New Year 2024 LICHESS.ORG, 30 December 2023 15-00 CET

All Disabled chess players (IPCA, IBCA, ICCD)

Prizes
1st place – 150 EUR and Certificate
2nd place – 100 EUR and Certificate
3rd place – 50 EUR and Certificate
Best Women – 50 EUR and Certificate
Best Junior U20 – 50 EUR and Certificate

Organizers: IPCA – The International Physically-Disabled Chess Players
Association and Kazakhstan Chess Federation of Athletes with Disabilities

Download Regulations

Bidding for the 2025 Individual World Championship

Dear IBCA member countries, dear IBCA Officials,

IBCA is starting a bidding procedure for the 2025 Individual World
Championship. Every member country can submit a bid for this event, see IBCA Bidding form attached.

There is no bidding fee. The deadline to submit your bid is March 9, 2024.

Download Form

Bidding for the 2024 Women and Junior World Championship

Dear IBCA member countries, dear IBCA Officials,

Hungary is not going to organize this event.

IBCA is starting a bidding procedure for the 2024 Women and Junior World Championship. Every member country can submit a bid for this event, see IBCA Bidding form attached below.

There is no bidding fee. The deadline to submit your bid is January 20,2024.

Download Form

2024 IBCA Individual European Championship ,Ploesti, Romania, June 15th – June 25th 2024.

The International Braille Chess Association(IBCA) and Romanian Association of the Blinds(RAB) have a great pleasure to invite to the IBCA European Individual Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired 2024. read more

IBCA Presidential Board Minutes : November 11, 2023

IBCA Executive Board Minutes : September 2, 2023

International Braille Chess Association Executive Board meeting – Minutes .Saturday, September 2, 2023 at 14:00 UTC
GoogleMeet. Download Resolution Adopted at the Meeting

2023 IBCA Elections : October 15, 2023

The IBCA Congress will be held in the Rodos Hotel Palace, Island of Rhodes, Greece, on Sunday, October 15, 2023 starting at 10 a.m. local time.An election for the 2023-2025 Presidential Board will be held. As per Art.1.3 of the Electoral Regulations, two lists were nominated by the deadline. Read More

IBCA Executive Board Minutes : 30th July 2023

The The IBCA Executive Board decided to ban all chess players from Russia in the upcoming IBCA World Championship 2023 in Greece (8-18 October 2023). Download Resolution Adopted at the Meeting

The 2023 IBCA PanAmerican Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired – Guatemala City, Guatemala October 23 – October 28, 2023

The Benemérito Committee for the Blind and Deaf of Guatemala, with the endorsement of IBCA America, is pleased to extend the invitation for the Pan American Chess Championship to Blind and Visually Impaired IBCA 2023 to be held in Guatemala City read more

Ukraine Relief 2023

As early as March 2022, the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) unequivocally condemned the Russian Federation’s unjustified war on Ukraine and took strong actions against participation of Russian athletes and officials.. read more

The 2023 IBCA World Individual Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired at Island of Rhodes, Greece October 08 – October 18, 2023

The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), the Hellenic Sports Federation for Persons with Disabilities and the Chess Club “Ippotis” cordially invite you to the IBCA World Individual Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired 2023. read more

The 2023 IBCA World Women’s Individual Chess Championship and The 2023 IBCA World Junior Individual Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Valencia,Spain July 3 – July 12, 2023

Event canceled by the organiser in Spain

The 2023 IBCA European Team Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired .Genoa, Italy : April 19-30, 2023

The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the Italian Amateur Blind Chess Association (ASCID, the Organizer) cordially invite you to the IBCA European Team Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired 2023. read more

X PANAMERICAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED set New Records

The 10th IBCA PanAmerican Games for the Blind and Visually Impaired took place in Mexico City, Mexico, from October 23-29, 2022. Organized by the IBCA and the Mexican National Network for the Blind with chief organizer Mr Benito Enrique Hernández López, the competition brought together 54 participants representing 13 federations from North, South, and Central America. read more

X PANAMERICAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED , MEXICO 2022

  • The event will take place from Sunday, October 23 to Saturday, October 29, 2022, at Utopía Meyehualco (Calle 71, Col. UH Santa Cruz Meyehualco , CP09290, Alcaldía Iztapalapa, Mexico City). The event will be played according to the FIDE and will be rated by FIDE. At the time of registration, the players, coaches, delegates and other participants accept these regulations.
  • For tournament pairings / standings online click here.
  • Download Invitation

11th IBCA World Women’s and Junior Chess Championships France tournament and live game streaming webpage 

11th IBCA World Women’s and Junior Chess Championships open in a medieval French town

The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is the supreme body responsible for chess for the blind and visually impaired. The IBCA is part of the International Blind Sports Federation and an Affiliated Member of FIDE. Founded in 1958, the IBCA has grown to more than sixty countries on four continents. Its major competitions include the Blind Chess Olympiad and the Blind World Chess Championships.

IX IBCA World Team Championship: countdown begins

The IBCA and the National Sports Federation of the Blind of North Macedonia are proud to announce that preparations are complete for the IX IBCA World Team Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired. A central event of the four-year inter-Olympiad cycle, this competition brings together the top 16 teams from the 2021 IBCA Olympiad. The championship starts June 27 and includes Group Stage, Semifinals, and Finals. Follow the action here.

Book Launch : Blind Faith by Chris Ross

Chris Ross has come a long way from the back streets of Middlesbrough to a senior administrative role at Sheffield Hallam University, helping the education of those with a wide range of disabilities. A former teacher, Chris’s natural ability to educate has developed many of his colleagues in UK chess clubs – and not least, fellow members of the Braille Chess Association. read more

Seeding and Group Play Pairings Published for the 2022 IBCA World Team Championship

  • For seeding and group composition click here.
  • For complete pairings and schedule for the group stage click here.

Ludwig Beutelhoff passed away

A great representative of German and international chess left the world forever. Ludwig Beutelhoff, a Homberg citizen(Germany), died at the age of 74 years on March 27.He started his international chess engagement in 1992 when he was elected 1.Vice President of IBCA. He was re-elected twice. In Greece In 2005 during the World Cup for the Blind President Delfin Burdio Garcia from Spain suddenly died. So Ludwig had to take responsibility and became interim president of IBCA till 2008 when he was unanimously elected by Congress in Create. He was unanimously re-elected in Chennai in 2012. In 2015 he suffered from a stroke and decided not to stand for any further election period. In 2017 he was awarded honorary President for life by Congress in Ochrid North Macedonia.

He received many awards from IBCA member countries.
He was a strong chess player. In 1980 he played the chess Olympiad in the Netherlands. In the Seventies and Eighties he was chosen several times to join the German national team to represent his country in international tournaments.In the last 20 years he concentrated on giving advice, having a deep understanding for chess. He was very concerned about the rules of chess for the Blind. His expertise was asked by the FIDE rules Commission. He always pointed out that chess players are able to play the game without assistance. He formulated the rules for IBCA chess which can be found in the FIDE rules. From 1998 till 2011 he was president of the German blind and visually impaired chess Association.

Ludwig devoted his whole life to chess.

He was taught chess by his farther, joined the local chess club of his hometown Bockum-Hoevel together with his sighted brother and played team tournaments. He was educated at Paderborn, a school for the blind, led by nuns. There he taught chess to his class mates. He took his A-levels at the Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt(BLISTA) at Marburg and studied law there. Since 1978 he had been living in Homberg, got married and joined the local chess club there, where he regularly played team tournaments together with his sighted chess friends till 2017

For many years he was disability representative of the German chess Association. he was awarded the silver and the golden badge of honour by the German chess Federation. Facing challenges is normal for every IBCA president. Mr Ludwig, as he was called, by all the blind and partially sighted players, was gifted with the special talent of being able to solve every special problem in a diplomatic way. After discussing the matter each party was able to live with the solution that had been agreed on.

His death is a great loss to IBCA.
May he rest in peace.

~ Christine Beutelhoff

2021 IBCA Congress

The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) is the supreme body responsible for chess for the blind and visually impaired. The IBCA is part of the International Blind Sports Federation and an Affiliated Member of FIDE. Founded in 1958, the IBCA has grown to more than fifty countries on four continents. Its two major competitions are the Blind Chess Olympiad and the Blind World Chess Championship. read more

The 16 th IBCA Chess Olympiad for the Blind and Visually Impaired symbolizes remarkable achievements of the disabled players worldwide

The 16 th Chess Olympiad for the Blind and Visually Impaired organized under the auspices of the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) took place in Rhodes, Greece, on October 16-26, 2021, as part of the 2021 Rhodes Chess Festival. Despite the difficulties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Olympiad was well-attended and featured teams from twenty-two countries on three continents, including, for the first time in the IBCA history, Team Canada- Québec that became the only one to make an exhausting and dangerous journey from the Americas. read more

New IBCA Board elected on 22nd Oct 2021 in Rhodes, Greece

IBCA has elected new board members for the period 2021-2025. Dr. Jadhav Charudatta (India) as President, Mr. Nikos Kalesis (Greece) as 1st Vice President, Ms. Diana Tsypina (Canada) as 2nd Vice President, Mr. Olivier Deville (France) as Secretary and Ms. Natasha Dalle (Belgium) as Treasurer.

Daniel Morelli, member of IBCA board and representative of America passed away

Dear Friends, We lost our beloved friend Daniel Morelli, member of IBCA board and representative of America. He was diagnosed with Covid and was hospitalized. Unfortunately, he lost the battle with Covid and left all of us yesterday. On behalf of IBCA and entire blind chess fraternity, our sincere condolences on this tragic loss. Daniel Morrelli was a legendary figure in the world of braille chess. His contribution in promoting braille chess is unmatchable, specially his mammoth work in Latin America brought braille chess to a next level. He was very kind hearted person, his dedication, commitment to braille chess made Daniel universally respected. This is big and irrevocable loss to IBCA and entire blind chess community. Our thoughts and prayers go to Daniel’s family and friends in this hour of sorrow.

International online Braille chess tournament

The Chess Club of the Romanian Association of the Blind and the Tandem- Arena Sport Club, are pleased to announce that organizes, in partnership, starting Monday, April 27, an international online chess competition with prizes. Read More

International online Braille chess tournament

As you are aware the Corona Virus has been declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It is likely to have widespread implications in the times to come but inst Read More

Oliver Mueller becomes IM

IBCA is happy to inform you that our German visually impaired chess player FM Oliver Mueller is now International Master (IM). President Dr. Charudatta Jadhav and the whole board of IBCA congratulate chess friend Oliver Mueller on this fantastic achievement and wish him good luck and success with chess.

IM Milenko Cabarkapa 1938 – 2018 RIP

IM Milenko Cabarkapa died on Jan 3, 2018 at the age of 80.

Chess friend Milenko won 2 olympic gold medals, 7 silver olympic medals. Twice he was world chess champion for blind and visually impaired (1966 & 1970) and he also was vice president of the IBCA. IBCA will always remember the outstnading chess player and the charming personality.

May he rest in peace.

Adrien Hervais 1980 – 2016 RIP

This afternoon IBCA received the sad news from France that Adrien Hervais past away. IBCA sent their condolences to Adrien his family , friends and team mates.

Adrien Hervais 1980 – 2016 RIP

This afternoon IBCA received the sad news from France that Adrien Hervais past away. IBCA sent their condolences to Adrien his family , friends and team mates.

Message we received from Olivier Deville :  C’est avec une profonde émotion que nous apprenons le décès d’Adrien Hervais. Nos pensées vont à ses parents et à sa famille. Il va beaucoup nous manquer.

It is with deep emotion that we announce the death of Adrien Hervais. Our thoughts are with his parents and his family. He will be greatly missed.

Es con profunda emoción que anunciamos la muerte de Adrien Hervais. Nuestros pensamientos están con sus padres y su familia. Lo extrañaremos mucho.

David Hodgkins 1969 – 2015 RIP

We received the sad news from the BCA (UK braille chess association) that David Hodgkins died January the 13th 2015. IBCA condolences Davids family and friends with this tragic loss.

memorial text (written by BCA) “It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of David Hodgkins at the age of 45. David played regularly for UK teams in IBCA events and in the Six Nations tournaments and was a great supporter of the Haaksbergen IBIS event in The Netherlands. He was also a very active member of the UK Braille Chess Association’s committee for many, many years. David was a thoroughly genuine person and will be sadly missed for his friendly and modest approach, his chess playing ability and his dedication to chess administration.”

42nd Italian Championship for blind players

The Italian Blind Chess Association (ASCI) organized, from July 26th to August 1st 2014, the 42nd Italian Chess Championship for blind and visually impaired players. Venue for the Championship was the Ritz Hotel, a nice and welcoming hotel in front of the renowned beach of Senigallia, a beautiful town near Ancona, on the Adriatic Sea Read More

30th July 2014: Article about Dutch braille chess player Lucas de Jong

Alina L’ami wrote an article about Lucas de Jong, for ChessBase. Lucas de Jong is a blind chess player from the Netherlands. He played in 2013 at the youth world championship in Belgrade. Alina interviewed Lucas at a sighted chess tournament in the Dutch town of Dieren a couple of days ago. The article can be found here

1st May 2014: Anniversary Dutch Chess Association

The Dutch Chess Association NSVG is a half century young. It is established in 1964 on the first of May. It will be celebrated in November this year. Read full story

5th April 2014: IBIS organization gets reward shield from FIDE at jubilant edition

From the 4th until 6th of April there was the 40th edition of the IBIS chess tournament in the Dutch town of Haaksbergen. This is a special tournament for blind, partly sighted and sighted people from different countries. Read full story

Menno Pietersma wins the 9th Open Dutch Championship NSVG 2014

From 20 until 23th February 2014 were organized the 9th Nunspeet. The players from different countries played in three groups ranked by rating six rounds. Menno Pietersma wins the A Group with a hundred procent score (6 by 6). Read full story

15th december 2013: France wins 6 nation tournament in Oostende

From Thursday the 12th (arrival day) until Monday the 16th (departure day) the 6 nation tournament was held at hotel de Kinkhoorn in the Belgium coastal town of Oostende.
Read full story