8th DAMSO International Chess Tournament Visually Impaired Chess Champion

The 8^th DAMSO international rated Chess tournament was held in Ambalangoda Darmashoka school, started from the 19^th April to the 23^rd April.

I participated in this tournament under the differently-abled category and I was able to win that category with 5 points out of 9 rounds. This was the 1^st time I stayed in Ambalangoda for 5 days with other Chess players(Mr. Anthony Samuel and Malon Fenando).

While I was playing the tournament, I got the good news that I have been selected for the Chess team which will be participating in the Asian Para Games this year in Indonesia. This is the first time Chess has added as a indoor game in Para games.

2018 40 Over World Blind Cricket Championship

The 5^th edition of the 40 over Blind cricket championship scheduled to start on the 9^th of January 2018 at UAE. Sri Lanka Blind Cricket team, coming under the auspices of the Sri Lanka Cricket Association for the Visually Handicapped, will be led by Chandana Deshapriya. India has won the title, since 2012. Sri Lanka made it into the semi-finals during the year 2014.

The participating countries on a round robin basis comprise Sri Lanka, reigning champions India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Australia.

Let us wish our team a successful tournament!

reference : http://www.thepapare.com/tag/blind-cricket-world-cup-2018/

3rd Kolonnawa International Rated Chess Tournament 2017

The 3^rd Kolonnawa international Chess tournament started on the 8^th December 2017. The venue for this year‘s tournament was Parakramabahu College, Narahenpita. The tournament was a 9 round tournament. I was the only visually impaired player and organizers supported me a lot by providing necessary facilities for me to play the tournament.

There was no visually impaired category for this tournament. After 9 rounds I was able to score 6 points and my final rank was 61 out of 365 players.

 This will be my final tournament for 2017. I played 3 tournaments this year. In the first tournament I became the first visually impaired Chess player in Sri Lanka to participate in an international rated Chess tournament organized for sighted players. In my 2^nd tournament I was able to gain FIDE ratings to become the first Sri Lankan visually impaired Chess player to get FIDE international rating. In my 3rd tournament I played well to get 6 points out of 9 rounds while I got 5 and 5.5 points respectively previous 2 tournaments which had 10 rounds each.

My goal is to be in the top 10 visually impaired Chess players in the world by 2019. That makes the year 2018 a hard working year for me. The world visually impaired individual Chess championship will be held in Italy 2019 and the Asian visually impaired Chess championship in Philippines 2020.

8th Buddhi International Open Rating Chess Championship 2017

For the 8th time  Buddhi International Open Rating Chess Championship was organized by Mrs. Buddhi Panagoda the managing director of Buddhi education development centre. The venue for this year's event was Apsara Hotel in Nittabuwa. I got the opportunity to play in this tournament under the visually impaired category.  Over 550 chess players participated in this tournament and we had to play 10 rounds. My friend Mr. Ashanth Deemantha also played under the visually impaired category. So for the first time two visually impaired Chess players participated in an international rating Chess tournament in Sri Lanka.

In this tournament I got the opportunity to open my ratings. It was a huge step in my Chess career. After 20 years of Visually impaired Chess in Sri Lanka to be the first rated visually impaired Chess player was a great achievement for me. If more and more visually impaired Chess players can participate in these kind of rated tournaments, I hope we can form a strong visually impaired Chess team in Sri Lanka. I got 5.5 points,  i got the opportunity to play 7 rated players and to get 2.5 points against them.

I would like to thank Mrs. Buddhi Panagoda for giving me the opportunity to play in this tournament.

3rd Negambo Chess Festival 2017 Chess Championship.

I always believed that to improve Chess among visually impaired Chess players is to give them an opportunity to play with regular vision Chess players in their tournaments. The message I send to Mr. Dulan Edirisingha, one of the administrators of the Facebook group www.chesslife.lk was published on the group and one of the organizers of the Negambo Chess Festival 2017  Mr. Malon Fenando gave an opportunity for visually impaired Chess players to participate in the 3rd Negambo Chess Festival 2017 Chess Championship.

The event was held from the 20^th of August to 24^th of August. More than 500 players participated in this tournament. Four visually impaired Chess players including myself were invited for this tournament. But other three players couldn’t participate in the tournament due to various reasons. I didn’t want to miss this golden opportunity.

I didn’t have big expectations for this tournament. I just wanted to participate and to get a good experience. I was so excited and happy to become the first visually impaired Chess player in Sri Lanka to play in a such a big event. I was really satisfied the way I played in the tournament. I got 5 points out of 10 rounds. The experience I got by playing with regular vision Chess players was so precious for me. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I played my games on a special Chess board designed for visually impaired players, it was a new experience for other Chess players to play a game with me.

Since 2014 I am looking for a Chess trainer. It is a challenging task for a trainer because most of the Chess lessons are designed in visual form. But now with the latest technology we can read printed documents, notes etc. My goal is to be the Asian visually impaired Chess Champion in the next IBCA Asian Chess Championship. If I get the proper training and guidance I believe I can achieve my goal.

I would like to thank the organizers of the 3^rd Negambo Chess festival, for giving me an opportunity to play in the tournament. All the arbiters for carrying out the games I played according to the rules for a visually impaired player vs regular vision player and for all the other players for their support. I would like to congratulate Nanayakkara J A K Saranath for winning the chess tournament!

Finally I would like to share a game that I played in the tournament, which I enjoyed the most. I’m playing White.

1.e4, d5

2.exd5, Qxd5

3.Nc3, Qa5

4.Nf3, Bf4

5.d4, Nf6

6.Bd3, Bxd3

7.Qxd3, h6

8.O-O, e6

9.a3, c6

10.b4, Bxb4

11.axb4, Qxa1

12.Bxh6, Qxf1+

13.Kxf1, Rxh6

14.Ne4, Nxe4

15.Qxe4, Na6

16.b5, f5

17.Qe5, Nb4

18.Qxg7, Rxh2

19.Ne5, Rh1+

20.Ke2, Re1+

21.Kxe1, Nxc2+

22.Kd2, Nxd4

23.Qf7+, Kd8

24.Qd7#

Dilmah National Cricket Tournament for the Visually Impaired 2017 My Experience.

This year we had our qualifies at Monaragala. We had 5 teams in our group. They were Shakthi, Super Kings, Senehasa, Rathmalana School Team and The Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. We had to travel for 8 hours to reach Monaragala, but everything was arranged nicely for our players and we had a good rest before our matches.

We won our first match against the Thangalle Senehasa Team. Kalyan Kumar scored a half century, in balling me and Kalyan took 3 wickets each. Kalyan Kumar is a member of the national cricket team since 1998 so it was a great experience for me to play with him in the same team. After the first round we placed 3^rd in the group. In the quarter finals we lost to Super Kings Team. In that match Madusanka Vishvanath scored a half century, In balling he took 3 wickets, me and Kalyan took 1 wicket each.

I’m satisfied with my performances in the tournament this year. 

Chess for the visually impaired in Sri Lanka

For a long time I wanted to write something and create awareness in the SL chess community about the Visually impaired chess players of Sri Lanka.

Most of us do not have the faintest idea that such 'visually handicapped' players exist in Sri Lanka. That includes most of the National players who have played against IBCA in the Olympiads.

Recently I (along with Marlon Fernando) had the good fortune of assisting the preparation of three Sri Lankan players who represented Sri Lanka at IBCA Asia Pacific Chess Championship for Visually Challenged, 2017 held in India.

Few simple words of encouragement would also mean a great deal for Visually handicapped players. Also please note some of them learned to play chess AFTER they became completely blind, which is something incredible. (Most of them are soldiers who fought the war and lost their precious eye sight due to explosions)

The leader of our Visually handicapped Chess team Mr Tuan Rushdi Cassim has following message to our chess community. In his message he discusses the need for them to play in regular tournaments in order to improve. I implore all our International rated tournament organizers to consider his request and provide them with an opportunity. (FIDE rules allow Visually handicapped players to play in regular tournaments)

"Chess is the only sport a visually impaired player can play with a sighted player with an equal-ground. Chess for the visually impaired first started in Sri Lanka in early 2000’s. The Sri Lankan national visually impaired Chess team has represented the country in the Asia Pacific Chess Championship for Visually Challenged in the year 2003 and 2017. There are about 40 visually impaired Chess players in Sri Lanka. As a member of the visually impaired national Chess team I feel that, the best way to improve Chess for the visually impaired in Sri Lanka is to give us an opportunity to play in some tournaments organised for the sighted Chess players. This will help our players to get tournament practice and to get ratings"