Darpan Inani is India’s top visually impaired chess player, competing against sighted champions.
He envisages the board in his mind - as his opponent announces every move, he visualises the pieces accordingly.
"Success does not follow a light, light follows success,"
Darpan’s life is an inspiration for many. Diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, he completely lost his eyesight at a very young age.
Darpan went to a regular school where he says that during sports time, his classmates would run to the ground to play games such as cricket.
"I obviously could not play with them. That’s when my parents and I came to know that I could play chess ” he says.
"I chose to play chess because it's the only sport that a visually impaired person can play against a sighted person, without changing any rules or things,” Darpan told SBS Gujarati.
Darpan says that he uses a particular chess board with a hole in every square and nails on every piece, which prevents the pieces from falling when he touches them to check their position.
Source: Darpan Inani
Each row and column has a unique code like any excel sheet and when a player moves any piece, he or she has to write it down. But in Darpan's case, his opponent announces every move, and he visualises it in his mind.
“I imagine the chess board and the pieces. My opponent announces every move during the game, and I visualise the pieces accordingly, for example - a move of ‘rook to B4’ changes the visualisation in my mind,” Darpan says.
Darshan is associated with Project Checkmate - an initiative to take blind chess to the corners of India, inspiring visually impaired players to pursue their passion in the game.
He says he wants to be the first blind chess master to attain " the master of chess" title. He also has ambitions to be a Chartered Accountant.
Source: Darpan Inani
Some Achievements:
Darpan has a long list of accomplishments since winning his first tournament at the age of 14. He won the Under 13, 15 and 17 age category sighted state chess tournaments and represented Gujarat state in nationals.
He became the youngest player to win national the Blind Chess Championship (no age bar) at the age of 16 in 2010.
Darpan won the Bronze medal at World Junior Blind Chess Championship (U20) in Serbia in 2013, the first ever individual medal to have been won by India in blind chess.
And in August 2018, he won the international first prize at the Creon open chess tournament (open sighted tournament) in France and became the Indian visually impaired winner.
To know more about Darpan and his inspirational story, listen to the podcast.
