Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
We like to read all the chess feature stories from around the world even if they have a very local flavour. Here are two simple and interesting chess features. Enjoy reading and marvelling how wonderful our game of chess is.
Twenty-five years ago when he took to chess, he never knew how to play the game and neither was interested in playing it. But now after two-and-a-half decades, he takes chess as his religion and has mastered the game of sixty four squares. Such is the story of Ambika Prasad Singh, a visually challenged chess player, who plays the game as a hobby and uses it as a tool to find peace.
Ambika was not blind by birth. It was when he was eight years of age that he contracted chicken pox and lost both his eyes due to the deadly disease. But he never used it as an excuse and did carry on with his life. “I never knew what happened to me. I was too small to actually feel dejected emotionally, but as time passed by I slowly realized and started feeling morally low. I took it as my fate and moved on with my life as there was nothing much I could do. I faced problem initially but with time, I learnt to live with it,” said Ambika. Read further here.
Chess contenders in a muted zone
The silent world of the chess player has reigned in the Millennium Hotel this week as 148 national and international players challenge each other in the Queenstown Chess Classic.
Distributed around the hotel's giant lobby each day since Sunday have been 74 chess boards with a player on each side making not a sound, as pawn, rook, bishop, knight, king or queen were moved on the boards. The players do not make eye contact. Some get up and walk around the room for a bit - others do not move an inch. There are national champions and others just learning, but they all have one thing in common and that is the chess code of silence. Read further here.
Hi everyone,
We like to read all the chess feature stories from around the world even if they have a very local flavour. Here are two simple and interesting chess features. Enjoy reading and marvelling how wonderful our game of chess is.
Blind Ambika Finds Peace Playing Chess
Twenty-five years ago when he took to chess, he never knew how to play the game and neither was interested in playing it. But now after two-and-a-half decades, he takes chess as his religion and has mastered the game of sixty four squares. Such is the story of Ambika Prasad Singh, a visually challenged chess player, who plays the game as a hobby and uses it as a tool to find peace.
Ambika was not blind by birth. It was when he was eight years of age that he contracted chicken pox and lost both his eyes due to the deadly disease. But he never used it as an excuse and did carry on with his life. “I never knew what happened to me. I was too small to actually feel dejected emotionally, but as time passed by I slowly realized and started feeling morally low. I took it as my fate and moved on with my life as there was nothing much I could do. I faced problem initially but with time, I learnt to live with it,” said Ambika. Read further here.
Chess contenders in a muted zone
The silent world of the chess player has reigned in the Millennium Hotel this week as 148 national and international players challenge each other in the Queenstown Chess Classic.
Distributed around the hotel's giant lobby each day since Sunday have been 74 chess boards with a player on each side making not a sound, as pawn, rook, bishop, knight, king or queen were moved on the boards. The players do not make eye contact. Some get up and walk around the room for a bit - others do not move an inch. There are national champions and others just learning, but they all have one thing in common and that is the chess code of silence. Read further here.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Also see her personal blog at
thanks for sharing
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