Chess Tournament for the visually impaired

The National Association for the Blind (NAB) and the Madras Coastal Round Table - 162 will jointly organise a State-level chess tournament for the visually impaired on February 25 at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Meyyammai Murugappan, president of NAB, said the programme would give the participants a moral boost while improving their intellectual capabilities.

"This will go to prove that the visually impaired in no way fall short from people with vision," she said, adding that the programme will also give them the sheer joy of playing the game.

Car rallies

The association also organises car rallies in which the visually impaired navigators give drivers with normal vision directions from Braille sheets.

The logistics for the rally are organised by the Motor Sports Club.

Ms. Murugappan said that the visually impaired were provided integrated education in a regular school, vocational training at Madhavaram and community-based rehabilitation, which included blindness prevention and counselling programmes.

Ganesh Ananthakrishnan, chairman of the Madras Coastal Round Table - 162, said that theirs was a political organisation of young men in the age group of 18 to 40.

Though `Freedom through Education' was the central theme, the three-year-old organisation has embarked into several community service projects too. He said that they would be interested in associating with the NAB on several long-term projects.

M.C. Sriram Rammohan of the Madras Coastal Round Table - 162 said that they constructed a school at Natham village near Kumbakonam at a cost of Rs.4,50,000 and another school at Padur village in Chennai at a cost of Rs.7,50,000.

The chess tournament, sponsored by Coke will be inaugurated by R. Nataraj, Commissioner of Police, M. Ezhil, treasurer of the association, said.