Kids checkmate life's troubles with chess!

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

(From top) Students from Future Hope School who participated in The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship and Diptajeet and Yudhajeet Dey. Pictures by Amit Datta

Hello Everyone,

We found this touching story about orphans and visually challenged kids trying chess in India. It is about 10 orphan kids and two visually challenged brothers who participated in a schools' chess tournament in the Indian city of Kolkata. Chess is surely about hope.

Surojit and Susant are among the 10 orphans from Future Hope School who debuted in The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship. “I had picked up how to move the different pieces from friends at the home but did not know how to write the moves as the games progress. I learnt that watching my opponents and wrote down my moves the third game onwards,” said Surojit after his second game of the day on Friday.

The other hightlight at the tournament this year — which saw the participation of 480 children, 100 more than 2009 — included the performance of the Dey twins - Yudhajeet, who is blind, and Diptajeet, who is partially blind.

“We had never participated in such a high-profile tournament. There are many good players and it’s a nice feeling to beat some of them,” said Diptajeet, who shifted from an English-medium school to study with his twin in the Sreerampur Mahesh High School, where the medium of instruction is Bengali.

You can read the full story here.

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www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
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