UNS – A lot of people consider that chess needs high foresight and a brilliant brain. Vision is crucial to master this game. But who would guess that chess can be played by blind people? A chess match for blind people was held on Sunday (23/2/2020) in E building Faculty of Teacher Education and Training (FKIP) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta.
The event titled Senyum Cup #1 (Smile Cup #1) was held by Yayasan Senyum Kita collaborated with the National Paralympic Committee Indonesia (NPCI), and The National Coaching Team (Pelatnas) of Chess for Disability. There are participants in the competition who came individually and there are some who came with their coach. Like the players from Yogyakarta and Jakarta who came along with their contingents.
This chess match brings together 46 blind chess players from all over Indonesia. They came from Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Borneo, and Yogyakarta (DIY). There are three winners in this competition.
“The 1st, 2ns, and 3rd winners are from Sukabumi, DIY, and Cilacap,” Wahyu Setiawan stated as the organizing committee of Cup #1 who is also a blind student in Special Education Program (PLB) FKIP UNS on Monday (24/2/2020).
The three winners came from different areas. The first winner is Enda Permana who came from Sukabumi. The second winner is Ardi Nugroho from DIY. Lastly, the third winner is Sugianto who came from Cilacap.
The tournament is implemented using the Swiss system. When there were 46 participants, there were 23 participants who won and 23 participants who lose. On the occasion, the winners will compete with the other winners, similarly with the those who lose in the previous round will compete with other participants who lose in the previous round. Swiss Manager machine is used in the randomization of players and to run the system. Swiss Manager is a computer application.
Senyum Cup #1 is expected to find an excellent talent for blind chess which is currently hard to find.
“The tournament for blind chess is rare, because of that, it is hard for us to find excellent talent, so through this Senyum Cup might be able to find quality blind chess athletes,” stated Wahyu Setiawan. Humas UNS/Zalfaa
