The Italian Chess Championship for the blind and visually impaired returns to Pesaro

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18/04/2024 – On 20 and 21 April Pesaro, and in particular the Unahotels Imperial Sport will once again host the Italian Rapid Chess Championship for the blind and visually impaired, organized by the ASCID – Italian Blind Chess Players Association, with the patronage and support of the Pesaro-Urbino section of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired”. This is the recovery of the 2023 edition, unfortunately canceled due to the flood in Romagna.

ASCID was founded in Milan in 1972, today it operates throughout the national territory with the aim of spreading the game of chess among the blind and visually impaired, encouraging their inclusion in existing chess structures, organizing training meetings, various chess tournaments type and activate and maintain relationships with other Italian and foreign associations. It also collaborates in the production of accessible material: chessboards and pieces, chess clocks, educational literature, management software, an activity which is particularly appreciated internationally by similar associations.

The top championship in the category returns once again to the Marche region, for the fourth time in Pesaro, in the Rossiniana UNESCO Creative City of Music, an area that has hosted the majority of the Italian Rapid Chess Champions for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Chess players from the Marche region have won 26 out of 38 editions; 19 times, i.e. one time out of two, the Champion Title went to a chess player from Pesaro.

There are 22 chess players from all over Italy who will compete for the prizes of the 2024 edition; among them also the Champion Marco Casadei from Cesena and the Champion Erica Pezzolato from Rovigo, who will be giving away their titles won in the previous edition, also held at the Unahotels Imperial Sport in Pesaro, on 23 and 24 April 2022. Representing the Marche region in this edition will be the veteran and historic ASCID director, Emilio Brunetti from Pesaro and the debutant Claudia Battezzati from Falconara. Also present at the event will be Bersan Vrioni from Viterbo and Giuseppe Franco Pugliese from Genoa, members of the Azzurra team that represented Italy at the European Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired which took place in Genoa last April.

“It is with great pleasure that we host this tournament once again: the previous year we were fascinated by the ease with which the players tackle this difficult game and also the way it was played, with the double board, impressed us. It is a great example of inclusion and we want to take the opportunity to let citizens participate in these possibilities – says Roberto Signorini, owner of the Hotel Imperial Sport – We thank ASCID and the Italian Union of the Blind who have once again preferred us and we look forward to our friends chess players!”