Tokabayev’s battles on 64 squares

Competing in a sport like chess against able-bodied competitors isn’t easy,specially keeping track of the moves on the board and remembering them every time one plays. For Tokabayev,however,these are minor hurdles. “I have a special board where the pieces can be fixed,which helps me know the position. I keep track of the moves through braille,” he says in broken English.

His opponents so far haven’t protested. “It’s an ordinary board,except that the pieces are shaped differently to differentiate between white and black. Why should anyone object to that,” a Delhi chess association official at the venue said. “He plays from memory and for someone who cannot keep looking and re-looking at his moves to fine-tune the game,he is a decent enough player,” he added.

Even though Tokabayev admits he would have loved to see his moves,he is not too bothered about it. Having started playing at the age of 10 — in his own words,because of the various sports that the Kazakh Paralympic association organises,chess was the easiest one he could take to and did not require any contact — this Kazakhstan player,who has a ELO rating of 2033,has participated in several tournaments before this.

And his disability is not something he thinks too much about. Tokabayev is the lone Kazakh player here,having come all alone from Almaty. “My parents see me off in Almaty and the organisers here received me. I don’t have a problem not having a full-time support,” he says.

Here too,he doesn’t expect any special treatment from the organisers,except assuring his travel to and from the venue. “I travel sometimes by metro,sometimes by taxi,it doesn’t matter. I like both,” he says matter-of-factly. “I don’t go out much here. I am not too good with English and also,the Indian English is very different from what the Europeans speak,which makes it more difficult for me,” he says with a laugh.

The organisers have arranged for having one of the arbiters on duty here— Fide-rated Umesh KC from Nepal — to share accomodation with Tokabayev and the two spend their free time playing,what else but chess.

Tokabayev lost his7 th round match to India’s Shravan Nilkanth and as he waited for his ‘friend’ Umesh to get over with his day’s work,the Kazakh was happy explaining about himself and his game to a couple of curious youngsters around. His handicap notwithstanding,Tokabayev is content with his world of 64 squares,with or without the colours. Negi in joint lead after draw

Sixth seed and local hope Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was in joint lead with Slovenian Grandmaster Lenic Luka and Ukrainian Grandmaster Mikhailo Oleksienko at six and half points after the seventh round on a disappointing day for Indians in the fray.

Playing with black pieces in Scheveningen variation of Sicilian Defence on the top board,Negi held top seed Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine while Lenic and Oleksienko beat Indian Grandmasters Arun Prasad and Abhijeet Gupta respectively. Areshchenko had an advantageous position in the middle game with two connected passed pawns in the centre but failed to press his advantage and signed peace in 77 moves.

The other Indians also fared badly; Sahaj Grover losing to Yuriy Kuzubov while International Masters Saptarshi Roy and Shyam Nikil held Grandmaster Konstantin Chernyshov of Russia and Alon Greenfeld of Israel respectively. Meanwhile playing white side of Chigorin Defence,city based International Master Vaibhav Suri held fourth seed Austrian Grandmaster Markus Ragger.