NAGPUR, Aug 25: Each year Viswanathan Anand and a few other leading Grandmasters are brought together for a world-famous tournament called Melody Amber in Spain. One segment of the tournament requires the players to play blindfold. It is done to give the game an added twist, as also to test the abilities of the GMs and their memory of the chess board itself.

But unknown to them, there is another set of players, who play blindfold chess day after day. And that's not for fun. It is a complusion forced on them by nature.

And what's more, the four blind chess players from Mumbai -- Kartik Damle, Sunil Kolhe, Swapnil Shah and Pramod Mistry -- are not only battling their physical impairment, but also struggling to convince the `able' society to give them a fair chance to compete as equals.

Last week, the Mumbai quartet rubbed shoulders with the 240-odd players in the 11-round BPCL FIDE-rating chess tournament in Nagpur and each of them scored above five points. That alone should be ample proof of their skills.Damle and Kolhe, former students of Happy Home for the Blind in Worli, have been classmates since kindergarten.

After matriculation, both enrolled themselves in different colleges. Damle did his graduation at St Xavier's and Kolhe was an under-graduate student at Elphinstone. Both are skilled telephone operators. Shah, too, is a St. Xavier's graduate and Mistry is a lathe machine operator.

During their days at Happy Home, Damle and Kolhe played chess as a pastime. ``We did not know the competitive nature of the game till we were 14. We had some chess boards designed specially for the blind at our school,'' recalls Damle, a telephone operator at Bank of India's Stock Exchange Branch in Mumbai.

In a sports meet for the blind, Damle finished first and Kolhe put up a good show. ``This success made us know more about chess,'' added Damle.

Damle played for St. Xavier's in 1992-93 at inter-collegiate championship as the only blind among a four-member team. He performed beyond expectations and clinched the title. That was the real beginning for him.

``That success made my friends help me out from time to time. They used to read chess books for me to add to my knowledge,'' says Damle.

But Kolhe could not represent Elphinstone, who did not have a chess team.

``Though I was at a loss during college days, I compensated for it by playing seriously at open events from 1992,'' says Kolhe, a telephone operator at the Sales Tax Department. Mistry, a newcomer to the club, is taking his lessons, in a manner of speaking, from Damle and Kolhe.

PRAISEWORTHY EFFORT: Damle's urge for more knowledge is praiseworthy. As very few come forward to help the blind, he has so far translated three chess books Fischer vs Spasky '72 World Championship, Modern Chess Brilliancies and American Chess History into Braille. ``If I get an electronic Braille typewriter, I will be able to do the work faster. But I don't have the money to purchase one,'' he informed.

``Apart from my blind colleagues, my wife Sumitra, is of great help. She reads out the books on chess and without her I couldn't have done made any progress in this field,'' Damle acknowledges.

He says chess books in Braille are available in England, but finance is the problem for their association (MCA of the Blind). ``We are planning to import some books from Royal National Institute for the Blind. Let's hope some sponsors come forward.''

Though Damle and Kolhe have managed to get jobs through special quota for the blind, Shah and Mistry are running from pillar to post to earn a dignified living.

``No industrialist or workshop owner is ready to offer me job despite my working skills. The society hasn't changed its attitude towards us,'' Mistry rues while demanding a separate job quota for blind sportsmen.

Damle recalls a similar case. A blind student Ashok Shrimali, who has done post graduate course in personnel management from Tata's in Mumbai, was not picked by anyone through campus interviews. ``It's sad. We don't want your sympathy. Trust us. We can perform at par with the anybody,'' he explains.

Damle has one more grievance. His employers Bank of India have a chess team. But Damle is not a part of it. ``I wish to play for my bank but they say I was not recruited through sports quota. They should put me through trials at least,'' he said. He has written to the Bank's sports secretary and chairman long ago. He still awaits the answer.

But not everybody is so unhelpful. There are a few who do encourage these blind boys. Veteran chess stars Raghunandan Gokhale and Sajandas Joshi regularly visit them to teach the finer points of the game.

``Gokhale and Joshi Sir are our real gurus,'' they say. And of course, there is also another friend from Mumbai, Anand Raman, who was in Nagpur for 11 days to look after his handicapped friends. That, for the present, is the only bright spot in their lives.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.