There are 80 players participating in the championships and these have been drawn from the four zones -- 20 from each -- after they qualified for this championships.

The championships will be played over nine rounds on the Swiss league basis. This year, being the inaugural championships, there are 80 participants. The top four from this Nationals directly earn their place into the Indian team which will participate in various international tournaments.

From the next championships, the Nationals for the blind will also be bifurcated into the A and B format. Fourteen players will battle it out in the National A with six top players getting direct entries for the national A and the other eight qualifying from the National B.

Some of the top players -- Vilesh Bhat, thedefending champion, Shirish Patil, Sanjay Karandikar, Charudatta Jadhav and Madan Bagayatkar, Sunil Sasane, Dashrath Dole from Maharashtra will be in fray for this championships.

Of these, Jadhav and Shirish Patil had finished joint second and joint third respectively in the Irish Open Chess Tournament held in Cork in October last year.

That was the biggest result for blind chess players in the country who had participated in the World Championships for the first time after previous National Championships.

Blind players use a board where the black squares are slightly above the white ones. The players uses his fingers to determine the position on the board.