Chennai, Aug 9 : In all, 205 competitors, including 19 International Masters and over 90 FIDE-rated players representing 26 countries will be taking part in the 15th Chess Olympiad for the blind commencing here Friday.
The team championship, to be played on a nine-round Swiss league format, is being sponsored by the Tata Group. it will see two Indian teams, comprising four players and a reserve, in the fray with I. M. Shekar Sahu in dual role as the non-playing captain and coach.
There are several firsts in this Olympiad. The games are to be shown live on http://www.aicfb.in; speech-enabled chess clocks will be used and the AICFB is launching the online chess playing portal, a brainchild of Charudatta Jadhav, which also is speech enabled. Besides, daily bulletins of all the completed games will be distributed to the participants in the DAISY format. (IANS)
Rio de Janeiro, May 24 : Spanish football club Real Madrid has exercised its option of signing Sao Paulo loanee Casemiro on a permanent deal. 
Rio de Janeiro, May 24 : Barcelona have reportedly made a final offer of 23 million euros to sign Brazil international striker Neymar during the European summer transfer window. 
Mumbai, May 24 : A court Friday granted police the custody of Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh Randhawa and two others, allegedly involved in the IPL spot-fixing scam, till May 28. 
New Delhi, May 24 : Minister of State for Home Affairs R. P. N. Singh Friday said it would not be right to ban the Indian Premier League (IPL) in view of fresh revelations in the spot fixing scandal, and promised to act tough against guilty. 
Mumbai, May 15 : India's only motorcycle Grand Prix team resumes battle in France this weekend with high hopes of strong results after a top-10 start for the all-new Mahindra Grand Prix machine. 
Dijon-Prenois (France), May 13 : Indian racing driver Sailesh Bolisetti's second weekend of his 2013 Euro Race Car campaign ended on a disappointing note as he finished 18th and 17th in the two races here.