Training exercise turns full-fledged chess game

Two years ago,this training exercise transformed into an idea for a full-fledged team game —Blindfold Pawn Team Chess (BPTC). Each team would consist of three players — an announcer,playing blindfold,visualising moves on a blank chessboard; a move writer,noting down the moves on a scoresheet; and the move player,who makes the move on a magnetic board visible to spectators but not to the announcer. The object of the game — to get one pawn over to the opponent’s final rank (queening it,in classical chess). Each team only has five minutes on their clock at the start of the game.

“It was now a really exciting game,lasting only 10 minutes,and spectators could feel the tension because they could see the moves develop,but knew that the announcer couldn’t,” says Barve. “And since it was teams of three,it had become a very family-friendly game.”

Barve has since been trying to spread the game. “Our last tournament in Goa attracted players from 14 schools,” he says. On Monday,he staged demonstrations for students from two Pune schools — New English School,Tilak Road,and Jnana Prabodhini. Barve also approached the Goa government for help to promote the game,with the result that state Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar grandiloquently renamed the game Goa’s Gift to the World (GGW).

“We will be promoting the game among tourists who visit Goa,” says Barve. “By 2013,we will have weekly tournaments for family tourists.”