Problems of blind chess players

A chess game is very popular also for visually impaired players. To some extent we can see similarities to blindfold chess game of sighted players. However blindfold chess is played by master players only. Thus blind beginners are facing demanding conditions for playing chess. We started with initial observation of a game play of blind chess players and indicated signs of using mental images, limits in learning efficient chess play, or accessibility problems. We extracted 114 findings from the semi-structured interviews conducted with 5 blind advanced chess players. Based on these findings we propose directions for future research and development.