Sudip, Laxmi Narayan and Ganesh (from left) at the chess table in school. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

He is blind. His mother, who lives in Sodepur, is a domestic help. His father died years ago. His favourite subject is English and his favourite pastime is playing chess. Sudip Rajbansi, 13, is a national chess champion.

Sudip?s fortunes changed after he joined the Louis Braille Memorial School For The Sightless, in Uttarpara. The slip of a boy emerged winner in the national blind chess championships in Hyderabad earlier this year, with all ages playing each other.

The Class V student has been playing for only three years. He practises for about an hour every day, doing the homework that coach Paritosh Bhattacharya of the Alekhine Chess Club in Calcutta gives him on Saturdays.

Sudip has participated, and been in the top bracket, in contests like the National Children?s chess in Gujarat and The Telegraph in Schools (TTIS) annual school chess contest in Calcutta, both for ?normal? people, besides almost all events for the visually-handicapped. Next, he?s off to Delhi in December for the open national championships.

The school, of which Pankaj Kumar Das has been the principal for the past 27 years, has but one motto: integration into mainstream society for the visually-handicapped. The school hosts a national students? contest under the auspices of the Indian Braille Chess Association (IBCA). Sudip was this year?s winner, competing with participants from 10 states.

Das is also secretary of the IBCA. ?We are the only handicapped people?s association to be affiliated to a national sport organisation, the All India Chess Federation. The Louis Braille school started with state-level athletics meets for the physically challenged in 1981, the international year of the disabled. Then we realised that with chess, we can compete with everyone and not feel handicapped. We set up the association in 1992.?

But it?s not just Sudip who has made the school proud. Laxmi Narayan Adhikary has been playing the game for about seven years. Even after passing out from Louis Braille school, the history honours student of Hooghly Mohsin College has kept up with the sport, coming back to coach the younger lot. Although cricket is another pursuit ? he was the only Bengal player on the national team for the world cups in 1998 and 2002 for the visually-handicapped ? chess is where his heart is. He has even been to Spain to play the game, ranking 11th.

?Cricket for blind people hasn?t got recognition, so there is very little financial support. But in chess, we can compete with everyone, so there is much more scope for advancement,? Laxmi feels.

But funds are scarce for the Indian Braille Chess Association that has now spread through the country. ?We try to do what we can to send our students for contests around the country. But it?s difficult and expensive. We try our best, approaching companies and well-wishers,? sighs Das.

For the December date in Delhi, Sudip will be without his friend Ganesh Kisku, 14, another champ from the Hooghly school. Ganesh?s favourite subject is English, he wants to study engineering, but chess is his first love. He wants to take part in every contest. Often, reality checkmates him.