In a quiet corner, 30-year-old Omar Abdullah Al Hashmi sits at a chessboard – his fingers gliding over the pieces as he ponders his next move.
He’s solving chess tactics and trying to sharpen his understanding of his favourite openings — the London System and the Caro-Kann Defence. There’s nothing unusual about his routine – except that he is blind.
Despite the many challenges, Al Hashmi has performed consistently and is now aiming for a chess championship with a strong sense of determination. “Chess gives me confidence and helps me make decisions, Chess has taught me to trust myself and manage myself.”
Al Hashmi completed his Human Resources studies at Zayed University’s School of Management. He loves music and taught himself to play the violin. Omar is an avid learner and enjoys listening to audiobooks, digging deep into novels and different topics.
Now he has his sights set on a new challenge: becoming the first blind chess player to represent the UAE at the Chess Olympiad for People of Determination.
A determined move
Al Hashmi lives in Abu Dhabi and trains with the Abu Dhabi Chess Club and Mind Games. He has already made great strides towards achieving his goal. Marlon Cunanan, one of the chess club’s coaches who has worked with Omar since he first arrived at the club in November, said Omar only started playing chess nearly six months ago but has already made great progress.
“He’s really determined to achieve his goals and that’s his biggest strength,” Cunanan added, noting that his condition “adds an extra challenge to his pursuit of chess mastery.” The UAE’s No. 1 player talks about his chess inspiration. “I study his games. “He’s my favourite player,” Al Hashmi said.
“Playing the game in your head”
To follow in his idol’s footsteps in chess and compete on the world stage, Al Hashmi is training hard under the guidance of his coach. He explained: “I use two methods during training. In one instance, I use a special tactile chess set where the pieces have a special shape so you know if the piece is white or black. The other method is to use it through visualization, where you don’t use a physical board, you just play the game in your head.”
As part of his training, Omar recently travelled from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to play alongside members of the Philippine Paralympic Chess Team, who were in the UAE to take part in the recently concluded Dubai Open Chess Tournament. The 11-member team includes a player who won a gold medal at the Asian Para Games in China last year.
“It was a great experience to play against my visually impaired teammates who have played at the highest level,” Al Hashmi said. “We also had a short training session and I learned a lot from them.”
Al Hashmi continues to receive more and more support and is grateful for the recognition and encouragement from the chess community.
“I’m grateful to Abu Dhabi Chess Club and the UAE Chess Federation for giving me this opportunity,” Al Hashmi said.
“I want to show others and hopefully inspire them that disability is not an obstacle to achieving your goals in life. I am a determined chess player,” he added.
Philippine para-chess team
Meanwhile, the 11-man strong contingent from the Philippine Paralympic Chess Team snatched one of the coveted top 10 places in the final standings, courtesy of Menandro Redor, who is one of four partially blind players in the team.
“It was a great experience for our team to compete at this level in Dubai, so to win one of the major prizes was a really great achievement,” said head coach James Infiest. The Dubai team also included wheelchair athletes Henry Lopez; Felix Aguilera; and partially blind athletes Dally Bernardo, Armand Subaste and Israel Peligro. The blind athletes were Francis Chin, Rodolfo Sarmiento, Cecilio Bilog and team coach Carl Jirex Sato.
Redor won gold with Lopez, Bernardo and Subaste at last year’s Asian Para Games in China.