By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- When Karl Adam participates in a chess tournament in Sweden next month, he will be up against what some people might think are tough obstacles.
He must announce his moves in German. He will likely face some tough Russian competition. He must learn the names used in place of letters in international tournaments? Anna, Bella, Cesar, David, Eva, Felix, Gustaf and Hector.
But, what some would think is his biggest challenge? playing the game without sight? is the least of his concerns.
‘What challenge?? asks Adam, who has been blind since birth. ‘It’s not a challenge, because I learned the way I needed to.?
‘He doesn’t know it any different,? agrees his mother, Brunhilde Merk-Adam. ‘If you’ve only learned one way, it’s not such a challenge.?
Karl Adam, homeschooled since he was in first grade, was taught to play chess by his father and grandfather when he was 7-years-old. He began playing more seriously a few years ago with the 4-H Knights Chess Club at the township library.
Adam uses an adapted, tactile chess board and pieces to play. The board is smaller than standard boards and comes with holes in the squares to place chess pieces that have pegs in the bottom. The black chess pieces are standard, while white pieces are altered to enable blind players to differentiate.
‘It’s a tricky thing when you’re a blind person playing a sighted person,? said Adam. ‘They have the right to a standard board or they can play on my board. We have a smaller board so that we don’t have to reach so far to feel the pieces.?
Adam’s opponents are usually players who have their sight. However, when he travels to Sweden, he will play in the Junior World Chess Championship for the Visually Impaired and in each match, the players will use their own boards.
‘We can play with an assistant and we never touch the other board,? explains Adam. ‘Each move is recorded and announced.?
The tournament will be from June 19-25, but Adam, as well as his mother and father, Walter, will stay a little longer to tour Sweden, as well as Denmark.
Adam expects to be the sole representative from North America at the tournament. He was invited by the U.S. Blind Chess Federation, which he learned about when searching for a special tactile clock to use for chess.
Adam has played in numerous tournaments since joining the chess club, with his best showing a fifth place at a scholastic tournament in March in Lansing? where he won two matches, lost two, and had a draw.
Besides chess, Adam also skis as a member of Optical Illusions (a club for blind skiers), plays piano, and goalball, a specialized game developed after World War II for veterans who had become visually impaired.
Adam plans to attend Oakland Community College in the fall and while he doesn’t know what he will major in, or how school will work as OCC doesn’t offer programs for the blind, his lack of sight won’t stop him in chess or life.
‘I always want to get better and learn more,? he said. ‘It’s annoying I can’t drive, but I don’t wonder why this happened. All you can do is live your life. Do what you can to help others and make the world a better place if possible, and that’s it.?