Dear All,

During summer, Tornelo developed new features to help blind and visually impaired players use the platform and enjoy playing chess without needing an assistant. These features have been tested and there are constant efforts to improve them. Below you will find a guide on how to access the “blind mode” and use it during your games. Any kind of feedback you could provide would be very useful in improving the platform further more. Our ultimate goal is that anyone will be able to use it without needing external help.

Before the game begins:

To access the blind mode, go to your tournament link and click on your name at the top right of the screen. A drop-down menu opens up where you should select “Game preferences”. There, you should tick the box “Display games as text”.

During the game

There will be sounds to indicate when the game has started and when your opponent has made a move.Here is how the pieces of opponents  will be announced:

White pieces

Pawns: alfa 2, bravo 2, charlie 2, delta 2, echo 2, foxtrot 2, golf 2, hotel 2.

Knights: bravo 1, golf 1.

Bishops: charlie 1, foxtrot 1.

Rooks: alfa 1, hotel 1.

Queen: delta 1.

King: echo 1.

Black pieces

Pawns: alfa 7, bravo 7, charlie 7, delta 7, echo 7, foxtrot 7, golf 7, hotel 7.

Knights: bravo 8, golf 8.

Bishops: charlie 8, foxtrot 8.

Rooks: alfa 8, hotel 8.

Queen: delta 8.

King: echo 8.

When it is you turn, you can type your move into the form using standard algebraic notation, for example “Nf3 or e5 or Qxd5” (remember to use capital letters for the pieces). For pawn promotion, you can write a8=Q or a8Q.

A list of commands is available to help you perform different tasks. Type these commands into the move form.

/resign or /r: Resign the game.

/draw or /d: Offer or accept a draw.

/undo or /u: Offer or accept a takeback.

/last or /l: Read last move.

/clocks or /c: Read clocks of both players .

/my or /m: Read my clock.

/turn or /t: The color of the player to move.

/rooks or rooks: Read the positions of all rooks on the board.

/bishops or bishops: Read the positions of all bishops on the board.

/knights or knights: Read the positions of all knights on the board.

/pawns or pawns: Read the positions of all pawns on the board.

/kings or kings: Read the positions of all kings on the board.

/queens or queens: Read the positions of all queens on the board.

A confirmation is needed when offering or accepting a draw and when resigning a game.

Please be careful to not click on “Return to game board” during the game. In case you do, you will be directed back to “non-blind mode” and you will have to go again to “Game preferences” to tick the box “Display games as text”.

As a final remark, we strongly suggest that you use NVDA as your screen reader. We have tried Tornelo with JAWS and it is not fully compatible, at least not yet, so we advise against using it.