The 7th Chess Olympiad for the Visually Handicapped was held at the Hawaii Hotel, Benidorm, Spain. Twenty nations participated and the slight decrease in numbers seemed mainly due to the collapse of the Olympiad arrangements in the USA in 1984. However, it was good to see Greece and Portugal involved for the first time.

The twenty teams were divided into four groups for the preliminary rounds and the composition of these groups was determined by previous performances. The top two teams from each preliminary group qualified for Final Group A and played for places 1 to 8. The next two teams qualified for Final Group B and played for places 9 to 16. The bottom team in each group was placed in Final Group C and played for places 17 to 20.

The 7th Blind Chess Olympiad brought no great surprises and was convincingly won by USSR. Some figures are included here to give an idea of the size of such an event: To start with there was a total of 98 players in Benidorm - a truly major event. In addition there were all the guides, the tournament control team and, not least, those taking part in the I.B.C.A. Congress, as well as people on the committee, by no means all of whom were playing in the event, and who therefore increased the number of people who needed to be present.

/ Taken from BCAI history site /