Thirty teams took part in the 10th Blind Chess Olympiad in Laguna (Brazil) in the State of Santa Catarina from the 1st to the 10th of June 1996. The host nation entered two teams. The Olympiad took the form of a nine round Swiss and was controlled by FIDE and I.B.C.A. Arbiter, František Blatny (Czech Republic), assisted by Mrs. Palas Veloso and Alexandru Segal (both Brazil).

Laguna is a very old fishing town in the Southern part of this huge Country, much frequented by the neighbouring Argentineans who avail of the sailing and surfing to be found there. In the southern hemisphere, June is the winter season and so Laguna was largely deserted, and therefore, it provided few distractions for the Chess players. Undaunted, some of the hardy Scandinavians could be seen taking an icy dip in the Atlantic, to the great consternation of the locals.

This Olympiad was the first to be held outside Europe, so it must have been something of a relief to the organisers when it was well supported by the Europeans, including a few newcomers. But it was less well attended by the Latin Americans themselves.

A special honour was bestowed on Milenko Čabarkapa who, from 1961 onwards had actively taken part in all ten of the I.B.C.A. Olympiads.