Not sure about blind, but blindfold chess is a thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindfold_chess

Ray Charles.

There are blind go players, so I assume blind chess players also exist.

There are many blind chess players. Competitive chess rules allow blind players access to special equipment (basically an auxiliary pegged board) so that they can 'feel' the position. Really strong chess players don't actually need sight of the board and I imagine the best blind players (there are many of master strength) don't make extensive use of this provision.

In the biannual international chess 'olympiads' (team competition between countries) a multi country blind players team competes. Some other disabilities are also represented in the same way.

One of my friends spent his 2 years of military service in Israel playing chess -- up to 2 dozen chess games simultaneously, blind folded, against soldiers in the Israeli army. After his army service, he eventually ended up in grad school and later on became a professor. But more than his research papers, it is his chess playing that I remember.