Time Out

Local stars Chess

What about our players? Well, this is a very legitimate question. I have been writing about the players who belong to history. No, this is not because I want to ignore the local stars who are doing very well these days. Grandmaster Niaz Murshed drew a lot of attention when he became the first GM of the subcontinent. Then Mrs. Rani Hamid also made her presence felt in the international arena. She won the title of IWM many years back and still reigns supreme among our women players.

Today we have two grandmasters and four international masters, which is no mean achievement for a country having a far from enviable record in other disciplines. Bangladesh have been taking part in the Chess Olympiads since 1984. Till the mid-nineties, those were a sort of participation-only ventures, though some players achieved very good individual results. But things have begun to change. In the Bled Olympiad in 2002, our players finished 30th in a field of more than 125 countries! And what was most spectacular about the result was the fine win (3-1) against the Philippines in the last round.

Besides the two grandmasters, Niaz Murshed and Ziaur Rahman, we have a host of highly promising players. IM Rifat-Bin-Sattar can onlly blame himself for his failure to get the title so far. He was at the peak of his form in 1993-94, but could not continue playing with the same amount of motivation and consistency. That affected his chess career, but one still expects him to become a grandmaster very soon. IM Rakib and IM Rajib are the two other boys looking for that coveted title. Both of them have shown great promise. These players can elevate our chess to a new height by ensuring that we will have an all-grandmaster team (at least on the regular boards) by the year 2006. Am I asking for too much? I don't think so.

Today I have chosen the positional masterpiece that Grandmaster Zia produced in our crucial match against Filipino Grandmaster Eugene Torre, one of the best players of Asia for nearly three decades!

White- GM Ziaur Rahman
Black - GM E Torre [A41]
Bled Olympiad (Men), 2002
1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Bg4 3.c4 g6 4.e4 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 e5 6.d5 Bh6 7.Nd2 Nd7 8.Bd3 Ngf6 9.00 00 10.Rb1 a5 11.b3 Nh5 12.Rd1 Ng7 13.Qh3 Bg5 14.Bb2 f5 15.exf5 gxf5 16.Nf3 Be7 17.Bc2 Qe8 18.Re1 Qf7 19.Kh1 Qh5 20.Qxh5 Nxh5 21.Nd4 Ng7 22.f4 e4 23.g4 fxg4 24.Rxe4 Bf6 25.Ne6 Nc5 26.Nxf8 Nxe4 27.Nxh7 Bxb2 28.Bxe4 Bd4 29.Rd1 Bb2 30.Rg1 Re8 31.Ng5 Kf8 32.Rxg4 Ke7 33.Rg2 Ba1 34.Bg6 Rh8 35.Nh7 Nh5 36.Re2+ Kd8 37.Bxh5 Rxh7 38.Re8+ Kd7 39.Re1 Bc3 40.Bg4+ Kd8 41.Re6 Rf7 42.f5 Re7 43.Rh6 Re1+ 44.Kg2 Ke7 45.h4 Bg7 46.Rg6 Bf6 47.h5 Ra1 48.h6 Rxa2+ 49.Kh3 Be5 50.Re6+ Kf8 51.Bh5 Kg8 52.f6 1-0

-PATZER