The performance of Bangladesh’s chess players in the recent Asian Continental Chess Championship in UAE provided an indication of how the country is lagging behind in the sport.
Bangladesh sent four chess players in the tournament at Al-Ain, which included three Grand Masters and one International Women’s Master, but none could achieve any significant result.
GM Abdullah Al Rakib finished 27th among 83 players while GM Enamul Hossain Rajib became 43rd and GM Ziaur Rahman ended in 59th place.
In the women’s section, WIM Shamima Akter Liza became 34th among 57 participants.
With continent’s top players skipping the tournament, Bangladeshis were expected to give a better show that would also help some of them to qualify for the Chess World Cup, scheduled in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 10 to October 4 this year.
Bangladesh’s Zia and Liza qualified for the Chess World Cup in a zonal tournament earlier this year and this competition provided Rakib and Rajib their best chance to join the duo.
But lack of practice and facilities did not help their cause.
Their prolonged absence in the earlier editions of the tournament also cost them, said the players.
Rakib played in the Continental Chess after 11 years while Rajib made his first appearance since 2009.
‘It was a good platform to see our actual strength,’ Rakib told New Age about the UAE tournament.
‘We have found that we are far behind the others,’ said Rakib, who earned
five points from nine matches.
‘I don’t think we lack the quality to compete in these kind of tournament. What we lack is practice and facilities.
‘We don’t get enough playing opportunity at home and we don’t have any coach either. In UAE we have seen many players participating with two coaches.’
Rakib, who has 2,473 rating points, said some small errors made him pay throughout the tournament.
‘I made few mistakes throughout the tournament, which turned out to be costly,’ said the 35-year old player.
‘In the first game I lost against a weaker opponent of Jordan, which was costly. I struggled to bounce back from the defeat and repeated the same mistakes.’
Rajib, the youngest among countries five GMS, was left ruing the lack of support from Bangladesh Chess Federation.
‘Federation failed to give us playing opportunity and we played without any coach. So it’s not fair to expect better result from us,’ he said.
Rajib, the only Bangladeshi ever to qualify for the second round of the World Chess Championship in 2006, said the uncertainty over visa and ticket sponsors also took a toll in their performance.
The Federation only provided financial supports to Zia and Liza while federation vice-president Shahbuddin Shamim provided air-tickets to Rakib and Rajib. The duo bore the other costs from their pocket, though Shamim promised to reimburse them
‘We reached UAE just hours before the tournament due to visa problem. Also we faced an uncertainty about the financial matter as the federation refused to bear our costs.
‘With so many problems it’s really tough to do well,’ lamented Rajib.
-With New Age input
