GM Abdullah Al Rakib of Duronto Rajshahi clinched the championship title after overcoming the challenge of Khondoker Aminul Islam in the last round of the Berger Paints 39th National `A’ chess 2013 at the Bangladesh Olympic Association on Saturday.
This is the second time Rakib became the national champion after winning the 2007 crown when he achieved his third and final GM norm.
Since 2008, Rakib did not participate in the National Championship for four years due to some personal reasons including last year, when a lack of preparation forced him to skip the tournament.
‘This is the first time I have played in a national meet since 2008. I couldn’t play in the last tournament due to a lack of preparation,’ said Rakib after winning the last round match.
‘I participated in a chess tournament in India last year but could not perform well there and the national tournament came just after that. So I decided not to take part,’ he added.
Rakib, however, was not overly satisfied with his display as he admitted that due to the underperformance of his opponents, it was easy for him to ensure success.
‘It’s not like I played well and became the champion. Truth is that my opponents were not up to their mark,’ said Rakib.
‘Preparation was not good and I was not attacking enough on my game as I used to be. The average performance of my opponents made the job easier,’ he added.
To confirm top spot with 11 points from 13 rounds, Rakib only had to draw with four runners-up finishers – GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Niaz Morshed, GM Enamul Hossain Razib and FM Sheikh Nasir which he duly did.
Rakib, though, was depressed when he was asked about the future of the nation’s chess.
‘These kinds of questions make me uneasy. I don’t like to give the same answer over and over again which I have been doing for the last 15 years – there is no sponsor, no funds and no facilities,’ said the chess player who hails from Narayanganj.
He was not content with his rating of 2510, which is the highest in the country at present.
‘My rating is 2510/11 and I am sad to say that this is the rating of the top-ranked chess player of the country. That signifies the whole scenario of the game of chess,’ said Rakib, who expressed his wish about taking part in two GM tournaments in India next month.
Meanwhile, Zia finished second with 10.5 points after getting a walk-over from his last round counterpart FM Nasir. IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagor became third with 10 points.
-With New Age input
