GM Ziaur Rahman

Carte Blanche · #1 September 14, 2004, 10:04 PM

I am an avid chess follower and I logged in to ICC (Internet Chess Club) today to follow tonight's 117th New York Masters' Tournament coverage. I was pleasantly surprised to see Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman in tonight's line-up. Based on his rating I thought I'm up for witnessing some good Bangladeshi triumph tonight prior to our Cricket team's southampton adventure (prospect of which isn't that promising). Now I wasn't exactly expecting him to win the tourney, but I thought he stood some good chances to score a few good wins and at least make it to the final round. His first two games were against untitled players (300 and 200 rating points lower than his strength respectively). He won those games alright, as one would expect from a GM. But those wins were nowhere near convincing. As a matter of fact he had completely lost positions. He got extremely lucky in both those games, and won both on flag which he wouldn't have won on classical time controls. It is amazing how he escaped with a victory. I was simply appalled by the level of his play. Anyway, his 3rd round game was against an Israeli GM who had almost the same rating as him. I tried to convince myself saying Zia just had 2 rough games. It's probably rust. He will shrug it off and play better in the 3rd round (specially considering he had the white pieces). Unfortunately he performed awfully in that game and got knocked out. Even the commentators were surprised by the quality of his play (or lack of it thereof). One of them went as far as saying "It is as though Rahman got punished for winning the last 2 games". Many followers, almost all of them who never heard of this guy before, were actually surprised how Zia became a GM.

Anyway, that was the end of it. If you are wondering what point I am trying to make, I don't think I have one. I am just disappointed to see him lose like that. It is almost like our cricket team. Just the way we look forward to a BD match, I was looking forward to Zia's games. As a matter of fact, I was anticipating some thumping wins, for a change. Fair expectations based on his "supposed" playing strength. Just the way our cricket team wins the practice matches, Zia won against the untitled players. Not convincing at all though (just like our cricket team). But when he was lined up against a player of his own level, when it all mattered, he sucked even more. I haven't followed his chess career before today, so I can't quite comment on how he usually fares on other tournaments. But how he played today is nowhere near GM standard. I guess we Bangladeshis always blow it when it comes to performing at events where the whole world is watching.

(sigh)

Edited on, September 15, 2004, 3:09 AM GMT, by Carte Blanche.

**Zunaid** · #2 September 14, 2004, 11:15 PM

Carte - must have been your bad luck to see Ziaur Rahman on an off week.. This year he has been quite tremendous and is his FIDE rating is in the 2500+ range. Not since Niaz Murshed's early days has a deshi GM maintained such good ratings. Last year he also did well, particularly at the British Open and his performance was about 50 ratings points above.

Between Zia and Reefat - I think Reefat is the more talented. It is a shame he hasn't been able to get his third GM norm.

Edited on, September 15, 2004, 4:15 AM GMT, by Zunaid.

chinaman · #3 September 14, 2004, 11:52 PM

Sounds like a few zoners here!

cricketfan · #4 September 26, 2004, 02:20 PM

Niaz Murshed was the first Chess GM from the sub continent at the age of 17. I wondered what stopped him from scaling greater heights. The second GM from the sub continent got his GM titlea few months later. He was none other than Vishwanathan Anand who went on to become one of the top players including FIDE world champion.

Pundit · #5 September 29, 2004, 01:16 PM

Niaz Morshed lost his mind while at UPenn.

*AsifTheManRahman* · #6 September 29, 2004, 06:29 PM

Well all of you must agree that we have achieved more in chess than we ever did in cricket. Just the fact that chess isn't very popular in BD is the reason why many people do not get that...

Zia was probably on a rough patch...I'm sure he will get out of it...

TripleR · #7 June 16, 2007, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Well all of you must agree that we have achieved more in chess than we ever did in cricket. Just the fact that chess isn't very popular in BD is the reason why many people do not get that...

Zia was probably on a rough patch...I'm sure he will get out of it...

Yep I agree....BD's more good in Chess than in Cric alright. 4 GM's alredy....Reefat is the best one I guess, I attended one of his lessons once, he's a good teacher too u know.

And about Ziaur Rahman well he's a bit defensive type of player, but Reefat Bin Sattar's a very aggressive one.

Tigers_eye · #8 June 19, 2007, 08:43 AM

Another thread from the dead. Rifat got his GM.

As for Niaz fading away because again we bengalis couldn't take care of the rock we had. No training, no assistance from our chess federation. He and his parents had to think of his future and shipped him to UPenn. That was when he could have blossomed. The fault is on us not on Niaz.

ashik · #9 November 21, 2008, 03:13 PM

those criticizing Zia would better have a look at this entry -
http://chess4you.blogspot.com/2008/1...en-in-7th.html

Mohiul · #10 November 21, 2008, 05:15 PM

Today He was playing better but at the end probably in the last 4/5th move he made a mistake that cost him the game. Even I was thinking he will win but that mistake didn't allow that.

One World · #11 November 21, 2008, 08:32 PM

That seems crazy play from both. At times too attacking.
I followed a lot of Kasparov-Karpov matches, none of them seemed this bold.
Hat's off to Zia.