Grandmasters Abdullah Al Rakib and Enamul Hossain Rajib are set to return to the chess board after two and a half year's of sabbatical as they will be part of a strong Bangladesh contingent in the upcoming Chess Olympiad to be held in Istanbul, Turkey from August 28.
The Bangladesh Chess Federation decided to include those two having tweaked with the statutes in a bid to include Rajib, Rakib and Reefat Bin Sattar in the Olympiad squad.
As per constitution, the national team must be formed on the basis of players' performance in the national chess championship and thus top five performers -- GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Niaz Murshed, IM Abu Sufian Shakil, IM Minhazuddin Sagar and FM Debraj Chatterjee -- were supposed to be members of the Olympiad squad as Rakib and Rajib did not take part in the last national championship while Reefat pulled out in the middle of the championship.
“We want to send a strong and experienced team to Chess Olympiad and we on Monday sat with all grandmasters, who agreed to represent the country. We might have tweaked the constitution but Shakil, Sagar and Debraj accepted our proposal in the greater interest of chess,” said BCF vice president Syed Shahabuddin Ahmed Shamim yesterday.
“After meeting with them, it seemed that they are positive about the development of chess as they have some plans regarding it. We had earlier said that we would always support those who want to work for chess,” said Razib, who refrained from playing chess since 2009 December.
The federation is trying to rope in Russian coach Igor Rousses ahead of the Olympiad and is determined to keep Igor with the squad at least during the tournament if he is not available now.
Apart from the men's squad, the women's squad will also take part in the Olympiad with WIM Rani Hamid, Shamima Akhter Liza, Nazrana Khan Iva, Sharmin Sultana Moly and Mahmuda Haq Chowdhury representing the national team.