There are 1966 rated chess players in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the number in India is more than 30 thousand. There are hundreds of chess players with 2400 rating in India. One-two with 2400 rating in Bangladesh.
The main problem is the lack of enough title holders. In the last four-five years, only two have become FIDE masters, Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman’s son Tahsin Tajwar and Subrata Biswas. The number of fide masters in the country is now 15. Five-six players including Tahsin, Subrata Biswas, Mehdi Hasan Parag, Debraj Chatterjee are active in the game. FIDE masters Tahmidur Rahman, Jamilur Rahman, Yusuf Hasan, Rezaul Haque, Saifuddin Lovelura have been out of the game for many years. Some are over 60 years old.
International Master (IM) is the next step after FIDE Master. There are 130 people in India, only 4 in Bangladesh. Grandmaster Enamul Hossain Rajeev, disappointed to see so few IMs, said, ‘Chess is not coming in our pipeline like that. Chances of playing international matches are very few. We play more within ourselves. And play in India. We must go to Europe. Otherwise I will not be able to go to the expected place.’
