A chess country that punches above its weight
Ask a chess fan in Dhaka, Chattogram or Rajshahi about the game and you will often hear the same names: Niaz Murshed, Rani Hamid, Ziaur Rahman. Bangladesh is not usually listed among the big chess nations, yet it produced the first grandmaster in all of South Asia, one of the most remarkable women players of her generation, and a group of grandmasters who carried the national team for decades.
This article tells part of that story, and then gives practical advice for anyone in Bangladesh who wants to start playing or get back to the board.
Niaz Murshed: South Asia's first grandmaster
The grandmaster title is the highest title FIDE, the world chess federation, awards for life. In 1987 Niaz Murshed earned it, becoming the first grandmaster from Bangladesh and the first from anywhere in South Asia. To put that in perspective, India, a country with a far larger chess scene, had its first grandmaster the following year.
Murshed's success showed a generation of young players that the top of world chess was not closed to them. Chess clubs, school players and newspaper columns all took notice. Even players who never met him grew up knowing that a Bangladeshi had reached the highest level of the game.
Rani Hamid: the pioneer
If Niaz Murshed showed what was possible, Rani Hamid showed what persistence looks like. She started competing at a time when very few women in the region played tournament chess, and she went on to win the Bangladesh women's championship many times over several decades. She also won the British women's championship more than once and represented Bangladesh at Chess Olympiads across a remarkably long career, still competing at an age when most players have long retired.
For many Bangladeshi girls and women who play today, Rani Hamid is the reason chess felt like their game too. Her career is a reminder that chess has no age limit. People learn at seven or at seventy, and improve at both.
Ziaur Rahman: the backbone of the national team
Ziaur Rahman became Bangladesh's second grandmaster in 2002. For more than twenty years he was one of the country's strongest and most active players, winning the national championship many times and playing on the top boards for Bangladesh at the Olympiads.
He was also a coach and a familiar face at tournaments, the kind of player younger juniors watched closely between rounds. His death in July 2024, which happened during a game at the national championship in Dhaka, was a great shock to the Bangladeshi chess community, and players across the country paid tribute to his contribution to the game.
Enamul Hossain Rajib and the generation of grandmasters
After Murshed and Ziaur, more grandmasters followed in the 2000s. Reefat Bin-Sattar and Abdullah Al Rakib earned the title, and in 2008 Enamul Hossain Rajib became a grandmaster as well. Together these players made Bangladesh one of the few countries in the region with several active grandmasters, and they formed the core of strong national teams.
Each of them took a slightly different path, but they shared something: years of over-the-board tournaments, careful study of their own games, and a chess culture that took the game seriously.
The everyday chess culture
Grandmasters are only the tip of it. Chess in Bangladesh lives in many smaller places:
- Clubs and federations. The Bangladesh Chess Federation organises national championships and rated events, and local clubs in many cities run their own tournaments.
- Schools and universities. Inter-school and university tournaments are where many players first play with a clock and a scoresheet.
- Tea stalls and courtyards. Plenty of people learned on a worn board at home or at a neighbourhood stall, with a crowd offering advice that nobody asked for.
- Online play. Today a large share of games are played on phones, especially among students. Fast games are fun, but they are also where bad habits grow if you never look back at your mistakes.
How to get started
Whether you are a complete beginner or someone who played as a child, here is a simple path.
1. Learn the moves properly
Make sure you know the less common rules: castling, en passant, pawn promotion, and the difference between checkmate and stalemate. Many casual players get these wrong. Our article on how the pieces move (in Bangla) covers them step by step.
2. Play slower games, then review them
Ten-minute games or longer teach more than one-minute games. After each game, open it in game review and look for the moment the evaluation changed. One lesson per game is enough.
3. Learn a few openings by their ideas
You do not need long memorised lines. Pick one answer to 1.e4 and one to 1.d4, and learn why the moves are played. The opening trainer lets you practise them with repetition.
4. Solve puzzles every day
Ten minutes of puzzles a day builds pattern recognition faster than almost anything else. Most games between club players are decided by a missed tactic.
5. Join a club and play in tournaments
Playing against the same people over time is how you measure progress. Join or start a group on chessGM clubs, and enter tournaments to get used to playing under pressure. When you are ready, look for rated events organised through the national federation and local clubs.
6. Study the classics
Famous games such as the Opera Game and the Immortal Game teach development and attack more clearly than any textbook. You can replay them on the analysis board or watch the video walk-throughs.
The next chapter
Bangladesh's grandmasters built their careers with far fewer tools than players have today. A student in Sylhet or Khulna can now review every game with an engine, train openings on a phone and play opponents from around the world. The talent has always been here. The next Bangladeshi grandmaster may already be playing, one game at a time.
Published 2026-11-01 · 22Softwares