You ranked sixth in the play-off of the national chess championship this year. When woman FIDE master Sharmin Sultana of Narayanganj who had stood second in the tournament didn’t join the Olympiad due to personal issues, you got the chance to go there as the fifth player of the women team. You utilised the chance wonderfully. How happy are you with yourself?
Absolutely delighted. But, I don’t know how my game improved! I just played my natural game. Actually the weather in Budapest was really great. May be that’s why my game improved so much. I sometimes make sudden slips and lose even a winning match. I did not make such mistakes in this Olympiad and that’s why I won seven matches out of eight. The success this time actually exceeded my expectations.
What inspired you the most behind this straight success on the global stage?
It’s the environment there. In our country we have to play in a hot and humid condition sometimes. Plus there are a lot of other problems including load shedding and the air conditioners not working well. I face difficulties playing in hot conditions, I make more mistakes. And, my temper also rises with the temperature. That did not happen in Budapest as the environment was so different there. My game improved indeed because of the environment in Budapest.
Would you consider this your best Olympiad?
I did play well once or twice before. I even won six matches straight on board 1. I had a draw with a former woman world runner-up and have also defeated the woman junior world champion. I have defeated the third best woman chess player of the world. But, those weren’t talked about much back then. This time there are discussions and the reason is that I wasn’t even supposed to play.
This time you played in the Olympiad at the age of 81. Former world champion, Hungarian woman grandmaster Susan Polgar posted about you on the social media. We have heard that there has been a lot of discussion about you in the Olympiad too. How did you feel about these?
It felt great. Everyone learnt about me after Susan published the post. Actually, Susan likes me a lot. When I went to play in London towards the beginning of the 80s, she had also come there with her mother. She was 14 or 15 years-old back then and I was 33. Though she was young, she looked quite matured. Back in those days, her mother used to say how the prominent male GMs want to dominate her.
Basically it’s the same story going around everywhere. She played well that time leaving prominent chess champions behind. Once in an Olympiad I saw her sister, Judit Polgar playing on board 1 in the open category. Major chess players were observing her game standing in a row at the back. I felt both surprised and delighted at that. I just saw proof of the fact that anything can be achieved through determination.
Your match on the last round continued for about 100 turns. Why did it take so long?
The match went on till the tenth round in the afternoon and the last round was played in the morning. After playing the tenth round I didn’t sleep all night. I went to sleep after I offered my Fajr prayers at dawn. I sat down to play a few hours later and won. I was attacking the king, keeping two bishops in hand. If the opponent wanted they could have resigned. They also tried really hard and that’s why it took so long. But, I don’t find it that difficult to play for a long period. The problem is I commit sudden mistakes.
Before you went to the Olympiad this time, you had said that you would say goodbye to everyone there as you are not sure if you could attend another Olympiad again or not. So, did you have the chance to say goodbye to everyone in Budapest?
(Smile) I wished everyone well saying that we may or may not have the chance to meet again. A player from Kazakhstan took a photo with me saying “We find inspiration from you continuing to play.” Like this, many others also said that they feel empowered to see me play.
From your point of view, how did Bangladesh do in the Olympiad this year?
Quite bad, I would say. I don’t understand why we performed so badly. Our women team stood 81st while, the men came 78th. May be the death of grand master Ziaur Rahman had an impact all of our minds. Actually, a single point or even half of a point can make a huge difference in the result. Our women were playing quite well up to a level. If they had scored half a point more in the final match, they could have advanced by 15 to 20 positions.
Moving to the eighth round Bangladesh women was ranked 27th. Then there were three back to back defeats. Why did the end turn out this way?
We scored one point in the last round. Even if we could secure half a point each from two other boards, the situation would have been different. Our opponent, the Belgian team was also close. You actually have to defeat major teams to do well in the ranking. We also defeated a team like, Sweden. We won another big match as well. If we could have sustained that trend, we would have ranked within 40 to 50 in the women category. We faced somewhat of a break in rhythm moving towards the end.
And what would you say about the open category?
We also had draws on many winning boards there. Otherwise we weren’t supposed to fall so far behind. Two of the players performed really well sometimes, and lost to weaker opponents some other times. Actually you need a favourable environment to train for chess. The way India became the champion in both categories, did not happen overnight. There were eight coaches with ten players of the Indian team competing in both categories! It did astonish me. There was a lot of determination, hand work and planning behind them emerging as champions.
Where did chase fall behind in Bangladesh?
We actually play the game too casually. We don’t have that determination. Neither the players try hard nor do the organisers. Nobody has that drive and that’s the problem. Under the conditions we play in, how can we do better than this? However, if I speak about our women players they are being provided better facilities in the police, Ansar or Navy forces. They should be doing better than this.
Grand master Enamul Hossain Razib did not play against his Israeli opponent in the tenth round. What’s your opinion on that?
From what I heard, Razib supposedly had already told the team captain about his decision to not play on the night before. Whatever the incident may be, ultimately this is a team game. So the team decision comes first after all. This is not a place for individual opinions. In that match, Neer (Manon Reza) defeated the grand master from Israel. I would have been happy if Razib had also played and won. And my opinion is that I would have done whatever the team captain had asked.
What are your future plans about chess?
(Smile) I played chess in a whimsical manner actually. When did I ever play in a planned way! I play it as a way to pass time. When I had started playing, chess was a game played by elders. It is now that it has turned into a game of the children! If I stay physically fit, I will keep playing. And I would definitely want to go if I get the chance to enter 2026 Olympiad.