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Two get IM norms

F. M. Rahman
The first United Insurance masters chess tournament concluded on May 12 — much to the relief of both the players and organizers.
The enthusiasm — which the tournament had raised at the start was dampened con slderably by the catastrophic cyclone on April 29.
Nevertheless, the meet had to be dragged on. since abandoning half way through would have meant a heavy loss to the
Indeed, an evil gremlin seemed to have pursued this meet from the very beginning.
otherwise why should Bipin Shenoy the soft-spoken chess player from Calcutta, fall serf ousfy sick lust at a time when he was picking up points after a disastrous start.
For all that, it has been a good tournament, as far as the local players were concerned. Afterall. two International master's norms in one tournament must be viewed as a good bargain.
Credit goes to the bespec tacled engineer Syed Tahmidur Rahman and seasoned Younus Hassan for having earned that distinction.
As it was. Tahmid started In great style, scoring as many as eight points out of the first nine games. He was cruising along like an cel. and looked well set to win the tournament until his equal position against IM T N Panuneswaran of India began to deteriorate — thanks to a series of weak moves.
Tahmid failed to check the rot and lost to V Koshi the very next round when the tall man from Kerala demonstrated some flawless technique tn a rook ending.
Tahmid. however, had de-
molished the ultimate winner Mahmood Ahmed Lodhl from Pakistan in the fifth round in what may be termed as the most beautiful tactical finish of the tournament.
Lodhl deviated from his usual (1) d4 and opened with (1) e4. but the ploy backfired when his attempt to confuse things with a bishop sacrifice was refuted calmly by Tahmid.
For Tahmid this has been a fine tournament. He played the sharp position well, and managed to avoid the kind of sterility that would often make it difficult for him to play for the full point.
Younus. on the other hand, had a very bad start. He lost patience in a commanding position against Rczaul Huq. who seems to have regained some of his old grit and paid the penalty. But then he bounced back with two fine wins against Vishal Sareen and Bipin Shenoy, and was running for the norm once again.
The winners, IM Lodhl. known for his aggressive and resourceful play, should be considered lucky to have won it. He got into a lost position against the tournament rabbit Arshad Nanno, and had to defend very carefully to get a draw from his game against IM Misra.
Misra disappointed. He fell out of contention with too many short draws.
As for the other players. T N Paramcswaran played superbly to tie for the second spot along with Tahmid and Younus.
Our only International Master Zillur Rahman Champak should have done better.
Zillur's attempts to flatten his opponents with a big punch early in the game did not work well.
In his game against Almasur Rahman he lost his way tn an obscure middle game in which he was two pieces down, but had some attacking chances.
Rezaul Huq must overcome his chronic time problem to be able to cash in on his good defensive play
Moreover, he must have better control over his nerves.
Fide Master Koshi played well and would certainly have made the norm with a little luck. He Is a very uncompromising player, and likes to play chess in a sporting manner targeting about results.
Now something has to be said about the way the local press covered this tournament
One daily went so far as to say that a conspiracy was on to deprive IM Mahmood Lodhi of the top spot.
This was outlandish, to say the least.
It also shows how murky our thinking still is. even when ft comes to sports.
Some journalists got sniffy about the genuineness of some games. They should bear in mind that raising such an issue has its hazards too.
In the ultimate analysis, it is
the game of chess that suffers when too much light is shed on such issues.
Everything of course was not perfect, but then 100 percent perfection Is always theoretical goal which the ordinary mortals are not expected to at tain.
Lest we forget, a blemish becomes darker when our eyes are set on it—better we take them off!
The organizers deserve thanks for having managed things well.
However, their austerity drive appears to have been misdirected.
For good reasons, the local players could not relish the Idea of their pocket money not coming along.
Bangladesh, we may say. Is on the threshold of a breakthrough in international chess. We have a host of strong young players who. when propelled to the international arena, will prove their mettle beyond doubt
For that purpose, we need such tournaments. So thanks are due to the United Insurance authorities for their being magnanimous enough to sponsor tills meet.