Asian Chess Zonal Championships (Open) for FIDE Zone 3.2, hosted by Bangladesh Chess Federation, will kick off tomorrow.
Six teams of zone 3.2 -- Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and hosts Bangladesh -- will participate in the meet. The champion of the meet will qualify for the upcoming FIDE World Cup 2021, scheduled to be held on July 10 in Sochi, Russia. The participating teams can register any players who currently have more than 1900 FIDE rating. Bangladesh has registered some 20 players including two grandmasters -- Ziaur Rahman and Enamul Hossain Razib -- in the meet.
“Most of our top players, except three grandmasters -- Niaz Murshed, Al Rakib Mollah Abdullah and Reefat Bin-Sattar -- have registered for the meet. Niaz has already qualified for the World Cup while Rakib doesn’t play online chess and Reefat is busy. Other two -- Zia and Razib will compete here,” general secretary Syed Shahab Uddin Shamim told The Daily Sun on Sunday. Apart from them, top Bangladeshi players IM Abu Sufian Shakil, IM Mohammad Farhad Rahman, FM Subrota Biswas and two women participants -- WFM Noshin Anjum and WCM Walijah Ahmed will take part in the meet.
