Encounter with a chess master

I was truly surprised after getting an offer to play for a team in this year's First Division Chess League. We do not have a Premier League, so apart from our national chess championship; this is supposed to be the highest domestic chess event!. It was hard to imagine why any team would be interested in a below 1900 player. What is happening with Bangladesh chess? I wondered. However, things got cleared when I learned that a majority of our top ranked plyaers boycotted this event as a protest against the newly elected executive committee of the federation.

Though there were moments of hesitation, I nevertheless, agreed to play. One of my seniour collegues and chess friends, Jakir Hossain Bhuyan was also playing for the same team. And for both of us, playing together was the main motivating factor.

My team was jobs-vander.com. Initially, I was selected for the third board and with a mere 1890 I din't see any point to complain. But on the first match day, our team manager announced that our number one player is seriously ill so we have to play one board up. Only Jakir Hossain was kept on board 4 while a new player, Ishtiaq was assigned to the board 3.

Overall the tournament did not go well for me. I lost more games than I won (+2-4=3). However, there was one good game that I managed to play. This is the story of that game. It was in the seventh round. We were paired against the tournament leader Bangladesh Biman. With two Grandmasters (Ziaur Rahman and Niaz Murshed), one International Master (Saptarshi Roy) and two FIDE Masters, it was also the strongest of all. For Biman, GM Ziaur Rahman was playing at the first board and GM Niaz Murshed was at the second.

This was a kind of 'dreadful delight' for me. On one hand, facing Niaz Murshed was a bit scarry (I must admit), on the other hand, the idea of facing the first ever South Asian Grandmaster was very exciting. But for obvious reason (we were the lowest aggregate rated team in the tournament) Niaz vai wanted to have a free day so I was paired against Indian International Master Saptarshi Roy.

And I was so disappointed.

I spent the entire night analyzing his favorite lines against d4. Basically, I was convinced that we would be getting a modern defence (1.d4 d6 2.e4 g6) as I had White and my rating is too low for him to respond with anything else! I was willing to try the Fischer-Benko setup with Bd3 and f4! But, instead of that I got Saptarshi. Now, in terms of rating there was not much difference between Murshed vai and Saptarshi. Moreover, what difference does it make when both of them are 400 ELO higher (and your manager comes before the game telling there is no shame in loosing but just try not to be mated within 20!) ? But to me the difference was big. one is our National Hero of chess and the other (with all due respect dada) is just a mere strong IM !

The game started in due time. And it was a Semi-Slav Noteboom. Grandmaster Zia appeared a bit late but finished his game very quickly at the first board. Around 24/25 moves I saw Zia vai is watching our game! And on the move forty Saptarshi offered me a draw which I duly accepted. This was my only mentionable achievement in the entire tournament and it was the only half point that Saptarshi lost during that tournament! For personal pleasure (!?) and for the curious ones here is the game:

Alimuzzaman (1890) - Saptarshi Roy (2419)

First Division League 2009, Round 07
BCF Hall, Dhaka
[D31] Semi-Slav: Noteboom variation

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e3 b5 6. a4 Bb4 7. Bd2 a5 8. axb5 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 cxb5 10. b3 Bb7 11. bxc4 b4 12. Bb2 Nf6 13. Bd3 O-O 14. O-O Nbd7 15. Re1 Ne4 16. Qc2 f5 17. Nd2 Ndf6 18. f3 Nxd2 19. Qxd2 Qb6 20. c5 Qc7 21. Bc4 Bd5 22. Bxd5 exd5 23. Ra4 Rfe8 24. Rea1 Ra7 25. Bc1 Rb8 26. Qd3 g6 27. Qb3 Rb5 28. Bd2 Kg7 29. Be1 f4 30. exf4 Qxf4 31. Qd3 Qb8 32. Bg3 Qb7 33. Qb3 Kf7 34.Re1 Qc6 35. Raa1 Rbb7 36.Ra4 Qb5 37. Bd6 Ra8 38. Rc1 Qc6 39. Rca1 Qb5 40. Rc1 Qc6

Here, on Black's offer, White agreed to draw.