Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman passed away after suffering a heart attack while competing in the 12th round match of the National Chess Championship in Dhaka Friday evening. He was 50.
Ziaur was competing against fellow GM Enamul Hossain Razib at the Chess Federation hall room.
He felt uncomfortable from the start of the game at 3pm at the hall room in Paltan.
At one stage, he fell to the ground at around 6pm.
Fellow chess players and officials then rushed him to the Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital in Shahbag, where the doctors soon declared him dead.
“Suddenly he (Ziaur) tilted from his seat. We immediately took him to the nearby hospital (Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital) where he was pronounced dead,” an emotional Razib told Dhaka Tribune.
The country's star chess player left behind his wife and a son.
He holds the highest FIDE rating ever achieved by a Bangladeshi player (2,570 in October 2005).
Ziaur passed his SSC from Government Laboratory High School. He later graduated from the University of Dhaka.
In 2021, he won the Mujib Borsho Invitational at Dhaka with a score of 7.5/9.
Ziaur joint top at Open Chess in Delhi
Ziaur unbeaten champion in Rating ChessHis playing style was solid positional.
In 2022, he made history by representing Bangladesh in the 44th Chess Olympiad alongside his son, Tahsin Tajwar Zia. They were the first father-son duo to be on a national chess team.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Friday expressed shock and sorrow at the death of the country's renowned GM.
She prayed for the eternal salvation of the departed soul and expressed sympathy for the bereaved family, according to the Prime Minister's Press Wing.
A life dedicated to chess
Born in May, 1974, Ziaur started playing chess from school life.
Before he got admitted to University of Dhaka in anthropology, he earned the International Master title in 1993.
After Niaz Murshed achieved the first GM title in South Asia in 1987, there was a long gap in search of Bangladesh’s second GM.
It was difficult to earn GM norms due to lack of competitions and sponsors but Ziaur never gave up pursuing his goal.
During university life, he could not concentrate fully on chess competitions.
Gradually, he competed in different GM tournaments at home and abroad to earn the GM title in 2002.
“Ziaur was involved in chess all his life. He also died while playing chess. The consolation is that there was no suffering but it is an untimely death which is difficult to accept,” said GM Razib.
Ziaur learned chess from his father. He also taught the game to his son.
Different sports organizations including Bangladesh Football Federation expressed deep condolence after the death of the country’s chess star.
