Schools across the world have always been considered as breeding grounds of all forms of sports. Sports at school level in Bangladesh were once vibrant and paved the way for many famous athletes to emerge in the fields of football, cricket, chess, hockey, athletics, and many other disciplines. Some of the school-based competitions which created such an impact were Inter-school Football tournament, Nirman School Cricket tournament, Bata School Chess tournament, and so on.

Those school-based tournaments had embedded the spirit of sports into the minds of budding athletes during their tender ages, and inspired those school-going students to stick to their respective interest area before climbing the ladder of competitions at senior level.

The culture of school sports in the country, however, has all but vanished in every discipline due to multiple reasons, such as the lack of interest among organisers, sponsors, government support, and lack of infrastructure.

"If we can support and groom these new players, we can hope for something good in future. Our plan is to arrange month-long training for the selected players under the supervision of GMs," informed Shamim.

One does not need to rewind much back in time to see the impact of the school-based tournaments. The introduction of Bangabandhu and Bangamata Gold Cup primary school football tournaments have set a vivid example as the girls who took part in the Bangamata Gold Cup successfully climbed up from the grassroots and brought a lot of laurels for Bangladesh at international arena.

There is scope for optimism since some national federations, with financial assistance from private sponsors, have taken initiatives to reintroduce school-based competitions in a bid to revive their respective disciplines. The Bangladesh Chess Federation (BCF) is one among those as the BCF organised the just-concluded Marks Active School Chess Championship following a decade-long gap, with participation of over 30,000 students from 2062 schools across the country.

The BCF has produced five Grand Masters, including sub-continent's first GM Niaz Murshed. Interestingly, the four other GMs – Ziaur Rahman, Reefat Bin Sattar, Abdullah Al Rakib and Enamul Hossain Razib – were the products of Bata School Chess tournament, which took place from 1984 to 1998 and had created a buzz among young chess players.

Then came the Standard Chartered School Chess tournament, which would go on to run from 1999 to 2012 barring two consecutive years from 2009. It also played a key role in the rise of some talented players, the likes of former national women's champion Sharmin Sultana Shirin, WIM Shamima Akter Liza, IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman, and many other rated players.

Following the setback resulting from the pull-out of Standard Chartered Bank, citing a lack of transparency, the BCF continued to search for a sponsor to run the school chess for a decade before BCF president and former Inspector General of Police, Benazir Ahmed, roped in Abul Khair Group to run the show in 2019. The pandemic then forced to halt the school chess tournament for two years before the meet took place last month with St. Joseph Higher Secondary School emerging champions by beating Delhi Public School in the final.

"It has been a successful event in terms of number of participants and number of schools. The huge enthusiasm and response among young players was what we wanted to create through the tournament," BCF general secretary, Syed Shahab Uddin Shamim, told The Daily Star.

"We had previously found talented players through school chess tournaments and those players later became Grand Masters. Now, our main expectation is to get the next Grand Master. We found many [promising] new players and we have their detail.

"If we can support and groom these new players, we can hope for something good in future. Our plan is to arrange month-long training for the selected players under the supervision of GMs," informed Shamim.

International Master Abu Sufian Shakil played a key role in accomplishing the tournament as a chief coordinator and found some good prospects from the tournament in which all 64 districts took part.

"Initially there was a plan to hold the school tournament with the participation of only individual players. But we brought changes in the plan to involve school teams, comprising six players each. So, a buzz was created among the schools as well as the players, who are used to playing chess in family or their respective areas but had no platform of playing competitive chess" said Shakil, who, too, was a product of the Bata School Chess tournament.

2062 schools from 64 districts initially took part in the district-level competition before district champions entered the divisional phase from which 16 teams, split into four groups, played the final rounds in Dhaka.

"Earlier, when the school tournaments used to be held in Dhaka with participation of 150 to 200 students across the country, there was virtually no involvement of schools. This time every school was deeply involved and we are hoping that schools will set up chess clubs after this tournament," said Shakil, adding that they found some talented players from Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Sylhet, Barisal and Chittagong. 

Apart from the direct participation of around 30 thousand students, a few hundred students who could not secure places in their respective school teams took part in chess carnivals, held in seven separate venues. The organisers also held workshops for the players to apprise them of the laws of the game before the seven-round Swiss-system tournament was held in every district.

Although BCF struck a Tk 72-lakh sponsorship deal for the school tournament with Abul Khair Group, the company had to eventually spend Tk 4 crore, as per reports, in the just-concluded tournament. And that raised the question whether the sponsors will continue in future.

"After the tournament, I had a meeting with the sponsors and they promised to sponsor the chess tournament in future too," said Shamim.