Photo: FIROZ AHMED

GM Enamul Hossain Razib clinched his sixth title in the National Chess Championship but youngsters like the prodigious Manon Reja Neer, Tahsin Tajwar Zia and Fahad Rahman demanded attention by defeating superior opponents, including Grand Masters.

Razib secured 11 points from 13 matches and was crowned for a sixth time, but the country's youngest GM suffered a loss to 12-year-old Neer, who showed the result was no fluke by stunning six-time champion GM Reefat Bin Sattar.

17-year-old FM Tahsin Tajwar, playing in his fourth national championship, also defeated Bin Sattar before drawing against GM Niaz Murshed and GM Ziaur Rahman. Tajwar finished fifth with eight points but the St Joseph student was seemingly unsatisfied with his overall performance.

"Everything was going well but I played a bit badly in the middle. I would have felt better if I did a bit better," the promising FM said, adding that his ultimate target was to become a GM like his father, Ziaur Rahman.

"Playing against GMs is always challenging, but I don't feel as much fear when I play against them now, but, to be honest, there is some nervousness working inside me," added the 10th grader, who had previously beaten Iranian and Vietnamese GMs in rapid and blitz competitions abroad and drawn GMs in standard/classic chess competition.

Neer, a seventh grader, was so upset after losing the 13th and final match against FM Khandokar Aminul Islam that he was unwilling to speak to journalists.

Waiting outside the room, his mother, Moumin Reja, said: "Neer can't play well with black pieces and he could not play well in his last game. The achievements against the two GMs was possible because he played with white pieces."

"Neer needs to work on the problems he faced when playing with black pieces but we can't provide him with a dedicated coach due to financial constraints," Moumin said, adding that Neer got the training from Razib.

It was the third time that Neer took part in the national championship, producing his ever-best result by finishing sixth. He had finished 10th in his first appearance in 2019 at the age of only nine. He finished 13th in the last edition.

Razib, who equaled Refeeat Bin Sattar with a sixth title, joint for second-most in the national chess championship, praised both Tahsin and Neer for their consistent showings.

"Obviously the performance from the junior players is really good," Razib said. "Tahsin has been performing really well for a good period and now Neer is playing well.

"I think they need more international tournaments in the coming days to mature. They are undoubtedly talented players, but how far they can go depends on how many international tournaments they play," said Razib.

Razib also explained the reason he lost to Neer. "At one stage, I had two options to move but I preferred the second option. But it was a poor choice and I could not come back," said Razib, who once trained Neer at the Elegant Chess Academy as well as federation.

"The championship was much more competitive. There were four Grandmasters and two international masters. There was a two-way race between me and Fahad, who dropped point in the penultimate round and that gave me the lead. Otherwise, I might have had to play a title-deciding play-off match against Fahad," added Razib, who has now lifted the title four times in his past five attempts.

12-time national champion GM Ziaur Rahman also praised the juniors.

"It was nice to see the juniors perform better than in the last few editions. We have seen junior players go AWOL in the past with inconsistent performance. The junior players have to focus on their game and the federation should also take care of them," said Zia.