Tahsin Tajwar Zia never thought that the dream would come true so soon. In 2014, Tahsin accompanied his father Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman to the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway. He used to watch his father’s game while standing beside him. At that time, he thought, ‘If only I could play in the Olympics like my father!’ That thought is finally going to come true.

The 44th Chess Olympiad will be held in Chennai, India from July 29 to August 9. Father Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman and son Fide Master Tahsin will play in the Bangladesh national team making history. The other chess grandmasters of this team are Niaz Morshed, Enamul Hossain Rajeev and FIDE Master Mehdi Hasan Parag. Jannatul Ferdous, Sharmin Sultana, Najrana Khan, Noshin Anjum, Pratibha Talukder will play in the girls team. Chess players of Bangladesh will leave Dhaka for India tomorrow to play in Chess Olympiad.

Since 1984, Bangladesh Chess Team has been participating in the Chess Olympiad. But father and son have never played together in the Olympiad in the chess history of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Chess Federation International Arbiter Harunur Rashid has been conducting matches in various international tournaments since 2000. He also said that such a case of father-son playing chess in the Olympiad is rare, “I have been conducting international matches for a long time. But I have never seen father and son playing together on the board at the same time. Although there are father and son Grandmasters in Uzbekistan (Tahir Bhakhidov and Jahangir Bhakhidov). But they have never played together in the Olympics.

Teams for the Olympiad are usually made up of the top five players from the National Chess Championship. Tahsin made it to the Olympiad team after finishing fifth among chess players who participated in the national competition.

It was a different experience for Tahsin Tazwar Zia. The Federation organized a press conference on the occasion of the Chess Olympiad at the auditorium of the National Sports Council. Father and son participated in the press conference for the first time. But at the end of the press conference, Tahsin stole all the limelight.

Earlier, father and son have faced each other on the chess board several times in various domestic tournaments and Premier League. Tahsin played for Bangladesh Biman in Premier League, Zia played in Bangladesh Police jersey.

Sometimes drew with father. Have you ever lost your father? But father and son played in the same team only once in the last Bangladesh Games. They won service gold for Bangladesh Ansar.