Ziaur Rahman (chess player)

For other people with similar names, see Ziaur Rahman (disambiguation).

Ziaur Rahman (1 May 1974 – 5 July 2024) was a Bangladeshi chess grandmaster. He was the second Bangladeshi to earn the Grandmaster title in 2002.^[1] His 2570 FIDE rating in October 2005 is still the highest ever achieved by a Bangladeshi chess player.^[2]

Ziaur Rahman জিয়াউর রহমান
Country	Bangladesh
Born	(1974-05-01)1 May 1974
Died	5 July 2024(2024-07-05) (aged 50) Shahbag, Bangladesh
Title	Grandmaster (2002)
Peak rating	2570 (October 2005)

Early life and career

Rahman passed his SSC from St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Dhaka.^[3][4] He then graduated from the University of Dhaka in anthropology.^[5]

Rahman earned the International Master (IM) title in 1993. He was the second Bangladeshi to obtain the Grandmaster (GM) title in 2002 after Niaz Murshed in 1993.^[2] In 2021, he won the Mujib Borsho Invitational in Dhaka with a score of 7.5/9^[6] His playing style was solid positional.

Personal life

Rahman was married to Labanya.^[2] In 2022, Rahman represented Bangladesh in the 44th Chess Olympiad with his son, Tahsin Tajwar Zia, also a chess player. They were the first father-son duo to be on a national chess team.^[7]

Death

On 5 July 2024, Rahman fell to the ground during his 12th round match of the Bangladesh Chess Federation National Chess Tournament against Enamul Hossain Rajib.^[8] He was then taken to Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital in Shahbag, where it was declared that he had died of a heart attack. It was later corrected that he died due to a stroke. He was 50 when he died.^{[9][10][11][12]}