Near misses for Fahad, Neer

International Masters Fahad Rahman and Monon Reza Neer missed out on opportunities to clinch Grandmaster norms in two different rating tournaments in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

Both chess players from Bangladesh finished top in their tournaments, earning 6.5 points each but falling short by 0.5 points of the required points to earn GM norms after drawing their respective boards in the ninth and final round matches.

Neer (2417 FIDE rating), who made a piece of history on the previous day by becoming the youngest Bangladeshi IM at 14 years of age, drew his last board against Hungarian FM Balazs Pasztor in the SixDays Budapest Two Years 2024 GM A tournament. He won the 10-player event with 6.5 points with four wins and five draws, but fell short of what would have been the first step towards becoming a Grandmaster.

Fahad, who has one GM norm to his name after having spurned a number of chances, wasted another opportunity on Saturday as he drew against Chinese FM Yining Chen in the SixDays Budapest Two Years 2024 GM C tournament.

The 21-year-old finished top of his event, earning 6.5 points with five draws and four wins.