Hattrick champion Noshin wants to compete against men

Having secured a hattrick of titles at the National Women's Chess Championship, Woman's FIDE Master (WFM) Noshin Anjum has announced her intention to compete in the Open section from the next edition, aiming to challenge male opponents rather than continuing in the women's championship.

Noshin became only the second woman in Bangladesh to achieve this rare feat after the legendary Rani Hamid, who holds the record of winning the title six consecutive times since the inaugural edition in 1979 and achieved another hattrick between 2006 and 2008.

On Friday, Noshin needed only a draw against Warsia Khusbu to secure her third straight title. Khusbu accepted the draw offer after just six moves, allowing the 21-year-old to finish with 8.5 points from 11 rounds.

"It's a great feeling to finally relax after winning the hattrick title," Noshin told The Daily Star. "I will now try to play in the Open section so that I don't have to participate in the women's championship from the next edition. I narrowly missed qualifying for the Open section in the last two editions after losing in the final round of the National B Championship."

After winning her first national title in 2022, Noshin had declared her ambition to become a Grandmaster by competing in the Open section. She is close to earning the WIM title, having already secured two WIM norms. She now needs one more norm and a 2200 rating to complete the requirements.

This year, Noshin set her sights on completing the hattrick but faced an early setback when she lost to Nusrat Jahan Alo in the third round. It was her mother's encouragement that motivated her to continue. "My mother told me that Alo might lose points in the remaining rounds, so I should keep fighting," said Noshin. Regaining focus, she took the solo lead after the seventh round and never looked back, achieving the rare feat.

"I won't take long to reach the level of players like Liza and Shirin, but becoming the country's first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) will take time because it's quite difficult to improve rating points nowadays," said Noshin, who studies in the Department of Food and Nutrition at the University of Dhaka.

Noshin also noted that the standard of the national women's championship has risen significantly in recent years. "When I first played in the national championship in 2016, there were only a few experienced players. Now there are many young and competitive participants, which makes the tournament much tougher. Anyone can beat anyone," she said.

The young champion appealed for sponsorship support to pursue her dream of becoming Bangladesh's first WGM. "I don't have enough support to play overseas tournaments regularly. My single mother looks after me, and I try to help her financially as a contractual player for Bangladesh Navy. Without individual sponsors, it's difficult to compete abroad and earn the rating points I need to reach my goal," Noshin added.