The 38th National 'A' Chess Championship-2012, which is also reckoned as an international Grandmasters event, will begin at the Media Centre of Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) in the city today (Thursday), reports UNB.

Earlier, two out of the five grandmasters of the country, Abdullah Al Rakib and Enamul Hossain Rajib, decided to skip the 14-man cerebral warfare due to fatigue following two successive international tournaments in India.

Their decision to pull out reduced the rating of the championship which otherwise could have given the upcoming players an edge to achieve GM and IM norms.

However, Mohammad Sirajul Kabir (rating-2089) and Mahtabuddin Ahmed Robin (rating-2233) replaced the two grandmasters while the number draw of the participating players was held at Bangladesh Chess Federation Wednesday.

The round-robin league event is being sponsored by Health Care Pharmaceu-ticals Ltd.

The players are defending champion GM Ziaur Rahman (rating-2523), reigning runner-up GM Niaz Murshed (rating-2452), GM Reefat Bin Sattar (2438), FM Mohammad Javed (rating-2203), FM Mehdi Hasan Parag (rating-2310), IM Abu Sufian Shakil (rating-2374), IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar (rating-2408), FM Taibur Rahman (rating-2340), FM Debaraj Chatterjee (rating-2307), FM Sk Nasir Ahmed (rating-2295), Md Jamal Uddin (rating-2155) and Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan (rating-2211), Mohammad Sirajul Kabir (rating-2089) and Mahtabuddin Ahmed Robin (rating-2233).

Grandmaster and International Master Norms can be achieved from this national event.