Sunday was a very special day for India, where the Indian men’s team and women’s team created history by winning gold medals in the Chess Olympiad. Both these teams of India won the gold medal for the first time. The men’s and women’s teams achieved the pride of becoming champions by staying on top. In the 45th Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Indian players have made their name in the history of this competition for the first time by defeating their opponents in the final round.
However, whenever the name of chess comes up, the name of Viswanathan Anand comes to the lips of every Indian. Anand has been a five-time world champion, but even before Anand, India had a chess player who had earned a lot of fame in the world of chess. He was Mohammad Rafiq Khan.
Mohammad Rafiq made his country and himself proud by winning the silver medal in the Chess Olympiad in 1980. During that time, he became the first player to win a medal for India in the tournament held in Malta. Rafiq won 9 out of 13 matches while 2 matches were draws. However, he could never become a Grandmaster in his career.
In 1976, Rafiq became the talk of the town in Indian chess as he won the championship for National B. Khan won 11 games in that tournament. However, in the same year’s 1976 National A Championship, Rafiq Khan did not perform well and was eliminated from the tournament.
Let us tell you that Rafiq was the son of a carpenter and he did not take any higher education. To meet his own expenses, he later became a carpenter himself. He was attracted to playing chess and he started playing it. Rafiq later became the first Olympiad chess medal winner for India. But on 19 July 2019, Rafiq breathed his last at the age of 73.
