DHAKA, June 8, 2021 (BSS) – Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh maintained his solo lead in the points table with 7.5 points after eighth or penultimate round games of the SAIF POWERTEC Asian Zonal Chess Championship (Hybrid Chess), and Qualifying for the FIDE World Cup Chess, now being held at Asia Hotel & Resorts and online chess platform Tornelo.
GM Enamul Hossain Razib following the leader closely with seven while CM Manon Reja Neer of Bangladesh and CM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka jointly stand at the third position with 5.5 points.
Nine players earned five points each. They are IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman, IM Abu Sufian Shakil, IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin, FM Subrota Biswas, FM Mehdi Hasan Parag, FM Khandaker Aminul Islam and CM Sohel Chowdhury of Bangladesh and FM L M S T De Silva and A A C B Amarasinge of Sri Lanka.
In the penultimate round matches held today, GM Ziaur Rahman defeated IM Abu Sufian Shakil. Zia played with white pieces against the Slav Defense of IM Shakil and won at 73rd moves. GM Enamul Hossain Razib beat IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman. GM Razib played with white pieces against Sicilian Defense of IM Fahad and continued the Velimirovic attack and won after 68 moves.
In 8th round matches, CM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan beat FM Mehdi Hasan Parag, IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin split point with FM Khandaker Aminul Islam, CM Manon Reja Neer beat Anata Choudhury, CM Tahsin Tajwar Zia split point with FM De Sliva, FM Subrota Biswas beat FM Syed Mahfuzur Rahman, CM Sohel Chowdhury beat FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed, CM Nayem Haque beat CM Sharif Hossain, Swarnavo Choudhury beat FM Muhammad Shuaau of Maldives, CM Mahtabuddin Ahmed beat Raj Prajapati of Nepal, Mihir Lal Das beat Musawir Khan of Pakistan, WFM Noshin Anjum beat Zaidi Anis Ur Rehman of Pakistan, Farooq Noor beat Ahmed Awais of Pakistan, Faisal Muhammad Mughal beat Anshu Dil Prajapati of Nepal, Yaqoob Muneeb beat Afzal Shahwani of Pakistan and CM AACB Amarasinghe got walk-over against Niken Kusatha of Nepal.
The ninth or last round matches start tomorrow (Wednesday) from 3pm at the same venue.