Grandmaster Enamul Hossain Razib moved a step closer to winning the title of the open section of Asian Zonal Chess Championships following his win over IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagor in the penultimate round at the Engineers' Institute in Dhaka yesterday.

The win took Razib to 6.5 points as he leads GM Reefat Bin Sattar and FIDE Master Fahad Rahman by 0.5 points going into today's final round. Fahad beat last edition's champion GM Abdullah Al Rakib while Reefat beat country's highest-rated GM Ziaur Rahman to stay within contention of the title.

Razib will square off against Reefat while Fahad will play against FM Mehedi Hasan Parag in the final round today.

In the women's section, WFM Sharmin Sultana Shirin was leading solely with 6.5 points following her victory over WCM Noshin. WFM Syeda Shabana Parveen, who beat Jannatul, was in second position with six points.

Shirin will play against last edition's champion WIM Rani Hamid while Shabana will take on Sri Lankan WIM SD Ranasinghe in the final round today.

The winner in open section will qualify for this year's World Cup while the winner in women section will play in Women's World Championship next year.