Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman beat FIDE Master Fahad Rahman to hold on to the joint lead after the third round of the open section of the Asian Zonal Chess Championships (Zone 3.2) at the Engineers Institute of Bangladesh yesterday.

Zia collected three points from three rounds to share the lead with GM Enamul Hossain Razib and GM Niaz Murshed. Razib beat FM Mehdi Hasan Parag while Niaz beat FM Mohammad Javed in this round.

Three players -- GM Abdullah Al Rakib, IM Minhaz Uddin and Showkat Hossain Pollab -- shared the second position with 2.5 points each.