Grand Master Ziaur Rahman maintained his solo lead in the open section of Asian Zonal Chess Championship at the close of the seventh round in Kathmandu yesterday.
Zia beat his compatriot FM Nasir Ahmed to earn 6.5 points from seven matches of the event, which is also a qualifying round of the World Chess Championship.
GM Abdullah Al Rakib was in the second position with 5.5 points while GM Niaz Murshed, GM Enamul Hossain, IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin, FM Sk. Nasir Ahmed, Niraula Bhupendra and Jaiswal Rupesh of Nepal shared the third position with 4.5 points each.
In the women's section, WIM Shamima Akter Liza kept her lead with six points from seven matches while WIM Rani Hamid, WFM Nazrana Khan Eva and WIM Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka were joint-second with five points each.