International Master Mohammad Fahad Rahman of Bangladesh emerged as unbeaten champion in the open section of the Bangabandhu Asian Zone-3.2 Chess Championships, a qualifying meet of FIDE World Cup Chess-2023 after the 9th and final round matches on Wednesday.
IM Fahad clinched the title securing seven and a half points from nine matches.
FM Tahsin Tazwar Zia of Bangladesh finished runner-up, securing 7 points while FM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka became third.
In the women's category, Bangladesh's WCM Jannatul Ferdous Bangladesh became undefeated champion. collecting 9.5 points from nine matches.
WFM Noshin Anjum finished runner-up with 7 points.
WFM Master Nazarana Khan Eva became third with 6.5 points while Wadifa Ahmed was placed fourth in the women's group with the same points.
Nine players secured 6 points each in the open category.
Their places in the tie-breaking system are: Fourth-GM Enamul Hossain Razib, Fifth-FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed, Sixth-GM Ziau Rahman, Seventh-IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin, Eighth-CM Md Sharif Hossain, Ninth-FM Syed Mahfuzur Rahman, 10th-CM Nayem Haque, 11th-FM Rupesh Jaiswal of Nepal and 12th-FM Mehdi Hasan Parag.
Sri Lankan WCM Sanudula K M Dahamdi, Nepalese WFM Sujana Lohani, WCM Ahmed Walijah and Warsia Khusbu shared the fifth to eighth places in the women's category securing 5 points each.
Ninth to seventeenth by scoring 4.5 points: Neelava Choudhury, Kazi Zarin Tasnim, Abeysinghe Janandani, WIM Rani Hamid, WFM Tanima Parveen, Nushrat Jahan Alo, WCM Wijesuriya of Sri Lankan, Omnia binte Yusuf Lubaba and Sabikun Nahar Tonima.
The 9th and final round matches of both the open and women's divisions were held at the Dilkusha Hall of Hotel Purbani International on Wednesday.
In the ninth round of open division, IM Fahad defeated CM Sharif, FM Dilshan defeated IM Minhaz, FM Tahsin beat FM Nasir, GM Zia beat FM Javed. FM Mahfuz drew with GM Razib. In the final round of the women's division WCM Jannat drew with WFM Sujana and Wadifa drew with WCM Sanudula. WFM Noshin defeated WFM Tanima.
The prize distribution ceremony of the meet was held in the afternoon after the final round matches.
Dr. Benazir Ahmed, President of South Asian Chess Council and Bangladesh Chess Federation and former Inspector General of Bangladesh Police was the chief guest at the function and distributed the prizes among the winners.
Md. Nazrul Islam, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Freedom Fighter Brigadier General Shahidullah Chowdhury (Retd), the Executive Director of Abul Khair Group, Syed Shahab Uddin Shamim, President of FIDE Zone-3.2 and General Secretary of Bangladesh Chess Federation were present as special guests.
Bangladesh Chess Federation Vice President K M Shahidullah presided over the ceremony where F M Iqbal Bin Anowar (Dawn), Senior Executive Director of Walton Group were present on the occasion.
After the meet, WCM Jannat will achieve WIM title directly, FM Tahsin and Sri Lankan FM Dilshan achieved IM norm, Noshi and Eva achieved a women's international master's norm.
From this zonal chess, iSharif and Nayem are going to get the title of cursory fide master in the open category while eleven othet players are going to get the candidate master title .
In the women's category, Jannat will directly get the Women's International Master title, but her rating will be 2000 while Wadifa will get the Women Fide Master title.
Six other players will get Women Candidate Master title.
Fifty six players from 6 countries participated in the open category while 22 players from six countries participated in the women's category.
The winners of the two groups were awarded a total cash prize of $6,000.