Zia finishes 23rd in 6th KIIT Int\\\'l Chess

Bangladeshi Grand Master Ziaur Rahman finished 23rd in the Elite Group of the 6th KIIT International Chess Festival securing 6.5 points after the 10th and last round matches held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha in India Saturday, reports UNB.

Saiful Islam Chowdhury of Bangladesh became 102nd and Sarwar Hossain Ullash was placed 117th collecting 4 points each.

FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman finished 130th with 3.5 points, Mohammad Sirajul Kabir became 133rd and Mohammad Jamal Uddin became 134th with 3 points each.

Kazi Mahbub Afzal became 136th with 2.5 points, Mohammad Abul Kashem became 145th and Monir Hossain Monir 147th with one point each.

In the day's 10th and last round matches, Zia lost to IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao of India, Saiful lost to Ram Aravind of India, Ullash beat Jamal, Fahad beat De Silva Osheen of Sri Lanka, Siraj lost to Manash Shah of India, Afzal lost to Niladri Shekhar Bhattachariya of India while Kashem lost to Gavi Siddayya of India.

Grand Master Gagunashvili Merab of Georgia emerged in the Elite Group of the meet securing 8 points.

A total of 147 players, including 22 grandmasters, 2 women grandmasters and 21 international masters from 19 countries took part in the meet. In the Premier Group of the meet, Tahsin Tajwar Zia became 146th with 4.5 points from 10 matches while Tasmin Sultana finished 183rd with 4 points.