Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka shined,
becoming the 1st WIM in Sri Lanka winnig the Asian Zonal 3.2 Women's
Chess Championship convincingly here today. It was not a suprize for
Bangladeshi Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman, who was the top seed to win the
Asian Zonals effortlessly. He had a total of 7 1/2 points out of possible
9 games. He got a draw with Thiwanka Mallawarachchi in the last and
final round. Zia collected a cash award of US $ 1500 with the beautiful
trophy and the gold medal. Grandmaster, Niaz Murshed placed 2 nd after
tying with Abu Safin Shakil with 6.5 points. Shakil had to satisfy with
the Bronze medal on the tie breaker. Minhassuddin Ahmed was 4th while
5 players, Mahmoodh Lodhi, RMCM Rajapakse, Romesh Weerawardena, GC Anuruddha
and Amer Karim from Pakistan tied with 5 points for the 5th place. Shrestha
Sujendra Prasad from Nepal had just satisfy with the FM title with 4
1/2 points. Abu Safin Shakil from Bangladesh recieved the IM title.