Sachini and Zia wins Asian 3.2 Zonals

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.

Sachini had a remarkable tournament, just having couple of draws, she managed to be their in the top till the end. Sachini and Zia will be given a chance to play in respective worldcups, which is the dream of every Chess Player. Aktar Lisa from Bangladesh also scored 7 points and tied with Sachini,. But her lost in an early round to Sachini punished her just by loosing on the tie breaker. But, She also got the WIM Title after 25 years of Rani Hamid, thier 1st WIM.FM Supeshala Thilkawardena manged to become 3rd in the event while Dinushki and Pramodya placed 4th and 5th respectively.

Luxman Wijesuriya
Hony. Secretary - CFSL
President - Zone 3.2 FIDE
General Secretary - Commonwealth Chess Association