KATHMANDU, March 20: FIDE Master Manish Hamal and Aashish Phuyal gave continuity to their standard performance on Monday in the second round of the Asian Zonal 3.2 Chess Championship 2017 being held in Kathmandu.
Manish, the first FM of Nepal, rated 2052 forced a draw with Bangladeshi GM Murshed Niaz rated 2422.
Similarly, 1801-rated Aashish shared points with Bangladeshi IM Abu Sufian Shakil rated 2343. All three players besides Abu Sufian have 1.5 points each after the second round. Meanwhile, Abu Sufian who lost his first board has 0.5 point.
CM Kshitiz Bhandari with 2036 rating held Bangladeshi FM Rahman Md Taibur rated 2341. Both of them have 1.5 points each. Top-rated Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman (2520) eased past Madan Krishna Kayastha to earn two points from as many boards. Madan has one point.
Bangladeshi GM Abdullah Al Rakib, FM Rahman Syed Mahfuzur, and Ahmed Aman Ibrahim , Nabin Tandukar and Bhagwati Prasad Sharma also emerged victorious on Monday. Abdullah and Rahman of Bangladesh are other two players to earn two points apiece.
In the women's category, top rated WIM of Bangladesh Samima Akhtar and Hamid Rani and Matina Kusi of Nepal secured victories.
The third round match will be played on Tuesday.
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