Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman beat Puccini Jack of Australia in the first round of the 5th London Chess Classic FIDE Open at the Olympia Conference Center,Kensington in London yesterday. In the 2nd round, Zia is pitted against FM Stigar Petter of Norway, A total of 184 players, including 22 grandmasters from 40 countries, are participating in the event.
Meanwhile another Bangladesh GM Niaz Murshed earned 2 points at the end of the 3rd round of the SREI International Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Kolkata on Sunday. After winning his games in the first two rounds, Niaz lost to GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel of Armenia in the third round. Md. Sharif Hossain and Zoar Haque Prodhan, the other Bangladeshi players in the tournament, have one point each at the end of the 3rd round.