Kathmandu, March 19

Nepal’s SumitPanta, AshishPhuyal and Rijendra Rajbhandari registered wins in the open category matches of the Asian Zonal 3.2 Chess Championship that kicked off here on Sunday.

Panta defeated Abu SafianShakil of Bangladesh, while Phuyal won his match against RS Kalugampitiya and Rajbhandari saw off his teammate Imran Khan. Similarly, Madan Krishna Kayastha outplayed Milan Lama, Himal Lama beat RajendraPrajuli, KeshabShrestha defeated SumanRai and Manish Hamal recorded a win against Mohan Singh Pradhan. However, BadriLal Nepali faced a defeat against ZiaurRahman of Bangladesh and SajinMaharjan suffered a loss at the hands of Abdullah Al Rakib of Bangladesh.

In women’s category, four Nepali players faced defeat. ShantaThapa was beaten by Hamid Rani, while Sindira Joshi faced defeat against Nazrana Khan. Also PoonamPrasai went down to SharminShirim of Bangladesh and Sabina Shrestha was beaten by SaumyZainab of Sri Lanka. A total of 42 players from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are taking part in the event. Earlier, former Prime Minister JhalaNathKhanal inaugurated the tournament.