The tournament serves as the qualification for the 2015 World Cup Chess.
Taking clear one point lead, Ziaur earned seven points by the end of eighth round.
He defeated his teammate FIDE Master (FM) Nasir Ahmed (2336 in international ranking) in the seventh round before settling for a draw against Nepal's Candidate Master Rupesh Jaiswal (2156) in the eighth round.
Top ranked IM Abudulla Al-Rakib (2521), who had defeated IM Abu Sufian Shakil in the seventh round, played out a tie against IM Minhazuddin Ahmed (2443) in the eighth round. Abdulla has six points.
Nepali players had an impressive outing on the fifth day. Bhupendra Niroula (1989) played a tie with GM Hossain Enamul (2437) and GM Niaz Murshed in the eighth and seventh rounds respectively. With five points from eight matches, Bhupendra also earned CM title. If Bhupendra will win his eighth round matches, he will earn FM title. Rupesh, who is also tied on five points, will also earn FM title if he will win ninth round match. Rupesh had won his seventh round match against his teammate Madan Krishna Kayasha, who has 4.5 points following his eighth round win against Bangladeshi FM Islam Aminul. Madan Krishna also earned FM title after winning his eighth round match.
After eighth round matches, Bangladeshi IM Minhazuddin Ahmed, GM Niaz Murshed, IM Abu Sufian Shakil, FM Kurukulasuriya Prasanna of Sri Lanka, Nepal's Bhupendra and Rupesh are tied of five points.
Meanwhile, women IM Rani Hamid of Bangladesh earned six points from eight matches after defeating Ranasinghe Sachini of Sri Lanka.
FM Nazrana Khan of Bangladesh defeated IM Mahumada Haq Chaudhary. Top ranked IM Shamima Liza of Bangladesh had already won six points from seventh round.
Shanta Thapa of Nepal lost her match against Wasif Zenobia of Pakistan while Monalisa Khambu, who has 3.5 points from seven matches, will earn CM title if she will earn a point.
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