Parag on top alone

Defending champion Mehdi Hasan Parag maintained his solo lead with seven points after the seventh round games in the 24th National Junior Chess Championship at the Bangladesh Chess Federation auditorium yesterday.

Syed Ejaz Hussain, Md Javed, Nazir Saleheen, Bilash Biswas, Obaidul Islam Shahin and Md Ali were in the second position with 5.5 points each.

Parag beat Ejaz, Javed beat Mostafa, Saleheen beat Rabiul, Bilash beat Robin, Shahin beat Zia and Ali beat Liza.

Eighth round games will start today from 3:00 pm at the same venue.

Meanwhile, Masuda Begum continued her lead with 4.5 points after the fifth round games of the Selection Phase of the 24th National Women Chess Championship yesterday.

Afroza Khanam Bably, Nazrana Khan Eva, Kishowara Shazrin Evana and Salma Sarif were jointly in the swecond position with 4.5 points each.