The second day of the Beximco 12th QM Hossain international chess championship

proved to be very successful for the four Indian players, who won their respective second round matches at the Chess room of the National Sports Council (NSC) yesterday.

Among the quartet. International Master (IM) Poorna Sharma Mithrakanth along with RB Ramesh and Rahul Shetty posted their second successive wins to Jointly lead the table with full points in the 13-round meet

For the fourth Indian IM Sudhakar Babu, the victory was a very significant one when he beat the highest rated player in the meet IM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh for his first win after a disappointing draw with an unheralded local campaigner Ziaul Qader Tuhln in the inaugural match.

In this round, Shudakar

playing against Zia's white pieces, successfully employed the Dutch defence to beat his more illustrious opponent In 54 moves.

On the other hand. IM Mithrakanth. who like his fellow IM played with black pieces, tamed Khorshed Alam of Bangladesh in 39 moves for yet another easy win.

Among the other two Indians. Ramesh prevailed over Bangladeshi All Amzad Mintu in a close match after the latter failed to cope with the time constraint. Shetty, visiting the annual event for the second time and playing with white pieces on Monday bulldozed through Abdullah-al-Rakib's Karocan defence to win the match in only 26 moves

In a rather disastrous local campaign it was only Enamul Hossain Rajib. who provided some solace by defeating Pakistani IM Shahzad Mirza for his first win Rajib. an upcoming local youngster making his debut in the interna-

tional meet, proved his worth when the class-ten student playing in the line of Indian defence checkmated the middle-aged Mirza in 46 moves.

In the other match of the day. former champion and last year's runner up IM Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan overcame his first match debacle when the Jovial Punjabi beat Khandaker Kayes Hassan for his first point. Lodhi, a familiar figure in local chess, had earlier, lost to Shetty on the Inaugural day.

Meanwhile, in an all-local affair on the day a bespacta-cled Ziaul Qader Tuhln earned his first point by defeating Saifuddin Lablu In 39 moves.

{STANDINGS

2 points — Mithrakanth. Ramesh, Shetty

1.5 points — Sudhakar

1 points — Zia. Lodhi. Tuhln. Rajib. Lablu

.5 points — Mirza, Khorshed