TEHRAN. Aug 7: Former Indian national champion and International Master Pon-nuswamy Konguvel humbled top seeded Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh to emerge as the sole leader with three points after the third round of the Asian zonal chess championship being held at Kosar Hotel here today, reports PTI.

IM Mahammod Lodhi of Pakistan and Fide Master Al Hadrani Hatim of Yemen were in the second place with 2.5 points each.

In the women's section. WGM Repkova Eid Eva of Lebanon is leading the table with three points. She defeated Indian national women's champion, Anupama Gokhale in the third round. Indian ,MS .MS. Reddy are half a point behind the leader.

In a neck and neck fight in the Sicilian Defence. Konguvel who played with white pieces had no initiative in the opening phase but with clever and calculated moves, gained a pawn in the middle game and grew stronger then on. In fact. Konguvel was up by a pawn in an exchange and his clever ma-onethe64thf°rCed 10 reSlgn