FIDE master Mohammad Javed became champion in the qualifying round of the Mercantile 37th National Chess Championship through tiebreaking after five players topped the points table at the close of the eleventh and final round at the Bangladesh Chess Federation hall room yesterday.

Javed, FM Debraj Chatterjee, Golam Mostafa, Sohel Chowdhury and Mahtabuddin Ahmed shared the lead with 8.5 points each. A tiebreaking was held to decide the position of those players that saw Debraj, who was in lead after the penultimate round, finish second followed by Mostafa, Sohel and Mahtab

in third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Apart from those top five players, four more qualified forthe 16-player finals.

Five Grandmasters along with last edition's champion Minhazuddin Ahmed and runner-up Abu Sufian Shakil will join the qualifiers to play the finals, said a press release.