New Delhi, Aug 13: Local hope and International Master Sriram Jha brightened his dream of qualifying for the World Cup with a stunning victory over top seed Ziaur Rahman in the seventh round of the Asian Zone 3.2 Chess Championship here at Airport Authority of India Club on Thursday.

Playing black side of Slav Defence, Jha displayed great tactical skills in the end game to overcome his fancied Bangladeshi rival in 55 moves. Meanwhile, Grandmaster Neeloptal Das took sole lead in the championship with six points defeating Surbir Lama of Nepal in the seventh round encounter.

Overnight joint leader Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay had to content with a half point after 83 moves in French Defence against International Master K. Rathnakran.

In other seventh round matches, second seed Grandmaster Deepan Chakravarthy easily overcame Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives while Amir Karim of Pakistan beat Hapuarachchi of Sri Lanka and Grandmaster Reefat Bin-Sattar defeated Tunveer Gillani of Pakistan.

In the women's section, top seed International Master Tania Sachdev inched towards qualifying for the World Cup with a hard fought 80 move draw in Slav Defence against Women Grandmaster Swathi Ghate in the fifth round encounter.

Women Grandmasters Nisha Mohota and Kruttika Nadig had it easy against Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka and Monalisa Khamboo of Nepal respectively in the fifth round.