Defending champion Vo Thi Kim Phung set up her domination at the Asian Girls U20 chess tournament in the United Arab Emirates after seven rounds.—Photo Shariahchess.

HA NOI (VNS)- Despite a loss early this morning (Apr 5) in the seventh round match of the Asian Junior Boys&Girls Under 20 Chess Championships, defending champion Vo Thi Kim Phung still remains at the top of the ranking table in competiton held in the United Arab Emirates.

After seven rounds, Women's International Master (WIM) Phung, holds 5.5 points to rank first in the girls' U20 classical chess event, the same amount of points as Women's FIDE Master (WFM) Saranya J of India.

This morning Phung lost to Saranya. It was the first failure of the Vietnamese who previously won five and drew one.

In the next round Phung will play WIM Ivana Maria Furtado also from India, who ranks third with 5.5 points.

In the same category No 1 seed, WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Viet Nam, has not really succeeded in this event as she drops to the second group after leading the first rounds. Hung now ranks fifth collecting five points.

She will next compete her teammate WIM Hoang Thi Nhu Y, who is at fourth with five points.

There are two rounds left before the tournament concludes.

In other chess events, world No 27, Grandmaster (GM) Le Quang Liem, of Viet Nam will travel to Russia to play at a local clubs tournament under the jersey of the Moskow team.

The next week's tournament is one of Liem's preparation events for the Asian Chess Championships in the Philippines on May 17-25.-- VNS