Female Grandmaster Hoang Thi Bao Tram. — Photo b1u.org

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Female Grandmaster Hoang Thi Bao Tram remained in third place with 4.5 points at the Asian Continental Open Chess Championships in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, yesterday.

Tram retained her spot despite losing to Sukandar Irine Kharisma of Indonesia in the seventh round.

Today, Tram will meet Karavade Eesha of India.

Although Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Hoang Thi Nhu Y and Pham Le Thao Nguyen had four points each, they stood at the 14th, 15th and 16th positions, respectively, because of different auxiliary indices.

Today, An will play Munguntuul Batkhuyag of Mongolia; Y will compete with Abdumalik Zhansaya of Kazakhstan; and Nguyen plays Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Mai Hung who was in 11th place.

In the men's side, International Master Nguyen Duc Hoa was ranked No 18 out of 64 players with four points. He beat Munkhgal Gombosuren of Mongolia yesterday. Today he will meet Ganguly Surya Shekhar of India in the next round.

Grandmasters Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Dao Thien Hai are ranked No 24 and No 26, respectively, with each player having four points. Son will meet Hai today.

The top five from the Asian Open Championships will qualify for the 2015 World Cup. The Asian Women's champion qualifies for the 2015 Women's World Championships. — VNS