National chess grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.—File photo

HA NOI (VNS)– Vietnamese masters dominated the Asian Zone 3.3 Chess Championships' Women's Division in the Philippines, with five athletes in the top eight after the fifth round yesterday.

Women's Grandmaster (WGM) Nguyen Thi Thanh An led the rankings with 4.5 points after four wins and one draw.

An, seeded No 6, defeated teammate WGM Pham Le Thao Nguyen – who is now ranked fourth – yesterday.

Her next rival will be Women's International Master (WIM) Aulia Medina Warda of Indonesia.

Earlier in the day, An drew the No 1 International Master (IM) Munguntuul Batkhuyag of Mongolia, who has now dropped to second, in the fourth round.

In another all-Vietnamese match, WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram drew WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung, the former world U14 champion.

Tram is now fifth in the rankings, followed by Hung.

Meanwhile, WIM Hoang Thi Nhu Y is ranked eighth after two wins, one draw and one loss.

In the Open Division, Vietnamese chess GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son failed to defend his top place after his unexpected draw with host rival GM Laylo Darwin.

The No 2 seed received four points, which dropped him to second place from the top of the rankings after the fourth round earlier yesterday.

No 1 seed Wesley So of the Philippines returned to his leading position with 4.5 points.

Son, the former world U10 champion, will play another host rival, GM Paragua Mark, in the next round.

At the same time No 4 Dao Thien Hai lost to Munkhgal Gombosuren of Mongolia. IM Nguyen Duc Hoa tied GM Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia. IM Nguyen Van Huy also had a draw result against Richard Bitoon of the host. Tran Tuan Minh share 0.5 points to his teammate Cao Sang.

In the other chess event, GM Le Quang Liem jumped to third place in England's Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival's Masters division after three rounds.

Yesterday, the Vietnamese beat GM Joseph G Gallagher of Switzerland to take three points, as many as the two leaders – GM Michael Adams of England and GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime from France.

Liem, the only representative from Viet Nam, will next play GM Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain. The Gibraltar Festival is a yearly event exclusively organised for hundreds of chess champions and amateurs from across the world.

This year the 11th edition, which wraps up tomorrow, highlights the 10-round Masters division.

The presence of the top 10 players – Vassily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Michael Adams, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, David Navara, Alexei Shirov, Le Quang Liem, Nigel Short and Nikita Vitiugov – makes the tournament the strongest of the year.

The winner is rewarded with a whopping amount of 155,000 pounds (US$244,400). — VNS