National leading Grandmaster Le Quang Liem finished third in the Open category. The No 3 seed earned 6.5 points after nine rounds, behind No 2 Wei Yi of China, and No 15 Amin Tabatabaei from India. All of them had the same 6.5 points but Wei won due to his better parameters.

Another Vietnamese in top 10 was GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son finishing fifth with six points.

On the women’s side, International Master Pham Le Thao Nguyen missed her second place after a draw in the eighth match. She pocketed 6.5 points, 0.5 less than the top two masters.

Indian women’s GM Rout Padmini made a bang as the No 8 seed left all title favourites behind to win the gold medal. IM Gong Qianyun of Singapore came second.

An outright GM title will be given automatically to the champion and a 10,000 USD cash prize.

The top five finishers in the men’s side will gain spots to the World Chess Cup 2019 set on November 4-30 in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia where the top two will automatically booked a berth to the Candidates Tournament serving as the last stop before the next World Championship in 2020.

Source:VNS/VNA