Pitra Andika of Indonesia secured the top position after the third round of the ongoing HDBank Cup International Open Chess tournament being held in HCM City.

Andika defeated his stronger opponent, Tran Tuan Minh of Viet Nam, to lead in the championship with three points.

This was the second time that the Indian player knocked out a rival with a higher Elo rating than him in this competition.

On Tuesday, Andika (Elo 2,310) had defeated Nguyen Van Huy (2,452), also a Vietnamese.

His next rival will be the No 1 seed Li Chao of China, who beat Filipino Nolte Rolando yesterday. The second position was secured by Le Quang Liem of Viet Nam.

No 2 seed Liem pocketed his third win in a row, easily overcoming Pascua Haridas of the Philippines and has as many points as Andika.

He will next meet grandmaster Zhang Zhong of Singapore.

In another game, the defending champion had struggled to retain his title.

The former world U10 champion tied for the second time during his match against Yap Kim Steven of the Philippines, following which he fell to the third level among the 18 players, who all have two points.

Today, the participants will compete in two rounds.

In another news, Nguyen Thi Thanh An won 0.5 points after a draw at the World Women's Chess Championship in Sochi, Russia.

The Vietnamese chess player had tied with Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria during the first match held on Wednesday.

In the second leg match An holds an advantage with the white pieces.

In case of a draw, the two chess masters will continue with a tie breaker today. The winner will advance to the next round.

At the world championship, An is the only representative from Viet Nam. The tournament has also attracted 63 other players from 27 countries and territories. It will end on April 7. 

VNS