Argentine grandmaster Pichot Alan. — Photo sportskeeda.com |
HÀ NỘI — Argentine grandmaster Alan Pichot topped the Masters category of the eighth HDBank Cup International Open Chess 2018 in Hà Nội yesterday.
After three rounds, the No 6 ranked Argentine had three points to lead the 132 masters who have Elo ratings — a measure for evaluating a player’s strength — of 2,100 for men and 2,000 for women, reflecting their word-class abilities.
Vietnamese Trần Tuấn Minh and Karthikeyan Murali of India re second and third, both with three points.
Other Vietnamese representatives Lư Chấn Hưng and No 1 seed Lê Quang Liêm earned 2.5 points but Hưng ranked eighth on a tie-breaker, while HCM City-born player Liêm stands in 12th place.
Today, Liêm, world No 22, will face Pandian Karthikeyan of India in the fourth round.
The event offers a total bonus of US$55,000, an increase of about 20 per cent compared to last year. — VNS