GM Negi of India beat GM Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines while Mary Ann Gomes of India stopped Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in the Asian Continental Champonship penultimate 8th round in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Negi, at right in above photo, smashed the Caro Kann of Barbosa in 41 moves. Negi leads alone with 7 points followed by GM Yu Yangyi of China with 6.5 points. Tied with 5.5 points each are Barbosa, Chinese GMs Ding Liren and Ni Hua, and GM Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates.

Yu kept pace by beating GM Saleh of the UAE in 30 moves of a Vienna game. Ni Hua beat top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in only 31 moves of a Sicilian Scheveningen. Ding Liren smashed the Slav Defense of GM Mark Paragua of the Philippines in 41 moves.

Visit chess-results.com for round by round results and standings, download pgn files in the Open and Women’s. Replay live games. Visit Asian Chess Federation site to watch what Chessbase calls “really great video reports."

In the Women’s section, WGM Mary Ann Gomes of India (above left) stopped WGM Irene Sukandar of Indonesia (right). Gomes won in 42 moves of a Reti. Gomes now leads alone with 6 and a half points followed by Sukandar with 6 points. Zhao Xue and six others follow with 5 and a half points each.

Chinese WGMs Ding Yixin and Tan Zhongyi drew in 30 moves of a Pirc Defense. Wang Jue drew with Eesha Karavade of India in 69 moves of a French Defense. Zhao Xue beat WGM Nakhbayeva Gulskhan of Kazakhstan. WGM Padmini Rout played a beautiful endgame, winning with Bishop and pawns against Rook and pawns against WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam. Le Thanh Tu got revenge for Vietnam over India’s WGM Swathi Ghate.