Viet Nam's Le Quang Liem still has a small chance of entering the top three ranking of the Asian Continental Chess Championship in the United Arab Emirates.

No. 1 seed Liem has 5.5 points and ranks in eighth place after eight rounds. In the latest round, on August 9, Grandmaster (GM) Liem drew with GM Zhou Jianchao of China.

Liem needs a win in the final round, while the seven players above him only need to draw or lose for the Vietnamese to go home with a medal.

Liem will next play Indian GM Sasikiran Krishnan.

His teammate, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, the No. 2 seed, has fallen steeply to the 21st place.

In the eighth round, he lost to GM Salem A.R. Saleh of the hosts, who are currently leading the Open group.

Nguyen Duc Hoa drew with GM Koneru Humpy of India and sits in 14th place.

Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy also drew with GM Hossain Enamul from Bangladesh.

In the women's category, none of the Vietnamese players reached the top 10 after eight rounds.

Women's player GM Nguyen Thi Thanh An secured the highest position at No. 17 with 4.5 points after her win over Mongolian master Enkhtuul Altan-Ulzii.

An will play against women's international master Zhai Mo of China in the final round on August 10.

Le Kieu Thien Kim is one place below An. She had a win over Irani women's FIDE master Asgarizadeh Minoo on August 9.

WGM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung is in 21st place with 4.5 points.

IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen was the only one to lose in the next-to-last match to WGM Tan Zhongyi of China. 

VNS