Draw keeps Doroy in top 10

MANILA, Philippines — Unheralded Woman FIDE Master Allaney Jia Doroy continued to make big waves as she held her ground against a higher-ranked Woman International Master Dewi Ardhiani Anastasia Citra of Indonesia and carved out a draw after five rounds of the seventh Asian Continental Chess Championships (second Manny Pacquiao Cup) at the Tiara Hotel in Makati Friday night.

Doroy has been playing way above her paltry FIDE rating of 1972 and her draw against Citra, who is seeded 18th with a rating of 2215, has kept the 17-year-old National University standout from Agusan del Sur in the top 10 where she is currently tied with six others with three points.

IM Ruot Padmin of India downed WFM Turmunkh Munkhzul of Mongolia to seize the solo lead with 4.5 points while Woman Grandmaster Gong Qianyun of China turned back IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen of Vietnam to surge to solo second with four points.

Seven chessers headed by Munkhzul were at third to ninth places with 3.5 points.

And then Doroy’s group.

The round before, Doroy caught a big fish in IM Gulishkan Nakhbayeva of Kazakhstan, seeded second with a rating of 2371, and beat Olympiad veteran WIM Catherine Secopito (2145) and split the point with WFM Li Yunshan of China (2196) in the two rounds preceding the giant-sized fourth round upset over the fancied Kazakh.

The string of strong plays hiked Doroy’s tournament performance rating to an impressive 2308 and has so far earned a whopping 82.8 rating points.