This round saw an eagerly awaited match up between early leader Jahongir Vakhidov and top seeded International Master Oliver Barbosa and when it ended, the lead had changed hands.
With this endgame win after a less than convincing opening, the Filipino Barbosa is now on plus four and so on track to achieve the Grandmaster norm he needs to compliment his consistently high rating while the young Uzbekistan player who is still very much in contention drops down by half point to second place in the standings with four points.
Equally important is the move up for a share of second place by veteran Filipino International Master Richard Bitoon who as always played uncompromising chess and rode his luck to best the improving but woefully short of confidence local hope, Malaysian International Master Mas Hafizulhelmi.
Indian International Master Arghyadip Das had earlier took a short draw with Grandmaster Tahir Vakhidov and both are now on 3 points.
The all Singapore match up saw International Master Goh Wei Ming outplay his colleague, Grandmaster Wong Meng Kong to remain with an outside chance on 2.5 points while the all Vietnamese encounter between International Master Nguyen Van Huy and Grandmaster Nguyen Anh Dung was a tame draw and so clearly an exercise in damage limitation.
