Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem regained his top position in the men’s category at the ongoing Asian Individual Chess Championship in Uzbekistan.

The HCM City-born chess player, No. 1 seed Liem, defeated No. 9 seed Sethuraman S P from India in the sixth round.

Liem’s rival Gao Rui of China, who topped the men’s divison after five rounds, dropped 10 places to the 11th spot after losing to his teammate Wei Yi in the sixth round.

After six matches, Liem had two wins and two draws to take the lead with five points. Yi also had five points but ranked second out of the 91 players because of a different auxiliary index.

Liem, the former world blitz champion, will meet No. 3 seed Yi of China in the next match.

The other Vietnamese players, Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy lost to Adhiban B of India to rank 23rd, while Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son beat Sonjaya Deni of Indonesia to rank 18th.

Huy will next meet Begmuratov Alisher of Uzbekistan, while Sơn faces Igonin Temur of Uzbekistan in the seventh round.

On the women’s side, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung was defeated by Li Xueyi of China to rank eighth out of 35 players in the women’s category, while Hoang Thi Bao Tram defeated Pratyusha Bodda of India to reach fifth place.

Hung will now meet Khademalsharieh Sarasadat of Iran and Tram will play Padmini Rout of India.

VNS