Vietnamese female Grandmaster Nguyen Thi Mai Hung beat Pourkashiyan Atousa of Iran in the fourth round at the Asian Individual Chess Championship in Uzbekistan.

Nguyen Thi Mai Hung

Hung, who has an Elo rating of 2276, crushed No 11 seed Atousa, Elo 2336. With three wins and one draw, Hung temporarily ranked second out of 35 players in the women’s category.

Hung will meet No 15 seed Kulkarni Bhakti of India in the next round.

Hung’s teammate, Hoang Thi Bao Tram, Elo 2263, tied with Li Xueyi of China, Elo 2105 to rank fifth, while Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Elo 2348) drew with Chinese rival Guo Qi (Elo 2447) to stand at ninth place.

On the men’s side, No 1 seed Le Quang Leêm (2718) tied with No 13 seed Chinese Wen Yang (2611) to take lead with 3.5 points.

The HCM City-born chess player Liem will next play Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran.

Other male Vietnamese representatives, Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy bested Bilguun Sumiya of Mongolia to rank 11th out of 91 players, while Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son beat Liu Yan of China to rank 17th.

VNS