HÀ NỘI — Top Vietnamese chess player Lê Quang Liêm dropped to second place at the ongoing Asian Individual Chess Championship in Uzbekistan.

The No 1 seed Liêm tied with Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran in the fifth round.

With three wins and two draws, the former world blitz champion Liêm temporarily ranked second out of 91 players in the men’s category with four points.

The HCM City-born chess player Liêm will now face Sethuraman S P, No 9 seed from India.

Other Vietnamese representatives, Nguyễn Huỳnh Minh Huy also dropped four places to 15th  with 3.5 points, while Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn slid down 18 places to rank 35th.

Huy will meet Adhiban B of India, while Sơn faces Sonjaya Deni of Indonesia in the sixth round.

Gao Rui of China took the lead in the men’s division, equalling Liêm’s total points, but the Chinese player topped the rankings because of a different auxiliary index.

Meanwhile, Nguyễn Thị Mai Hưng also dropped one place to rank third out of 35 players in the women’s category after losing to No 15 seed Kulkarni Bhakti of India in the fifth round.

After five matches, Hưng had three wins, one draw and one loss to make 3.5 points. She will now play Li Xueyi of China in the next round.

Hưng’s teammate, Hoàng Thị Bảo Trâm lost to Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegim of Uzbekistan to rank 10th, while Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên drew with Padmini Rout of India to stand at 13th place. — VNS