MONGOLIA – At the Asian Individual Chess Championship 2026 in Ulaanbaatar, 17-year-old IM Pham Tran Gia Phuc produced one of the most unusual wins of the tournament. He defeated Grandmaster Savva Vetokhin with 1 hour 48 minutes and 5 seconds remaining on his clock, compared to the initial 1 hour 30 minutes.
The tournament, held from May 29 to June 6, follows the classical time control: each player starts with 90 minutes, receives a 30-second increment per move, and gains an additional 30 minutes after move 40. At this level, games typically last deep into time pressure, with players often finishing with only minutes or even seconds remaining.
However, in Round 4, Gia Phuc ended his game on move 43 with over 108 minutes still on the clock. The main reason was his exceptional opening preparation, allowing him to play almost instantly for a large portion of the game.
Playing White, Gia Phuc (Elo 2450) faced Vetokhin (2549) on board 7. He opened with the Italian Game, leading into the Two Knights Defense. As early as move 4, the Russian grandmaster spent more than three minutes on a single move. By move 8, Vetokhin was already down to 58 minutes, while Gia Phuc still had 1 hour and 31 minutes. At that point, White had secured a slight advantage.
From there, Gia Phuc continued to play with near-engine precision while barely using any time. By move 14, he had already achieved a winning position, and by move 24, he had won material and established a dominant setup. Remarkably, he maintained his rapid pace throughout, as if he had memorized the entire 43-move game.
After the game, Gia Phuc explained that he felt comfortable and was familiar with his opponent, having faced him multiple times before, most recently at the 2023 World Youth Championship in Italy.
“The openings I prepared didn’t appear on the board,” he said. “But he chose a line I had seen in a game about two years ago.”
The game he referred to was likely a matchup between Lu Miaoyi and Kazybek Nogerbek at the Tata Steel Challengers tournament in the Netherlands in January 2025. In that game, Lu also had White and won. Gia Phuc’s game followed the same sequence up to move 18, where White already held a winning advantage.
Because of his unusually fast play, a large crowd gathered to watch the game. Afterward, tournament officials escorted him to a security room for a thorough scan to check for any electronic devices.
“I’ve experienced this kind of situation before, so I wasn’t surprised,” Gia Phuc said.
The victory over his same-age opponent lifted Gia Phuc into the leading group with 3.5 points after four rounds. In Round 5, he is scheduled to play Black against Grandmaster Pranav Anand.
Watch the Asian Individual Chess Championship 2026 here
I’m Xuan Binh, the founder of Attacking Chess, and the Deputy Head of Communications at the Vietnam Chess Federation (VCF). My chess.com and lichess rating is above 2300. Send me a challenge or message via Lichess. Follow me on Twitter (X) or Facebook.