Nguyen Thi Mai Hung temporarily tops the girls' U18 group with four points after the fifth round of the Asian Youth Chess Championships in Sri Lanka.

She drew with second placed player Saranya J from India while her teammate Doan Thi Van Anh beat the host's Perera Panchali. However, this win could help Anh jump one step to 13th position.

In the boys' U18 group, Tran Tuan Minh defeated the host's Jayasundara P K U M and earned 2.5 points after five rounds. His score now is 1.5 less than Sodikov Ilyas from Kazakhstan, who leads the group.

Except for Nguyen Anh Khoi, Ngo Duc Tri and Nguyen Huynh Minh Thien who are in the top three of the boys' U10 and U8 groups, Vietnamese players in other groups failed to reach high positions in the rankings.-VNS