Vietnamese online newspaper Dan Viet reported on a situation at the Asian Individual Championships 2026. The newspaper claims that 17-year-old Vietnamese IM Tran Gia Phuc Pham was searched after his game, due to suspicion of cheating.

Dan Viet

Dan Viet

Vietnamese online newspaper

“17-year-old Tran Gia Phuc Pham faced Grandmaster Savva Vetokhin. Despite being considered an underdog, the Vietnamese player caused a sensation by playing a brilliant game and securing a quick victory.

The victory was so overwhelming that tournament organizers decided to conduct a search to ensure there was no technological cheating.

However, no violations were found.”

Tran Gia Phuc Pham defeated Russian GM Savva Vetokhin in 43 moves in the 4th round of the tournament. By the end of the game, Phuc had 17.5 minutes more on his clock than he started with. He made 6 Great moves and played with 97.0 accuracy.

The Asian Individual Championships 2026 takes place from May 28 to June 6 at the Bayangol Hotel in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The event features a 90+30 time control for the first 40 moves and 30+30 for the rest of the game over 9 Swiss rounds between 143 players. Tran Gia Phuc Pham is in 11th place after 5 rounds.