Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam): Indian Grand Master Parimarjan Negi crushed the French Defense of Chinese GM Ding Liren in only 30 moves to keep his lead in the Asian Chess Continental Championship here Saturday.

Negi sacrificed a pawn on the 18th move to open lines against Ding's king in the centre since he had not castled. Negi controlled the half open file and was about to win a bishop when Ding resigned.

Negi leads alone with six points. Three players -- GMs Yu Yangyi of China, Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines and Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- follow with five and a half points each.

GM Yu used the Sicilian Defense to beat GM Mark Paragua of the Philippines in 41 moves. Paragwa could not stop the mate by Yu's two Rooks.

GM Barbosa smashed the Dutch Defence of GM Lu Shanglei of China in 52 moves. Lu made an unsound attack and Barbosa defended well. He had four pieces against Lu's lone Queen and threatened mate to force his opponent's resignation.

Filipino GM Gomez misplayed the opening against the Gruenfeld defense of GM Salem. Gomez was about to lose a rook when he resigned on the 19th move.

In the women's section, WGM Irene Sukandar of Indonesia drew with Ding Yixin of China in 30 moves of a Sicilian Defence. They exchanged pieces and reached a drawn minor piece endgame.

Sukandar leads alone with six points followed by Indian WGM Mary Ann Gomes with 5.5. Four players trail with 5 points each namely Eesha Karavade of India, and Chinese Tan Zhongyi, Wang Jue and Ding Yixin.

Gomes upset top seed GM Zhao Xue of China in 70 moves. Zhao had a bad pawn structure in the endgame and could not stop the pawn advance of her opponent.

WGM Tan crushed the Gruenfeld Defence of WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam in 55 moves as Tan was about to promote her pawn. The last game to finish in the round was by Karavade who beat IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag of Mongolia.