Malaysia's women are having a solid run at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. After seven rounds, they sit 59th out of 189 teams, a nice jump from their starting seed of 68th. They've won four matches and lost three, for 8 match points and 18.5 game points overall.

The standout so far is WFM Ainul Mardhiah Mohd Afif on Board 4. She's scored 4 out of 5 with a performance rating of 2153, easily the best result on the team.

She's had good backing, too. WCM Chua Jia-Tien has picked up 3 points from 5 games, and Ashwiniy Kumaran has been superb off the bench with 3 out of 4. WFM Tan Li Ting and WFM Chong Kai Ni Agnes have held things together on the top boards.

Within Southeast Asia, Malaysia is holding its own. With 18.5 game points, the team is ahead of Singapore (16.5) and keeping close to the regional front-runners.

The latest round saw Malaysia whitewashing Nicaragua 4-0.

There are still 4 rounds to play, but it's been a strong start for the team.