Sethuraman closer to title

Hyderabad: With just one round remaining, Grandmaster S P Sethuraman with eight points moved closer to clinch the trophy as he defeated compatriot Vidit Santosh Gujarathi in the penultimate round of the ongoing 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on Monday.

Playing black side of Scheveningen variation of Sicilian Defence, Vidit got slightly advantageous position in the middle game but under extreme time pressure over looked the trap set by his rival to hand over full point to Sethu after 32 moves. This crucial victory enabled Sethu to enjoy a half point lead over nearest rivals top seed Ivan Popov and second seed Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia before the final round on Tuesday.

Russian Grandmaster Popov split the point with Armenian Grandmaster Samvel Ter-Sahakyan in the tenth round while Pantsulaia got better off young Indian International Master Karthikeyan Murali in a hard fought game that lasted 61 moves. Meanwhile three Indian youngsters Aniruddha Deshpande of Maharashtra, Tamilnadu duo Kunal M and Akash PC Iyer brought cheers to the crowd as they achieved International Master Norm in the tenth round.

Earlier in the ninth round, Pantsulaia and Sethuraman agreed to sign the peace treaty while Popov outwitted Grandmaster Lalith Babu and Vidit got better off International master Mikhail Mozharov of Russia. In the Category ‘B’ event which is being held simultaneously also heading for a close finish as after the penultimate round Naveen Hegde of Karnataka, Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh duo V Varun and Vishwanath Prasad are leading the table with seven and half points.

In the ninth round Hegde and Prasad signed the peace treaty while Varun split the point with Tamilnadu lad Rathanvel. Shete got better off Fide Master Praggnandandhaa of Tamilnadu to join the trio at pole position.

Five players are at joined number two position with seven points and in the final round on Tuesday, Shete takes on Hegde while Prasad and Varun paired against Rathanvel and Ramana Babu of Andhra Pradesh respectively. Final round of both the categories will be played Tuesday morning and closing ceremony scheduled at 3 pm.

Category ‘A’ (Round-10) (Indian’s otherwise specified) :- GM Sethuraman S P (8) beat GM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (7); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of ARM (7) drew with GM Ivan Popov of Russia (7.5); IM Karthikeyan Murali (6.5) lost to GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO (7.5); GM Lalith Babu MR (6) lost to IM Mikhail Mozharov of RUS (7); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (6.5) drew with GM Vladislav Borovikov of UKR (6.5); IM Bahruz Rzayev of AZE (6) lost to GM Merab Gagunashvili of GEO (7); GM Tornike Sanikidze of GEO (7) beat IM Thej Kumar (6); GM Alon Greenfeld (6.5) drew with IM Shardul Gagare (6.5); GM Azer Mirzoev of AZE (7) beat IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (6); GM Arun Prasad (6.5) beat Akash PC Iyer (6); GM Vasily Papin of RUS (6) drew with Sagar Shah (6); Himal Gusain (5.5) lost to IM Jacek Stopa of POL (6.5); GM Raset Ziatdinov of USA (5.5) lost to GM Valeriy Neverov of UKR (6.5); Arjun Tiwari (6) drew with GM Hovik Hayrapetyan of ARM (6); GM Igor Yagupov of RUS (6) drew with CM Prince Bajaj (6); GM S Kidambi (6.5) beat Aniruddha Deshpande (5.5); Kunal M (6.5) beat IM Swayams Mishra (5.5); FM Tigran Petrosyan of ARM (6.5) beat Gireman Ja (5.5); IM Vahe Baghdasaryan of ARM (5) lost to Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (6.5); GM Deep Sengupta (5.5) drew with IM Ravichandran Siddharth (5.5); IM Hafizulhelmi Mas of MAS (5) lost to GM Marat Dzhumaev of UZB (6).