Hyderabad: Grandmaster S P Sethuraman jumped to sole lead after defeating overnight joint leader Grandmaster Vladislav Borovikov of Ukraine in the sixth round of the ongoing 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on today.
The tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India witnessed decisive results in the top three boards in the sixth round encounters.
Sethu was a class act on Frideay afternoon with white pieces against his Ukrainian Grandmaster rival in the Najdorf variation of Sicilian defence game as he put enormous pressure on his opponent territory in the middle game to post an emphatic victory in 60 moves. This crucial victory helped Sethu to take sole lead with five and half points.
Top seed Russian Grandmaster Ivan Popov and Georgian Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia are now occupying the joint second spot with a drift of half point from the leader. Playing black side of Meran system, Popov defeated Grandmaster Alon Greenfeld of Israel in 32 moves while Pantsulaia applied Symmetrical variation of English opening to beat Armenian Grandmaster Levon Babujian in 40 moves on third board.
In other important encounters in the sixth round, Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujarathi signed the peace treaty with Grandmaster Merab Gagunashvili of Georiga while Lalith Babu forced to split the point with compatriot Deepan Chakkravarthy with light pieces.
Continuing his fine run in the event, Andhra youngster Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad defeated International Master Ravichandran Siddharth in the sixth round game.
Seventh round of this eleven round Swiss system will be held on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile the Category B event which is being held simultaneously, 14 players including third seed Varun V of Andhra Pradesh are sharing the lead after the end of third round matches with perfect score.
In the third round Varun defeated Shaon Chowdhury of West Bengal while top seed Lokesh N suffered a minor setback in the third round as he forced to split the point with lower seeded Ameya Audi of Goa.
Fourth round matches of B category is in progress at the time of report.
Important Results :-
Category ‘A’ (Round-6) (Indian’s otherwise specified) :-
GM Sethuraman S P (5.5) beat GM Vladislav Borovikov of UKR (4.5); GM Alon Greenfeld of ISR (4) lost to GM Ivan Popov of RUS (5); GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO (5) beat GM Levon Babujian of ARM (4); GM Merab Gagunashvili of GEO (4.5) drew with GM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (4.5); GM Lalith Babu M R (4) drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (4); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of ARM (4.5) beat GM Neelotpal Das (3.5); GM Tornike Sanikidze of GEO (4.5) beat WGM Soumya Swaminathan (3.5); IM P Konguvel (4) drew with GM Arun Prasad (4); GM Azer Mirzoev of AZE (4) drew with IM Shardul Gagare (4); GM Vasily Papin of RUS (4.5) beat IM Shivananda B S (3.5); GM Valeriy Neverov of UKR (4.5) beat IM Praveen Kumar C (3.5); Ravi Teja S (3.5) lost to IM Mikhail Mozharov of RUS (4.5); FM Tigran Petrosyan of ARM (4) drew with GM Hovik Hayrapetyan of ARM (4); Himal Gusain (3.5) drew with GM Deep Sengupta (3.5); Arjun Tiwari (3.5) drew with IM Jacek Stopa of POL (3.5); GM Sinisa Drazic of SRB (4) beat FM Aravindh Chithambaram (3); IM Thej Kumar MS (4) beat Aniruddha Deshpande (3); FM Debaraj Chatterjee of BAN (3.5) drew with IM Karthikeyan Murali (3.5); GM Igor Yagupov of RUS (3.5) drew with Sameer Kathmale (3.5); GM S Kidambi (3.5) drew with Prasenjit Datta (3.5); Ram S Krishnan (3) lost to IM Swayams Mishra (4); IM Shyam Nikil (4) beat CM Abhimanyu Puranik (3); Naval Navalgund (3) lost to IM Rajesh VAV (4); IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (4) beat CM Prince Bajaj (3); IM Ravichandran Siddharth (3) lost to Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (4).
Category ‘B’ :-
Round-3 :- Ameya Audi of GOA (2.5) drew with Lokesh N of TN (2.5); Varun V of AP (3) beat Shaon Chowdhury of WB (2); Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan of AP (2) lost to Ramana Babu B (3); Abdul Majeed of KER (2.5) drew with Jitendra Patil of MAH (2.5); Kantilal Dave of RAJ (2.5) drew with Raghav Srivathsav V of AP (2.5); Aansh Gupta of DEL (3) beat Kalyan Kumar Y of AP (2); Rathanvel V S of TN (3) beat Prem Raj K of AP (2); Tamal Chakrabarti (2.5) drew with Abhishek A (2.5); Hirthickkesh PR (2) lost to Baivab Mishra (3); Srikanth K of SSCB (3) beat Khan S of AP (2); Pragganandhaa R of TN (2) lost to Naveen S Hegde (3); Vishwanath Prasad of AP (3) beat Bharat Kumar Reddy of AP (2); Visveshwar A of TN (2.5) drew with Vinayak Kulkarni of KAR (2.5); Saranya Y of TN (2.5) drew with Roop Saurav of BIH (2.5); Shailesh Dravid (3) beat Sarbojit Paul of WB (2); Bhavik Bharambe of MAH (2) lost to Rutuja Bakshi of MAH (3); Sammed Jaykumar Shete of MAH (3) beat Sradhanjali Jena of ODI (2); Barath Kalyan M of TN (3) beat Md. Aminismail Khadri of AP (2); Hemanth Raam of TN (3) beat Kushagra Mohan of AP (2); Adithya S of TN (2) lost to Vijay Anand M of TN (3)
Round-2 :- Lokesh N beat Akshay V Halagannavar; Akil ASJ lost to Varun V; Raghav Srivathsav V beat Pardeep Arora; Prem Raj K beat Kiran Panditrao; Ramana Babu R beat Prasad JRC; Baivab Mishra beat Vedadri K; Rakesh Kumar Nayak lost to Praggnanandhaa R; Khas S beat Sai Agni Jeevitesh; Sreenivas Bezawad lost to Abdul Majeed; Gaurav Konde drew with Ansuman Samal; Anigani Kavya drew with Grahesh Y; Krishna Thapa of Nepal lost to Visveshwar A; Rahul Srivatshav P lost to Kantilal Dave; Rupankar Nath drew with Sandya M; Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri beat Joy Lazar M A; Kalyan Kumar Y beat Abdul Azeez S K; Sarbojit Paul beat Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu; Ajeesh Antony drew with Mukesh Mandloi; Erigaisi Arjun drew with Subramaniam S C; Perumallu K lost to Rathanvel V S.
