Hyderabad Open Chess: Sethu wins premier section

Hyderabad: Chennai based ONGC employee Grandmaster Sethuraman S P won the premier section of 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournment after drawing with Grandmaster Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in the eleventh and final round that concluded here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda today.

Sethu finished with eight and half points out of a possible eleven and finished at tied first along with top seed Ivan Popov of Russia, who defeated Georgian Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia in the final round. But better Buchholz tie break score helped Sethu to finish at top while Popov had settle with runner-up position.

Vidit Santosh Gujarathi beat Georgian Grandmaster Tornike Sanikidze to take his tally to eight points and tied for the third spot along with IM Mozharov Mikhail of Russia defeated Grandmaster Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia to achieve his Grandmaster Norm in the final round. Better tie break score favoured the Indian to lift the second runner-up trophy while Mozharov ended fourth.

Sethu won the winner’s purse of Rs. 2,00,000/- while Popov took home Rs. 1,50,000/- and Vidit got the check of Rs. 1,25,000/- in the event sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India

Andhra youngster Ravi Teja S brought cheers to the home crowd as he added his name to the list of International Master Norm achievers after defeating Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna in the final round.

The tournament produced as many as seven International Norms. Besides Mozharov’s Grandmaster Norm, six young Indian players Prince Bajaj of Delhi, Aniruddha Deshpande of Maharashtra, Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad, Ravi Teja S of Andhra Pradesh, Kunal M and Akash PC Iyer of Tamilnadu secured their International Master Norms during this event.

Women Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni finished adjudged as best player among Women’s while Tigran Petrosyan of Armenia and Visakh N R finished first among Junior and Sub-Junior categories. Matta Vinay Kumar and Cholleti Sahajasri secured Best Andhra Pradesh Men and Women prizes respectively.

Meanwhile, third seed Varun V of Andhra Pradesh deservingly won the Category ‘B’ tournament of the event that ended today. Varun logged eight points out of a possible ten to pocket Rs. 100000/- winner’s purse out of a total prize pool of Rs. 500000/-. In the final round Varun defeated state mate Ramana Babu B.

Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra, Naveen S Hegde of Karnataka, Ameya Audi of Goa and Vishwanath Prasad of Andhra Pradesh finished in a tie for the runner up spot with eight points. But better tie break score helped Prasad to finish second while Hege, Shete and Ameya finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.

In a befitting closing ceremony, Shri. A S Murthy, Chief Technology Officer Tech Mahindra; Shri. Jayesh Ranjan IAS, VC & MD Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation; Shri. Rahul Bojja IAS, VC & MD Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh give away the prizes in presence of Grandmaster K Sasikiran, Grandmaster D Harika, Chandra Sekhar, Chalapati Rao, General Managers Andhra Bank, Praveen Raju, Chairman Suchitra Academy, Bandha Kavi, Head Sridevi Engineering College, TA Reddy, Principal St Peters School, K Kanna Reddy, Secretary Andhra Pradesh Chess Association, J Ramalaxmiah, Major Siva Prasad, A Narsimha Rao, Vice Presidents Andhra Pradesh Chess Association and International Master Lanka Ravi, Organising Secretary.