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 sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on Monday afternoon.
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 tomorrow.
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 tomorrow morning, 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.
Important Results :-
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): GM Abhijit Kunte (5.5) drew with IM Karthikeyan P (5.5); GM Sinisa Drazic of SRB (5.5) drew with Ravi Teja S (5.5); IM Shivananda B S (5) lost to IM Swapnil S Dhopade (6); FM Matta Vinay Kumar (5.5) drew with IM Rolando Nolte of PHI (5.5).
Round-9 :- GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO drew with GM Sethuraman SP; Ivan Popov beat Lalith Babu M R; IM Mikhail Mozharov lost to Vidit Santosh Gujarathi; GM Vladislav Borovikov drew with GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan; GM Tornike Sanikidze drew with IM Bahruz Rzayev ; IM Thejkumar drew with GM Alon Greenfeld; GM Valeriy Neverov lost to IM Karthikeyan Murali; IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy; GM Merab Gagunashvili beat IM Shyam Nikil; GM Arun Prasad (5.5) drew with GM S Kidamabi; GM Azer Mirzoev beat IM Vahe Baghdasaryan; GM Vasily Papin drew with FM Petrosyan Tigran; IM Jacek Stopa drew with Raset Ziatdinov; GM Hovik Hayrapetyan drew with Himal Gusain; Akash PC Iyer beat GM Sinis Drazic; Shardul Gagare beat FM Debaraja Chatterjee; Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad drew with GM Igor Yagupov; Aniruddha Deshpande drew with Deep Sengupta; Levon Babujian lost to Arjun Tiwari; Prince Bajaj beat GM Vishnu Prasanna.
Category ‘B’ :-
Round-9 :- Naveen S Hegde of KAR (7.5) drew with Vishwanath Prasad of AP (7.5); Varun V of AP (7.5) drew with Rathanvel V S of TN (7); Srikanth K of SSCB (7) drew with Ameya Audi of GOA (7); Sammed Jaykumar Shete of MAH (7.5) beat Praggnanandhaa R (6.5); Govind Kumar of UP (6) lost to Ramana Babu of AP (7); Sai Agni Jeevitesh of AP (7) beat Vijay Anand of TN (6); Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu of AP (6.5) drew with Khan S of AP (6.5); Shailesh Dravid of MAH (6) lost to Lokesh N of TN (6.5); Tejaswini Sagar of MAH (5.5) lost to Rakesh Kumar Nayak of ODI (6.5); Hemanth Raam of TN (5.5) lost to Gaurav Konde of MAH (6.5); Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D of AP (6.5) beat Krishna Thapa of Nepal (5.5); Rupankar Nath of WB (6) drew with Harshavardhan Reddy of AP (6); Jitendra Patil of MAH (6.5) beat Kalyan Kumar Y of AP (5.5); Smaraki Mohanty of ODI (6) drew with Subramaniam S C of AP (6); Saranya Y of TN (6) drew with Abhishek A of KER (6); Hirthickkesh PR of TN (6.5) beat Hinduja Reddy of AP (5.5); Shet Prajwal of KAR (5.5) lost to Vinayak Kulkarni of MAH (6.5); Ashraf Subhani of AP (5.5) lost to Raghav Srivathsav of AP (6.5); Barath Kalyan M of TN (6.5) beat Sarbojit Paul of WB (5.5); Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor of MAH (6) drew with Malla Nooka Raju of AP (6).
Round-8 :- Vishwanath Prasad drew with Varun V; Naveen S Hegde beat Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu; Lokesh N lost to Rathanvel V S; Shailesh Dravid drew with Sai Agni Jeevitesh; Gaurav Konde lost to Srikanth K; Krishna Thapa lost to Sammed Jaykumar Shete; Subramainam S C lost to Ameya Audi; Kantilal Dave lost to Praggnanandhaa R; Ramana Babu beat Shaon Chowdhury; Hinduja Reddy drew with Rupankar Nath; Kalyan Kumar drew with Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan; Govind Kumar beat Sandya M; Vinayak Kulkarni drew with Samaraki Mohanty; Sarbojit Paul drew with Hemanth Raam; Vijay Anand beat Prateek Srivastava; Khan S beat Abdul Majeed; Malla Nooka Raju beat Ketan Khaire; Tejaswini Sagar beat Pardeep Arora; Harshvardhan Reddy beat Kiran Panditrao; Rakesh Kumar Nayak beat Akshay V Halagannavar.
