Hyderabad (01 Dec 13) :- Chennai based ONGC employee Grandmaster Sethuraman S P maintained his sole lead with six and half points after splitting the point with Mikhail Mozharov in the eighth round of 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on Sunday.
Playing safe with white pieces in a Symmetrical English opening game, Sethu settled for half point with his Russian International Master rival by repetition of moves before the completion of mandatory twenty five moves.
Mozharov along with top seed Russian Grandmaster Ivan Popov of Russia, second seed Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, Grandmaster Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia and Indian duo of Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and M R Lalith Babu are now at number two spot with a drift of half point from the leader.
In the eighth round encounters, Popov and Vidit signed the peace treaty in 34 moves while Pantsulaia defeated Grandmaster Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan. Keeping his title hopes intact Lalith Babu defeated Grandmaster Vasily Papin of Russia in 34 moves arrived out of Classical variation of Nimzo-Indian Defence. Armenian Grandmaster Samvel Ter-Sahakyan joined them after stopping dark horse of the tournament Andhra youngster Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad.
Even though the result was not in his favour, Balachandra Prasad along with Delhi teenager Prince Bajaj secured their maiden International Master norms as they completed the requirements for nine game norm irrespective of the outcome of their ninth round matches which is in progress at the time of report.
Three more rounds remaining in the Rs. 10 lakh prize money tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India.
In the Category ‘B’ event which is being held simultaneously, Andhra Pradesh duo V Varun and Vishwanath Prasad are now sharing the pole position with six and half points. V Varun defeated Subramaniam S C of Tamilnadu while Vishwanath got better off state mate Ramana Babu B in the seventh round encounters.
Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Naveen S Hegde of Karnataka closely following the leaders with a drift of half point as they beat Vijay Anand of Tamilnadu and Smaraki Mohanty of Odisha respectively.
Eleven players including top seed Lokesh N of Tamilnadu are at third spot with five and half points. Three more round remaining in this Rs. 5 lakh prize money event and eighth round in progress at the time of report.
Important Results :-
Category ‘A’ (Round-8) (Indian’s otherwise specified) :-
GM Sethuraman S P (6.5) drew with IM Mikhail Mozharov of RUS (6); GM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (6) drew with GM Ivan Popov of RUS (6); GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO (6) beat GM Azer Mirzoev of AZE (5); GM Lalith Babu (6) beat GM Vasily Papin of RUS (5); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of ARM (6) beat Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (5); GM Valeriy Neverov of UKR (5.5) drew with GM Vladislav Borovikov of UKR (5.5); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (5.5) drew with GM Tornike Sanikidze of GEO (5.5); IM Karthikeyan Murali (5.5) beat GM Deep Sengupta (4.5); GM S Kidambi (5) drew with GM Merab Gagunashvili of GEO (5); GM Alon Greenfeld of ISR (5.5) beat IM Karthikeyan P (4.5); IM Shyam Nikil P (5) drew with GM Arun Prasad S (5); IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (5.5) beat GM Levon Babujian of ARM (4.5); FM Debaraja Chatterjee of BAN (5) drew with IM Stopa Jacek of POL (5); IM Vahe Baghdasaryan of ARM (5) drew with GM Hovik Hayrapetyan of ARM (5); IM Bahruz Rzayev of AZE (5.5) beat IM Rajesh VAV (4.5); IM Thejkumar MS (5.5) beat Harsha Bharathakoti (4.5); GM Sinisa Drazic of SRB (5) beat Gireman Ja (4.5); GM Raset Ziatdinov of USA (5) beat IM Swapnil S Dhopade (4); FM Aravindh Chithambaram (4) lost to IM Shardul Gagare (5); GM Neelotpal Das (4) lost to Aniruddha Deshpande (5); GM Igor Yagupov of RUS (5) beat Visakh N R (4); Himal Gusain (5) beat IM Rolando Nolte of PHI (4); Arjun Tiwari (4.5) drew with IM Swayams Mishra (4.5); FM Tigran Petrosyan of ARM (5) beat CM Abhimanyu Puranik (4); Kunal M (4.5) drew with Sagar Shah (4.5).
Category ‘B’ :-
Round-7 :- Varun V of AP (6.5) beat Subramaniam S C of TN (5.5); Vishwanath Prasad of AP (6.5) beat Ramana Babu B of AP (5); Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu of AP (6) beat Vijay Anand M of TN (5); Srikanth K of SSCB (5.5) drew with Shailesh Dravild of MAH (5.5); Smaraki Mohanty of ODI (5) lost to Naveen S Hegde of KAR (6); Hirthickkesh Pr of TN (4.5) lost to Lokesh N of TN (5.5); Sai Agni Jeevitesh of AP (5.5) beat Nayandeep Kotangel of DASCB (4.5); Abdul Majeed N of KER (4.5) lost to Sammed Jaykumar Shete of MAH (5.5); Barath Kalyan of TN (4.5) lost to Gaurav Konde of MAH (5.5); Krishna Thapa of Nepal (5.5) beat Rutuja Bakshi of MAH (4.5); Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D of AP (5) drew with Rupankar Nath of WB(5); Ameya Audi of GOA (5.5) beat Vijay Kumar of BIH (4.5); Rathanvel V S of TN (5.5) beat Saranya Y of TN (4.5); Praggnanandhaa R of TN (5.5) beat Abhishek A of KER (4.5); Ketan Khaire of MAH (4.5) drew with Hemanth Raam of TN (5); Pardeep Arora of AP (4.5) drew with Harshavardhan Reddy G of AP (4.5); Jitendra Patil of MAH (4.5) drew with Rakesh Kumar Nayak (4.5); Kantilal Dave of Raj (5) w/o Bharat Kumar Reddy P of AP (4); Joy Lazar M A of KER (4.5) drew with Raghav Srivathsav J of AP (4.5); Baivab Mishra of ODI (4) lost to Kalyan Kumar Y of AP (5); Aansh Gupta of DEL (4) lost to Govind Kumar of UP (5); Teli Rajendra of RAJ (4) lost to Khan S of AP (5); Rahul Srivatshav P of AP (4) lost to Vinayak Kulkarni of KAR (5); Shaik Abdul Azeez of AP (4) lost to Sarbojit Paul of WB (5); Prateek Srivastava of AP (5) beat Roop Saurav of BIH (4).
Round-6 :- Sammed Jaykumar Shete lost to Varun V; Hemanth Raam lost to Subramaniam S C; Saranya Y lost to Vishwanath Prasad; Ketan Khaire lost to Shailesh Dravid; Ramana Babu beat Shaik Abdul Azeez; Rutuja Bakshi drew with Abdul Majeed; Gaurav Konde drew with Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan; Vijay Anand M beat Kantilal Dave; Rupankar Nath drew with Ameya Audi; Shaon Chowdhury lost to Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu; Govind Kumar lost to Smaraki Mohanty; Hinduja Reddy lost to Srikanth K; Naveen S Hegde beat Prateek Srivastava; Sarbojit Paul lost to Krishna Thapa; Lokesh N beat Ashraf Subhani; Rajesh Diwan lost to Sai Agni Jeevitesh; Srinivasa Rao G V lost to Barath Kalyan; Vijay Kumar beat Mohanan U C; Akil ASJ lost to Rathanvel; Raghav Srivathsav drew with Teli Rajendra; Abhishek A beat Malla Nooka Raju; Nayandeep Kotangle beat Akshay V Halagannavar; Venkata Krishna Karthik lost to Praggnanandhaa R; Ajeesh Antony lost to Hirthickkesh Pr; Vinayak Kulkarni drew with Baivab Mishra.
