The 20-year-old S. P. Sethuraman of ONGC won the second Hyderabad International Grandmasters chess tournament, organised by Cyber chess Academy, after tallying 8.5 points here on Tuesday.
In the 11th and final round he drew against GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia. This is the Chennai-based former World junior champion’s second major title this year after his Leiden Open win in July.
Though Sethuraman was tied with top-seed Ivan Popov of Russia, he was declared winner by virtue of a better Buchholz tie-break score.
In the Category B tournament, 16-year-old local boy and third-seed Vaddepalli Varun picked up the winner’s purse of Rs. 1 lakh after outwitting Statemate B. Ramana Babu in the final round. Sethuraman was richer by Rs. 2 lakh while second-placed Popov and third-placed GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi picked Rs. 1,50,000 and Rs. 1,25,000 respectively.
Final placings: GM tournament: 1. S.P. Sethuraman (Ind) 8.5, 2. Ivan Popov (Rus) 8.5, 3. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 8, 4. Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 8, 5. Levan Pantsulaia (Geo) 7.5.
Important results (final round): Merab Gagunashvili (Geo) 7.5 drew with S.P. Sethuraman 8.5; Ivan Popov (Rus) 8.5 bt Levan Pantsulaia (Geo) 7.5; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 8 bt Tornike Sanikidze (Geo) 7; Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 8 bt Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) 7.
Alon Greenfeld (Isr) 7 drew with Azer Mirzoev (Aze) 7; Vladislav Borovikov (Ukr) 7 drew with Murali Karthikeyan 7; Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad 6.5 lost to Arun Prasad 7.5; Jacek Stopa (Pol) 7 drew with S. Kidambi 7; Valeriy Neverov (Ukr) 7 drew with Tigran Petrosyan (Arm) 7; Shardul Gagare 7 drew with J. Deepan Chakkravarthy 7; Hovik Hayrapetyan (Arm) 6 lost to M. Kunal 7.5.
Final placings: Category B: 1. V. Varun (AP) 8.5, 2. Vishwanath Prasad (AP) 8, 3. Naveen S. Hegde (Kar) 8, 4. Sammed Jaykumar Shete (Maha) 8, 5. N. Lokesh (TN) 7.5.
Important results (final round): Sammed Jaykumar Shete (Mah) 8 drew with Naveen S. Hegde (Kar) 8; B. Ramana Babu (AP) 7 lost to V. Varun (AP) 8; V.S. Rathanvel (TN) 7.5 drew with Vishwanath Prasad (AP) 8; Ameya Audi (Goa) 8 bt Sai Agni Jeevitesh (AP) 7.
N. Lokesh (TN) 7.5 bt K. Srikanth (SSCB) 7; Rakesh Kumar Nayak (Odi) 7.5 bt M. Barath Kalyan (TN) 6.5; K. Gaurav (Mah) 7.5 bt Jitendra Patil 6.5; V. Raghav Srivathsav (AP) 7 drew with Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu (AP) 7; R. Praggnanandhaa (TN) 7.5 bt P.R. Hirthickkesh (TN) 6.5; Vinayak Kulkarani (Mah) 7.5 bt Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan (AP) 6.5.
