GM SP Sethuraman jumped to sole lead after defeating overnight joint leader GM Vladislav Borovikov of Ukraine in the sixth round of the second Hyderabad International Grandmasters chess tournament on Friday.
Sethuraman was a class act on Friday afternoon with white pieces in the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense game as he put enormous pressure on his opponent in the middle game to post an emphatic victory in 60 moves.
This crucial victory helped Sethuraman move to 5.5 points.
Top seed and Russian GM Ivan Popov and Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia were sharing the second spot half-a-point behind the leader.
Playing black side of Meran System, Popov defeated GM Alon Greenfeld of Israel in 32 moves.
Pantsulaia applied the symmetrical variation of English Opening to beat Armenian GM Levon Babujian in 40 moves.
In other important encounters in the sixth round, Indian GM Vidit Gujarathi signed the peace treaty with GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georiga while GM MR Lalith Babu was forced to split the point with compatriot GM Deepan Chakkravarthy.
In Category B, fourteen players including third seed V Varun of Andhra Pradesh were sharing the lead after the third round with three points.
Important Results: Category A: GM SP Sethuraman (Ind, 5.5) bt GM Vladislav Borovikov (Ukr, 4.5); GM Alon Greenfeld (Isr, 4) lost to GM Ivan Popov (Rus, 5); GM Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 5) bt GM Levon Babujian (Arm, 4); GM Merab Gagunashvili (Geo, 4.5) drew with GM Vidit Gujarathi (Ind, 4.5); GM MR Lalith Babu (Ind, 4) drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (Ind, 4); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm, 4.5) bt GM Neelotpal Das (Ind, 3.5); GM Tornike Sanikidze (Geo, 4.5) bt WGM Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 3.5); IM P Konguvel (Ind, 4) drew with GM S Arun Prasad (Ind, 4); GM Azer Mirzoev (Aze, 4) drew with IM Shardul Gagare (Ind, 4); GM Vasily Papin (Rus, 4.5) bt IM BS Shivananda (Ind, 3.5); GMValeriy Neverov (Ukr, 4.5) bt IM C Praveen Kumar (Ind, 3.5); S Ravi Teja (Ind, 3.5) lost to IM Mikhail Mozharov (Rus, 4.5); Tigran Petrosyan (Arm, 4) drew with GM Hovik Hayrapetyan (Arm, 4); Himal Gusain (Ind, 3.5) drew with GM Deep Sengupta (Ind, 3.5); Arjun Tiwari (Ind, 3.5) drew with IM Jacek Stopa (Pol, 3.5); GM Sinisa Drazic (Srb, 4) bt Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind, 3); IM MS Thej Kumar (Ind, 4) bt Aniruddha Deshpande (Ind, 3); Debaraj Chatterjee (Ban, 3.5) drew with IM Karthikeyan Murali (Ind, 3.5); GM Igor Yagupov (Rus, 3.5) drew with Sameer Kathmale (Ind, 3.5); GM S Kidambi (Ind, 3.5) drew with Prasenjit Datta (Ind, 3.5); Ram S Krishnan (Ind, 3) lost to IM Swayams Mishra (Ind, 4); IM Shyam Nikil (Ind, 4) bt Abhimanyu Puranik (Ind, 3); Naval Navalgund (Ind, 3) lost to IM VAV Rajesh (Ind, 4); IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (Ind, 4) bt Prince Bajaj (Ind, 3); IM Ravichandran Siddharth (Ind, 3) lost to Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (Ind, 4).