Gurgaon, Jan 25 (IANS) Grandmaster norm holder S.P. Sethuraman outwitted Uzbek Grandmaster Safin Shukhrat in the fifth round of the ongoing Gurgaon International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament at Suncity World School Saturday. A group of 12 players are now sharing the lead with 4.5 points in this Rs.1 million prize money tournament.
Playing black side of Nimzo-Indian Defence, Sethuraman won an exchange up in the 31st move and went to seal the match in 63 moves.
On the top boards, Bangladesh Grandmaster Niaz Murshed signed the peace treaty with top seed Ukrainian Grandmaster Alexander Areshchenko while Indian International Master P. Girinath settled for the same result against state mate M.R. Lalith Babu. Interestingly, both matches took only seven moves before settling for draws.
Second seed Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine overcame overnight leader Prathamesh Mokal in a well-fought encounter after 57 moves in another Nimzo-Indian Defence game.
In another major upset, Chennai based Fide Master S. Nitin defeated Grandmaster P Magesh Chandran while Sahaj Grover held former National Champion Abhijit Kunte to a creditable draw.
Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay also had to be satisfied with half point against V. Raghavendra in the fifth round encounter.
Important Results of Round 5 (Indians otherwise stated):
GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh (4.5) drew with GM Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine (4.5); IM PDS Girinath (4.5) drew with M R Lalith Babu (4.5); GM Yuiry Kuzubov of Ukraine (3.5) beat IM Prathamesh Mokal (4); GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan (4.5) beat IM B.T. Murali Krishnan (3.5); GM Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan (3.5) lost to IM S.P. Sethuraman (4.5); M S Thejkumar (3.5) lost to GM Mikhail Ulibin (4.5); IM B Adhiban (3.5) lost to IM Saptarshi Roy (4.5); FM S Nitin (4.5) beat GM P Magesh Chandran (3.5); IM Justin Sarkar of USA (3.5) lost to IM Arghydip Das (4.5); V Raghavendra (4) drew with GM Praveen Thipsay (4).
IM Deep Sengupta (4.5) beat IM N Srinath (3.5) ; Akash Thakur (3.5) lost to GM Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine (4) ; GM Evgeny Gleizerov (4) beat Vishnu Prasanna (4) ; FM Sahaj Grover (3.5) drew with GM Abhijit Kunte (3.5) ; Arindam Mukherjee (3.5) drew with GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan (3.5) ; Jain Shreyansh Daklia (3) lost to GM Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan (4) ; GM Neelotpal Das (4) beat Saurabh Kherdekar (3) ; IM RR Laxman (4) beat Muminova Nafisa of Uzbekistan (3) ; IM Ashwin Jayaram (3.5) drew with IM Ravi Hegde (3.5) ; Matta Vinay Kumar (3) lost to IM Shyam Sundar (4).
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