Sethuraman back in contention

Grandmaster S P Sethuraman came back into the reckoning with a thumping victory over Antonios Pavlidis of Greece in the 10th round of the World Junior Chess Championship here.
Playing the white side of a King's Indian defense, Sethuraman went for the blood in the Saemisch variation and launched a direct assault with a pawn roller resulting in tremendous pressure.
Pavlidis cracked when he ran out of useful moves and called it a day after 30 moves.
Sethuraman took his tally to seven points out of 10 games here and given the fact that he has played the tougher opponents, he can now train his sight for a podium finish for which some more victories are needed in the rounds to come.

The Indian currently stands joint fifth in standings along with compatriots Debashish Das and Vidit Gujrathi who also have the same score.
Yu Yangyi of China, meanwhile joined Alexander Ipatov of Turkey in lead on 8.5 points disposing the challenge of Aleksandar Indjic of Serbia.

Ipatov was held to a draw by Peruvian Grandmaster Jorge Cori on the top board.
These two are followed by Cori and Samvel Ter-Sahakkyan of Armenia on 7.5 points and the Indian trio is in joint fifth spot with five others. Sethuraman and Gujrathi have the best tiebreak among these players.
Debashish Das defeated Pouya Idani of Iran in a keenly contested game. Down a pawn in the middlegame, Das never was in serious problems and worked his way for a fine counter play that left the Iranian defenseless.

Gujrathi accounted for N Srinath in a miniature lasting a mere 20 moves. Out of an English opening, some lacklustre moves cost Srinath dearly as he fell way behind in development and it was all over in quick time.