Seuthuraman emerges sole leader in International Open Chess

GM-nominated Vidit Gujrathi, GM Deep Sengupta, IM Vishnu Prasanna and IM Swapnil Dhopade, GM Ni Hua, GM Anton Koborv and GM Dzhumaev Marat shared the second spot with seven each.

19-year B Com third year student from Chennai, Sethuraman played French defense with e4 e6/d4 d5.

In the ninth move, he gave a brilliant go with bishop in c8 taking Viorel by surprise.

Viorel could not have any better answer to encounter Sethuraman's move as he tried to control the board with two pawns sacrifice but to go in vain.

Dhopade played a very composed game with black pieces against GM Mikhailo Oleksienko (2573) of Ukraine.

Oleksienko played Cicilian Taimanov opening with e4 c6/ kf3 e6.

Surprisingly he sacrificed a pawn in the beginning and a bishop within a short span to take control over the game.

Dhopade had better position midway, but the Ukranian tried to bounce back.

But Dhopade remained cool and sacrificed his queen to have two rooks and a bishop to establish control.

In the end game, Oleksienko had two mistakes and finally conceded point after 70th move.

Sengupta tried hard to overpower Chinese GM Ni Hua, but the battle of more than four hours ended with no outright result.

IM-nominated Diptayan Ghosh played a fantastic game to snatch full point from GM RR Laxman (2456).

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly had a facile win over IM Himanshu Sharma, but GM Sandipan Chanda shared point with GM Sundararajan Kidambi.

WGM Mary Ann Gomes lost to GM Abhijit Kunte, while WGM Nisha Mohota got her eighth draw, this time with IM V Sarvanan.