Delhi International Open: Setback for Sethuraman; Aravindh, D’Cunha, Saha lead

Lucky to escape with a draw in the fifth round, Sethuraman (4.5 points) crashed to a 25-move loss, that too with white pieces, against International Master Viani Antonio D’Cunha in the sixth round.

FILE PHOTO: S. P. Sethuraman in action. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu

S. P. Sethuraman’s title-aspirations suffered a major blow when he dropped 1.5 points on a double-round day in the Rs. 45-lakh Delhi International Open chess tournament here.

Sunday proved an off-day for the top seed. Lucky to escape with a draw in the fifth round against Uzbekistan’s Almas Rakhmatullaev, rated 364 points below, Sethuraman (4.5 points) crashed to a 25-move loss, that too with white pieces, against International Master Viani Antonio D’Cunha in the sixth round.

Second seed Aravindh Chithambaram’s patience paid off against Kirill Stupak as he carved out a 54-move win to join D’Cunha and Neelash Saha in the lead with six points.

Earlier, Saha stunned seventh seed Boris Savchenko in just 27 moves after the 2552-rated Russian committed an early error of judgement.

Another notable winner was teenager Goutham Krishna who shocked Grandmaster G. A. Stany to reach 5.5 points.

Leading results (Indians unless stated):

Sixth round: Kirill Stupak (FIDE, 5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (6); Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Geo, 5.5) drew with Luka Paichadze (Geo, 5.5); Ameya Audi (5) lost to Volodar Murzin (FIDE, 6); Boris Savchenko (FIDE, 5) lost to Neelash Saha (6); Michael Krasenkow (Pol, 5.5) drew with Mukhiddin Madaminov (Uzb, 5.5); S. P. Sethuraman (4.5) lost to Viani Antonio Dcunha (6); J. Ramakrishna (4.5) lost to Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 5.5); Harshal Patil (4.5) lost to Mikhail Kobalia (FIDE, 5.5); G. A. Stany (4.5) lost to Goutham Krishna (5.5).

Fifth round: Almas Rakhmatullaev drew with Sethuraman; Aravindh bt S. Nitin; Kobalia drew with Erzhan Zhakshylykov (Kgz); Rupesh Jaiswal lost to Mchedlishvili; Murzin bt S. Aswath; Arjun Adireddy lost to Savchenko; Nithin Babu lost to Krasenkow; Paichadze bt Anup Deshmukh; Saha bt Vinayak Kulkarni.