Chess: Second-place finish in Moscow serves as motivation for Sethuraman

CHENNAI: Winning last round games is one of the key factors for achieving success in strong Open tournaments. SP Sethuraman is one of those players who can win crunch games. He did it successfully in the Aeroflot Open (Group A), outwitting Victor Bologan in the ninth and final round to take the second spot on Wednesday. Thanks to a better tie-break, the Indian pushed Dmitry Gordievsky (both 6.5/9) to the third place. It was Sethuraman’s best result in recent times and helped him gain 10.6 rating points, besides having an impressive performance rating of 2,734.

Vladislav Kovalev (7) played the tournament of his life to emerge as an unexpected winner. Starting as 16th seed, he upstaged the likes of Vladimir Fedoseev, Vidit Gujrathi and Dmitry Andreikin to make it a memorable tournament. His title triumph earned him a spot in the Dortmund super GM tournament.
When queried how satisfied he was on taking the second spot in Moscow, Sethuraman had this to say: “Very happy with my finish considering my start was not good. It feels good to finish second in one of the strongest Opens. It motivates me for my future events.”

Except for his loss against Tigran Petrosian in the third round, the 25-year-old had a good tournament, winning five games, losing one and drawing three. “I’m happy with the quality of my games. I was solid for the entire part of the tournament. I had a superior position in most of my games but my conversion was a bit imprecise. However, I had long fighting games and was able to win most of it,” reflected the Chennaiite, when asked about the quality of his performance in the tournament.

His +4 score helped Sethuraman jump to World No 88 in the live rating (2,659.6), leapfrogging by 18 places. On his goals for 2018, Sethuraman said: “I achieved my career-best rating after this tournament. After stagnating for the last few years it’s nice to get a good result. Starting from 2017 World Cup my play has been a bit more consistent in the recent tournaments.I hope to continue in the same vein and improve my rating.”

Sethuraman, who has defeated strong players like Boris Gelfand, Ruslan Ponomariov and Nigel Short, is one of the best-prepared players among Indians.His success in Open tournaments can be attributed to his aggressive style of play.

Coming to the tournament following his Challengers triumph in Wijk aan Zee, Vidit had a forgettable event, making eight draws and one win for a 35th place finish with five points.The second-seeded Indian dropped 16 rating points, slipping to 36th place in live rating. It can happen in an Open tournament as top seed Fedoseev also had a below-par event (4.5, 46th). Former national champion Abhijit Kunte performed well in Group B, taking the fifth spot with 6.5 points.   

Final Placings
Top 10 (Group A): 1. V Kovalev (BLR, 7), 2-3. SP Sethuraman, D Gordievsky (RUS, 6.5), 3-10. Xu Xiangyu (CHN), T Petrosian (ARM), V Artemiev (RUS), I Lysyj (RUS),  G Sargissian (ARM), A Korobov (UKr), R Mamedov (AZE) (all 6).