Grandmaster SP Sethuraman defeated GM Victor Bologan with black pieces in the final round to finish second in the prestigious Aeroflot Open Chess tournament in Moscow on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old, who started the tournament with a starting rank of 15, registered five victories and three draws in the Open A section to finish with 6.5 points along with Dmitry Gordievsky but took the silver thanks to a better tie-break score.
Sethuraman had a chance of clinching the title in the final round had overnight leader Vladislav Kovalev had slipped. But the Belarus GM was happy to play out a quick draw in the final round to take the title with 7 points.
And just like that, @sethuramanchess is no. 4 in India after @vishy64theking , @HariChess , and Vidit @viditchess! Of course, lots more to come from him and those just behind him. Congratulations Sethu, you really deserve this.
— ChessRatingWatch (@ChessCatch) February 28, 2018
(Photo Echecs IDF) pic.twitter.com/v8njCWqjSt
Among the other Indians in fray, second seed Vidit Gujarathi played out eight draws and managed just one win to finish 35th on five points from a possible nine. Krishnan Sasikiran, junior world championship bronze medallist Aravindh Chithambaram and Karthikeyan Murali finished with identical score but were placed above Gujarathi due to be better tie-break score.
