Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman was back in the reckoning with a thumping victory over Antonios Pavlidis of Greece in the 10th round of the World Junior Chess Championship at Kocaeli, Turkey.
Playing the white side of a King’s Indian defence, 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 scores. Yu Yangyi of China, meanwhile joined Alexander Ipatov of Turkey in lead on 8.5 points.
Debashish defeated Pouya Idani of Iran in a keenly contested game. Gujrathi accounted for N. Srinath in a miniature lasting a mere 20 moves. GM Sahaj Grover suffered badly after an oversight in the early part against Chinese GM Wei Yi.