Grandmaster S P Sethuraman made his presence felt when it mattered the most and put it across highly rated Polish Grandmaster Radoslav Wojtaszek to join the leaders' pack after the end of ninth round of the masters section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival here.
Former national champion Sethuraman was in his element and gave a power-packed performance against Wojtaszek who is famously known for his association with five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in many world championship matches as second.
The Ruy Lopez led to expected complications as white for Sethuraman who was quick to spot a neat tactic that won him a rook for a minor piece. The complexities still remained but Wojtaszek lost control and another blunder cost him a full piece. The game lasted a mere 37 moves.
With seven points from nine games Sethuraman joined the league of top seed Hikaru Nakamura of United States, compatriot P Harikrishna, French trio of Etienne Bacrot, Sebastian Maze and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Li Chao B of China and David Anton Gujarro of Spain who all stand as co-leaders.
With just one round to go the chances for the winner's purse of 20000 Pounds Sterling to be decided by a tiebreaker are pretty high.
Harikrishna survived some anxious moments before he was held to a draw by Gujarro. The Indian ace thwarted the pressure with some brilliant resistance and despite an extra pawn, Gujarro was unable to convert in the endgame.
Anand meanwhile did some damage control by easily outclassing Dmitrij Kollars of Germany to take his tally up to 5.5 points out of a eight games.
Among other Indians in the fray Abhijeet Gupta's excellent campaign ran in to Nakamura who was at his attacking best in the Grunfeld defense game. Playing white, the American took advantage as Gupta did not go in to a forced variation and sacrificed an exchange instead for counter play. Nakamura won with his extra material in the end.
Among the Indian women, Padmini Rout suffered another setback and her chance of annexing the women's crown evaporated. Playing white Padmini lost to Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
Harika also could not get back to winning ways and only inched up to five points following another draw in the event with countryman S Satyapragyan.
It will be a big day for Harikrishna in the finale when he takes on Li Chao B of China while Sethuraman is pitted against Bacrot in the 185000 Pound Sterling festival.
Important and Indian results round 9 (Indians unless specified): Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 7) drew with Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 7); David Anton Guijarro (Esp, 7) drew with P Harikrishna (7); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 7) beat Abhijeet Gupta (6); Li Chao B (Chn, 7) beat Luka Lenic (Slo, 6); Nils Grandelius (6.5) drew with Yu Yangyi (Chn, 6.5); S P Sethuraman (7) beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 6); Markus Ragger (Aut, 6.5) drew with M R Lalith Babu (6.5); Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus, 6.5) beat Sandipan Chanda (5.5); Vidit Gujrathi (6.5) beat Alan Pichot (Arg, 5.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6) beat Pablo Almagro Llamas (esp, 5); Padmini Rout (5) lost to Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6); G N Gopal (6) beat Oskar Hauge Lars (Nor, 5); V Anand (5.5) beat Dmitrij Kollars (Ger, 4.5); V Vishnu Prasanna (5.5) beat Gabor Nagy (Hun, 4.5); D Harika (5) drew with S Satyapragyan (5); Anurag Mhamal (4.5) lost to Bai Jinshi (Chn, 5.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (5) drew with Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 5); Siva Mahadevan (5) drew with Lei Tingjie (Chn, 5); Prasanna Rao (5.5) beat Udi Weisbuch (Isr, 4.5); Justin Tan (Aus, 5.5) beat Nisha Mohota (4.5); Jovana Vojinovic (Srb, 4.5) drew with S Kidambi (4.5); Jovanka Houska (Eng, 5) beat B Pratyusha (4).
