Sethuraman gets maiden IM norm, Kruttika eyes WGM norm

Dubai, May 1 (UNI) Talented SP Sethuraman obtained his maiden IM norm when the Chennai teenager outwitted Internationqal Master Sergei Simonenko of Turkmenistan in the eighth and penultimate round of the Dubai International Open chess championship here.

The youngster, so far has lost only one game and that too against Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian and has 5.5 points in his kitty. He, however, has a difficult task in hand in the final round where he is pitted with cmpatriot and Grandmaster R B Ramesh.

WIM Kruttika Nadig, also in the running for the best lady player of the touirnament award, also inched closed to her maiden WGM norm as she beat WIM Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran.

Delhi prodigy Parimarjan Negi split point with Ukarainian IM Sergei Krivoshey, while MR Lalith Babu, eyeing an IM norm, beat Saleh Saleh Jasim of UAE.

In other round eight matches featuring Indian players, IM Abhijeet Gupta was beaten by Grandmaster Tamaz Gelashvili, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy got the better of Erik Teichmann of Britain, Delhi boy Sahaj Grover defeated Aaaugusto Marcial of Philippines and Grandmaster RB Ramesh was held by Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan.

Armenian Grandmaster duo of Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran Petrosian and Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine now share the lead with 6.5 points each with one more round to go.

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