Harikrishna, Sethuraman Among Leaders

Harikrishna, Sethuraman Among Leaders
By Arvind aaron

Two Indians, fourth seed Pentala Harikrishna and 25th seed S.P. Sethuraman are among the eight leaders in the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival that is coming to a close on Thursday.

The other six leaders on 7/9 include top seed Hikaru Nakamura (USA), second seed Vachier-Lagrave (Fra), fifth seed Li Chao (Chn), Etienne Bacrot (Fra), David Anton (Esp) and Sebastien Maze (Fra). A clear winner looks unlikely.

With two defeats in his 5.5/9, Anand needs a final round win to redeem some of his lost Elo points. Overall, Indians are gaining plenty of Elo from this contest. Our rating gainers are Sethuraman (+18.60), Lalith Babu (+15.60), Nisha Mohota (+12.20) and our losers are Anand (-23.40), Ganguly (-12.20) and Kidambi (-10.40).

Hikaru Nakamura is the defending champion. Harikrishna has remained undefeated winning five and drawn four games so far. His rating sees a modest gain of 3.6 Elo. In the final round, Nakamura plays white. Harikrishna plays white also against Li Chao. Sethuraman plays black against Bacrot. A nervous February 4, 2016 it is going to be in Gibraltar, an island near Spain belonging to England.