Medal hope for Gujrathi,Sethuraman

Indian Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and SP Sethuraman placed themselves for a medal contention as they defeated Jorge Cori of Peru and Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus respectively in the 12th and penultimate round of World Juniors Chess Championship here.

The victories took Gujrathi and Sethuraman to nine points out of a possible 12 and at least one of them looked poised to get a medal. Yu Yangyi of China almost assured himself of the gold medal by beating Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia. The Chinese top seed took his tally to a whopping 10.5 points and a draw as white against Gujrathi in the last round will assure him of the title.

Alexander Ipatov of Turkey remained in sole second on 9.5 points after drawing his game with Wei Yi of China. The defending champion can also ensure the silver with a draw in the last round.

Gujrathi played white and outclassed Cori from a side variation in the Grunfeld defence game. Sethuraman had to work harder against Kovalev from a Kings Indian defense by the latter. Their games lasted 37 and 45 moves respectively.