The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Negi is world's youngest GM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 02, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Negi is world's youngest GM

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

CROWNING GLORY: Parimarjan Negi — a laudable achievement.

NEW DELHI: Finally, the wait is over. Chess prodigy 13-year-old Delhi boy Parimarjan Negi has become the youngest Grandmaster in the world and second youngest in the history of the game.

On Saturday, the youngster made his third and final Grandmaster norm by drawing with Russian Grandmaster Ruslan Sherbakov and finished with six points from nine rounds of the Chelyabinsk Region Superfinal chess tournament in Satka.

By completing the GM title requirements at the age of 13 years and 142 days, Negi has taken away the honour of being the youngest GM from Norway's wonder-kid Magnus Carlsen who had become a GM in 13 years and 147 days on April 26, 2004 in Dubai. Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine holds the record of being the youngest GM ever after making the title at the age of 12 years and seven months in 2002.

Negi replaces P. Hari Krishna as the country's youngest ever GM. Hari reached the landmark at the age of 15 years and 99 days in August 2001. Hari had improved upon Viswanathan Anand's 14-year-old record of 18 years and 19 days.

It is indeed a stupendous achievement by Negi who became International Master in December before gaining his maiden GM norm in the Hastings Premier. By making three GM norms in the space of six months, Negi matched Viswanthan's Anand's effort that came in the second half of 1987.

Having met the norm requirements, Negi also took his accumulated rating past the stipulated 2500 mark. He played the event with a rating of 2445 and is due to reach 2494 in the FIDE rating list due to be released. He stands to gain 10 points from the San Marino tournament held earlier in June and another 18 points from his latest outing. This also makes Negi the country's 15th GM.

According to information available from Satka, in the 10-player round-robin competition, three victories in the first four rounds set Negi firmly on course for the GM-title norm. He scored with black pieces against Russia's Nikolai Looshnikov (2437) and Ukraine's Kateryna Lahno (2468) in the first and third rounds. It may be recalled that Lahno was a member of the Ukraine team that won the women's Olympiad title in Turin last month.

In the fourth round, Negi won with white against Russia's Pavel Ponkratov (2406). His draws came against Russia's Igor Kurnosov (2526), Dmitry Frolynaov (2497), I. Semen Dvoirys (2523) and Sherbakov (2543). In the seventh round, Negi settled for a draw against Kazakhstan's Vladislav Nasybullin (2396).

In a fine gesture, the organisers allowed Negi to finish his engagements two days ahead of the concluding day as he was scheduled to be in Athens on Sunday to represent a club. He is due to play in a few more tournaments in Europe before returning home in mid-August.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport