Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi produced a scintillating performance to regain the Politiken Cup chess title in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sunday.
This was Parimarjan’s second title in the last three outings. Last month in the US, Parimarjan won the DC International Open and tied for the top place in the World Open.
In the final round, Parimarjan, playing white, destroyed fellow joint leader Italy’s Sabino Brunello, seeded seven, in just 31 moves of Ruy Lopez. The unbeaten 20-year-old third seeded Grandmaster finished at nine points from 10 rounds after singing off with a hat-trick of victories.
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Parimarjan had won the title in 2009 after being tied with Boris Avrukh at 8.5 points. This time, he performed at a rating strength of 779, way above his rating of 2634, to claim 20,000 Danish Krone (Rs. 2,17, 220) after finishing a point ahead of the seven-player pack that tied for the second spot.
Top seed Ivan Chepariov (Bulgaria), Romain Edouard (France), Sebastian Maze (France), Sune Berg Hansen (Denmark), Jan Timman (Holland), Sabino Brunello (Italy) and Robin van Kampen (Holland) tied at eight points to finish.
Parimarjan now heads to Tromso, Norway, to take part in the World Cup, starting on August 10.
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Parimarjan’s results (roundwise, read as Name, country, international rating): 1. Beat Morten Nielsen (Den, 1965); 2. Beat Janus Christensen (Den, 2156); 3. Drew with David Bekker-Jensen (Den, 2310); 4. Beat Jonathan Grant (Sco, 2230); 5. Beat Lajos Portisch (Hun, 2479); 6. Beat Krzyszyof Bulski (Pol, 2534); 7. Drew with Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 2670); 8. Beat Sebastien Maze (Fra, 2547); 9. Beat Hrant Melkumyan (Arm, 2632); 10. Beat Sabino Brunello (Ita, 2593).