Negi On A Roll
By Arvind Aaron

Grand Master Parimarjan Negi of Delhi is on a roll as he tied for the first place in the 36th World Open at Philadelphia on July 6. He did exactly what P. Magesh Chandran of Madurai did in July 2005 at Philadelphia. He tied for first place and lost the blitz tie-break in the US$75,000 prize money contest. The winner of the blitz tie-break was Evgeny Najer.

Negi had previously won the Kaupthing Open jointly in Luxemburg and the Philadelphia Open clearly. The shared first place should move the 15-year old Delhi kid's rating northwards.

In the penultimate round, Negi thrashed Alexander Shabalov of United States and then took a draw with the black pieces against Ljubomir Ftacnik to share the first place.

"To me, he is Anand in the making," said a jubilant Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary of the Delhi Chess Association. "I am sure Negi will bring more laurels to the country," said R.M. Dongre, Vice President of the AICF who is at Philadelphia.

This triumph of Negi in a star studded field should send notice to those in the top both in United States and Europe. A few years back, Negi had become the World's youngest grandmaster. Tata sponsored Negi had worked with many GMs like Vladimirov and Ubilava besides Delhi's other best players.

Negi, 15, is one of India's 18 grandmasters. He has plenty of potential to go further up in the likes of other teenaged sensation Magnus Carlsen of Norway.


Grand Master Parimarjan Negi of Delhi is on a roll as he tied for the first place in the 36th World Open at Philadelphia on July 6. He did exactly what P. Magesh Chandran of Madurai did in July 2005 at Philadelphia. He tied for first place and lost the blitz tie-break in the US$75,000 prize money contest. The winner of the blitz tie-break was Evgeny Najer.

Negi had previously won the Kaupthing Open jointly in Luxemburg and the Philadelphia Open clearly. The shared first place should move the 15-year old Delhi kid's rating northwards.

In the penultimate round, Negi thrashed Alexander Shabalov of United States and then took a draw with the black pieces against Ljubomir Ftacnik to share the first place.

"To me, he is Anand in the making," said a jubilant Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary of the Delhi Chess Association. "I am sure Negi will bring more laurels to the country," said R.M. Dongre, Vice President of the AICF who is at Philadelphia.

This triumph of Negi in a star studded field should send notice to those in the top both in United States and Europe. A few years back, Negi had become the World's youngest grandmaster. Tata sponsored Negi had worked with many GMs like Vladimirov and Ubilava besides Delhi's other best players.

Negi, 15, is one of India's 18 grandmasters. He has plenty of potential to go further up in the likes of other teenaged sensation Magnus Carlsen of Norway.


Peter Leko, the 1979-born Hungarian grandmaster from Szeged won the Sparkassen Chess Meeting on July 6, 2008 with a clear 4.5/7 score at Dortmund, Germany.

Leko had at best been the challenger to V. Kramnik's world title in 2004. Regaining the title, Leko played at 2790 and would be gaining Elo from this undefeated plus two (won against Ivanchuk and Gustafsson) score.

Former world champion Kramnik had a poor event. The king of Dortmund was in poor form. In the final round he was defeated by Ivanchuk. Kramnik improvedblack's play from his defeat against Naiditch from a Petroff but made a 36th move mistake to lose. The event saw only two Petroff games and both were by Kramnik and both were shot down. Kramnik has a lot of work in the Petroff before the Bonn match this October 13.

The results (round seven): P. Leko drew with Arkady Naiditch, V. Ivanchuk bt V. Kramnik, I. Nepomiachtchi drew with J. Gustafsson, Van Wely lost to S. Mamedyarov.

Final placings: 1 P. Leko (Hun) 4.5/7, 2-5 V. Ivanchuk (Ukr), I. Nepomniachtchi (Rus), S. Mamedyarov (Aze), Jan Gustafsson (Ger) 4 each, 6 A. Naiditch (Ger) 3.5, 7 V. Kramnik (Rus) 3, 8 Loek Van Wely (Ned) 1.

Home                                                            Published on 08^th July, 2008