Negi Finishes Second
By Arvind Aaron
 

Second seed GM Andrei Istratescu of Romania won the Kaupthing Open A Group with a final round win against top seed GM Bartosz Socko of Poland at Differdange, Luxembourg on May 17.

Parimarjan Negi of Delhi won the final round in style sacrificing a rook for knight to cement Yuri Drozdovsky's king with his material led by queen. Teenaged Negi of Delhi tied for he first place on seven points from nine rounds but finished second on tie-break.

The tournament was won by Koneru Humpy last year and Indians had developed interest to participate here. However, Humpy preferred to stay back in India and play the more lucrative Mayor's Cup International Open at Mumbai this year.

This time, four Indians, three from Delhi took part and had a decent finish. The other Indian on 6/8 who needed a win in the final round for joint title, Abhijeet Gupta suffered a defeat to higher rated Russian GM Frolyanov in a minor pieces ending.

Final placings: 1-2 GM Andrei Istratescu (Rom), GM Parimarjan Negi (Ind), GM Dmitry Frolyanov (Rus) 7/9 each, 4-6 GM Leonid Kritz (Ger), GM Philipp Schlosser (Ger), IM Monika Socko (Pol) 6.5 each, 7 GM Abhijeet Gupta 6, 32 IM Tania Sachdev 5, 57 FM Sahaj Grover 4...85 players.