Negi Wins Politiken Cup

by Mr.Arvind Aaron

Teenaged Parimarjan Negi of Delhi won the Politiken Cup held at Denmark 25 km from Copenhagen on July 26, 2009. The Politiken Cup is part of the Copenhagen Chess Festival.

Negi and Boris Avrukh of Israel tied for the first place on 8.5/10 points but the Indian was champion on tie-break. Krishnan Sasikiran had won this prestigious event back in 2003.

Twelfth seeded Negi would be gaining huge Elo since he played at 2717 rating performance with a start rating of 2590 until the first nine rounds. His rating performance would be higher since he won round ten as well.

In the ten round event for 307 players, Negi remained undefeated winning seven games and drawing three games. In the final round, Negi overcame higher rated ninth seed Emanuel Berg of Sweden.

Negi drew top seed Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) 2707, Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 2667 and Evgeny Postny (Isr) 2647 on course to the title.

Among his wins were against second seed Peter Heine Nielsen (2680), World Champion Viswanathan Anand's chief trainer over the last few years.

A total of 20 GMs, 14 IMs, 17 FMs, 1 WGM, 2 WIMs, 2 WFMs took part among the 307 players.

Seed No.23 S.P. Sethuraman of Chennai finished eleventh with 7.5 points after tying for the eighth place. Had he defeated Nielsen in the final round, he too would have tied for the top place. Indians have always done well in Northern Europe and this is yet another confirmation.

Final placings: 1 P. Negi (Ind) 8.5; 2 Boris Avrukh (Isr) 8.5; 3-7. V. Malakhov (Rus), G. Sargissian (Arm), P.H. Nielsen (Den), E. Postny (Isr), S. Tiviakov (Ned) 8 each; 8-13. Jony Hector (Swe), Emanuel Berg (Swe), Jon Ludwig Hammer (Nor), S.P. Sethuraman (Ind), Daniel Alsina (ESP), Victoria Cmilyte (Lit) 7.5 each...307 players.