Eight-year-old Grover dazzles on the chessboard

Eight-year-old Sahaj Grover stole the honours on the opening day of the Parsvnath International Chess tournament in Delhi, defeating an opponent rated more than 400 points above him.

The opening round of the Rs 300,000 prize-money tournament was otherwise smooth sailing for the leading players as they collected a full point from their respective encounters.

The handful of chess lovers gathered at the Bapu Samaj Kendra were treated to a "clinical" game by Grover (ELO 1924), who outplayed B S Shivanandan (ELO 2371) in 63 moves.

Grover, who opted for the French defence opening, maintained his composure for over three-and-a-half hours as his experienced opponent tried to frustate him by playing for time after he gained the upper hand in the middle game.

Shivanandan looked like salvaging a draw for a while when he forced Grover to spend about half an hour on a move at the fag end. But the eight-year-old not only overcame the trap but showed great understanding of the game to emerge triumphant after 63 moves.

In other matches, top seed Dimitry Svetushkin of Moldova, youngest Commonwealth champion Pendyala Harikrishna, British Open champion Abhijeet Kunte, GM Koneru Humpy, Scotland's Jonathan Rowson and IM R B Ramesh won their games fairly easily.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by All India Council of Sports president Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi.