Negi becomes youngest Indian International Master

Parimarjan Negi became the youngest International Master of the country with a fantastic victory over Grandmaster Sergei Erenburg of Israel in the fourth round of the Masters section in the Hastings International Chess Congress in England.

Twelve-year-old Negi, who had been on the brink of securing the IM title for quite some time, finally made the grade as he now stands to gain a staggering 30 Elo rating points from the first four rounds of this traditional event.

Negi also remained in joint-lead amidst a star-studded field and now has 3.5 points out of a possible four.

Earlier, in the second round of the tournament, he had beaten English Grandmaster Mark Hebden while in the third he drew with higher-rated IM Jean Pierre Le Roux of France.

Negi, currently 2396 on the Elo rating list issued on the new year, needed around 24 points to become the next IM of the country and has cleared that barrier after his fourth round victory.

The Tata-sponsored Negi is in fact running for the Grandmaster's norm in the event for which, going by the current statistics he needs three points in next five rounds.

The Delhi-based shares the lead with Grandmasters Vladimir Belov of Russia, Milos Pavlovic of Serbia, Valeiry Nevenor of Ukraine, Bogdan Lalic of Croatia and IM Simon Williams of England.

Six more rounds remain in the event.

The other two Indians in the fray continued to have mixed results, with World under-10 champion Sahaj Grover succumbing to his fourth loss in a row in the event, bowing to Andrew Tucker of England and his coach Gurpreet Pal Singh coming out triumphs against another English Peter Poobalasingam.

In the game against Erenburg, Negi proved why he is hailed as amongst the brightest talent of the country.

Playing the white side of a Caro Kann, Negi was technically superb in cashing out a slightly better endgame arising after a topical variation.

Winning a pawn by force with excellent manoeuvering in the rook and minor pieces endgame, Negi turned the tide decisively in his favour in the end. The game lasted 73 moves.

"I think he made some mistakes in the endgame where I was slightly better. It just took correct manoeuvering to win one pawn and I think the endgame thereafter is just winning," Negi said without showing excitement.

"I knew it would come soon, I had made my norms and only the rating was an issue, I think I should thank my sponsors Air India and Tatas, family, school and coaches for this achievement; next is the Grandmaster title," he said.

Negi, who was battered in the last Asian Youth Chess championship despite starting as the top seed, apparently got over the debacle in quick time.

"That was a bad tournament for me, I was playing terribly there," the student of Amity International said.

Important and Indian results round 4:

Vladimir Belov (Rus, 3.5) beat Wolfram Schoen (Ger, 2.5); Parimarjam Negi (Ind, 3.5) beat Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 2.5); Valerij Neverov (Ukr, 3.5) beat Stefan Kristjannsson (Isl, 2.5); Piotr Bobras (Pol, 3) drew with Willy Hendricks (Ned, 3); Milos Pavlovic (Scg, 3.5) beat Vincent Colin (2.5); Simon Williams (Eng, 3.5) beat Jean-Pierre Le Roux (Fra, 2.5); Adam Ashton (Eng, 2) lost to Bogdan Lalic (Cro, 3.5); Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 2.5) drew with Li Wu (Eng, 2); G P Singh (Ind, 2) beat Peter Poobalasingam (Eng, 1); Andrew Tucker (Eng, 1.5) beat Sahaj Grover (Ind, 0).