Negi retains joint-lead, eyes title

Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi continued his fine run to defeat International Master Ivan Popov of Russia in the 10th and penultimate round of World Youth Star chess tournament in Kirishi, Russia, on Saturday.

The victory helped Negi retain joint-lead with World junior champion Zaven Andriasian of Armenia on seven points out of a possible 10.

An exciting finish in the tournament is on cards on the final day when Andriasian takes on Azerbaijani Grandmaster Rauf Mamedov while Negi meets GM Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus.

With just one round remaining in the category-12 unique event that features some of the best talents in the world, Ian Nepomniachtchi is also in contention for tying for the top spot on 6.5 points.

In the final round game, Nepomniachtchi will meet Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine. Interestingly, all three - Negi, Andriasian and Nepomniachtchi -- will have black pieces in the final round.

Negi displayed his superior and ever-growing positional understanding once again to beat Popov, who could not make a match of it with his black pieces.

It was a Caro Kann defense wherein Negi went for his latest preparation in the Classical set-up and ended up gaining a slightly better position in the middle game.

Popov was taken to task once the queens got traded and Negi started attacking the weak black pawns. Reaching a rook and knight endgame the Indian was always in control and won a pawn to increase his advantage.

Popov could not withstand the pressure thereafter and ended up losing another pawn. The game lasted 68 moves.

Andriasian also scored a marathon victory over Kuzubov even though he ended his game a few moves less.

The Sicilian closed that the Armenian has mastered gave Andriasian a better endgame and he nurtured his advantage in great style. Kuzubov was a pale shadow of himself in the rook and pawns endgame and lost when Andriasian pushed his queen side pawn to glory.

Nepomniachtchi apparently failed to recover from his previous round disaster against Zhigalko and was held to a draw by compatriot IM Daniil Lintchevsky.

It was a French defense, a favourite of top seed Nepomniachtchi himself as black, that gave Lintchevsky a playable position that he held on to force the split of point.

In other games of the day Falko Bindrich of Germany went down to Mamedov, Avetik Grigoryan of Armenia was held to a draw by Safarli Eltaj of Azerbaijan while Eduard Gorovykh proved no match to Zhigalko.

Results round 10: Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 7) beat Ivan Popov (Rus, 3.5); Zaven Andriasian (Arm, 7) beat Yuriy Kuzubov(Ukr, 5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 6.5) drew with Daniil Lintchevsky (Rus, 4); Eduard Gorovykh (Rus, 3.5) lost to Sergei Zhigalko (Blr, 5); Falko Bindrich (Ger, 3) lost to Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 6); Avetik Grigoryan (Arm, 6) drew with Safarli Eltaj (Aze, 3.5).