Parimarjan comes of age

Parimarjan Negi seems to have come of age after getting the tag of the second youngest-ever Grandmaster in the world as he is looking at the achievement only as a parameter of his being on the right track.

"It is good to have become a grandmaster at this age, it just shows that I have been performing well, and I am on the right path. I would like to continue to rise in ratings and become a stronger player," Negi said.

The Delhi wonderkind is currently the youngest Grandmaster at 13 years, four months and 20 days and second in the history of the game after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine.

Karjakin achieved the feat at the age of 12 years and seven months.

Negi also matched Viswanathan Anand's feat of grabbing all the norms within six months.

Negi, who has also won a number of junior and sub junior titles, said he has improved a lot in last couple of years, thanks to his stints with chess greats who worked on various aspects of his games.

But he admits he still needs to improve his overall game.

"I have improved a lot in openings, but sometimes get trapped -- maybe due to few complications and tactical mistakes or miscalculations.

"I have to improve on my overall game," the teenager said.

Negi said sometimes he tends to "get relaxed" during the game and is "not alert" enough due to which he lets opportunities slip away like in Italy where he had come close to making his third and final GM norm.

"In Italy, I was quite close to the norm - needing one win out of two games but then in the penultimate round I played quite bad against Giovanni Vescovi - going for unnecessary activity.

"Then, in the last round I got too relaxed in a clearly winning position and missed some simple ideas to lose in the end."

Wiser from experience, Negi says he now tries to settle for draw than accept a defeat so as to maintain his consistency.

"It was perhaps that I played more solidly in Satka and then in Greece. I made no draws in San Marino but had 6 decisive games in the next two events."

About his effort in making the third GM norm, Negi said: "I scored 6/9 in the tournament held at Satka, with 3 wins and rest draws, beating Looshnikov and Lahno with black and Ponkratov with white.

"It was good that I got a very good start - scoring 3 wins and a draw in the first four games, so that in the end I was able to slow down, and made the rest draws.

"I think I played quite consistently through the tournament, and was able to avoid serious time troubles."

"Also I came into serious trouble only in one game with GM Igor Kurnosov (RUS, 2526), but I managed to hold it in the second round. It was nothing special really to play against Sherbakov, it was the last round and I got a nice position after the opening, and we agreed the draw then."

"Overall, I was quite satisfied with my games, there were some moments for sure where I didn't play well and all, but in general my play was quite decent," Negi said.

Negi, nicknamed Batu, is currently playing some tournaments in Europe and taking the opportunity to finetune his skills with English GM Nigel Short in Athens.

"We will be working on some specific openings and something general."

In fact, Short chose Negi as a subject of one of his regular chess columns for The Guardian, praising the Indian's potential.

He said he had been approached by Negi's father to coach his son but was surprised when he achieved all his norms even before "arriving at my door".

"When an Indian gentleman emailed me asking whether I would be prepared to coach his 13-year-old son, Parimarjan Negi, I accepted with, if not quite over-brimming enthusiasm, then a degree of satisfaction.

"The boy had already acquired a notable reputation in the chess world, but I confess I had not expected him to become a Grandmaster between leaving home in Delhi and arriving at my door, as happened," he wrote.

The Amity International school student, who is growing up fast like his stature in chess, however, did not forget to credit his achievement to all his coaches as well as sponsors, usually hard to come by.

"There are many people to have helped me in my career. My parents, and then all my coaches -- G B Joshi in my formative years, Vishal Sareen, Evgeny Vladimirov, Ruslan Sherbakov, Alexander Goloshchapov and Elizbar Ubilava."

"G B Joshi helped me from the starting to develop my chess understanding... and it was first with Sherbakov and Vladimirov that I started seeing the openings more deeply. Vladimirov also helped me to improve my endgames. I have been seeing different openings and all with Vishal Sareen and in the last months with Goloshchapov.

"And other people who have worked with me like my sponsors -- TATA and Air India, and many other people who have helped me through my life."