Hetual Shah creates history; beats Grand Master Ibrayev Nurlan

New Delhi (11 Jan 2009 ) : Nine-year old Hetul Shah created history in the first round of the 7th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament defeating Grand Master Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan here at Modern School, Barakhamba road.

Apart from Nurlan, almost all top seeded players of the tournament, which include a record 20 Grand Masters, posted easy victories to advance to the second round with full points in their kitty.

While top seed Grandmaster Areshchenko Alexander of Ukraine had an easy outing against Dasharathi Sahoo, the third seed and leader of the Indian challenge in this tournament, Surya Shekhar Ganguly made short work of Niraj Saripalli.

Among the Indian players, former national champion Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua also had an easy day at the office as they beat D K Chopra and Dinesh Kumar Gupta. Parimarjan Negi had to work little harder but at the end secured full point against Vasanta Wettasinha of Srilanka. The other major surprise of the round came in the form of a draw for International Master B T Murali Krishana, who was denied victory by a much lower rated local lad Nirbhay Nanda.

Hetul Shah was a class act on Sunday afternoon as he not only recorded his biggest victory but also ensured a name in the record books. While it was confirmed late in the day that Hetul is the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster, he, at the same time, bettered the Indian record set up by Parimarjan Negi by more than a year. Parimarjan had beaten Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in a Biel open and was thus far the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster from India. That feat was achieved way back in 2004 when Parimarjan was 11 years old. Hetul, at 9 years and six months has won his place in history of the game.

The second round of this tournament, in which 426 players of 16 different countries are participating, was still in progress at the time of latest report.

Important Results of Round 1(Indians otherwise stated):

Round 1 Results : Dasharathi Sahoo (0) lost to GM Areshchenko Alexender of Ukraine, GM Yuriy Kuzubov (1) of Ukraine beat P Chakrapani (0), Niraj Saripalli (0) lost to GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (1), GM Parimarjan Negi (1) beat Vasanta Wettasinha of Srilanka (0), Sitaram Agarwal of Nepal lost to GM Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine, GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia (1) beat M Natarajan (0), DK Chopra (0) lost to GM Abhijit Kunte (1), GM Anuar Ismagambetov Anuar (1) beat Anjana Krishna (0), Samunder Kumar Girsa (0) lost to GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan (1), GM Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan beat Rauniyar Rakesh of Nepal (0).

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Home                                                      Published on 13^th January ,  2009