NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi came up with a sensational finish to shut out eighth-seeded Russian GM Konstantin Landa in just 24 moves and stayed ahead with three others at 5.5 points from six rounds of the Hogeschool Zeeland chess tournament in Vlissingen, Holland, on Wednesday.

In terms of the number of moves, this was Parimarjan's quickest victory over a Grandmaster this year and the second shortest of his career. In July 2005, the youngster had packed off Romania's George-Gabriel Grigore, rated 2479, in only 21 moves in the Sort International Open in Sort, Spain.

What makes Parimarjan's latest victory even more creditable is the fact that Landa is rated 104 points above at 2584.

With three rounds to go, 14th-seeded Parimarjan is in the company of second-seeded Polish GM Michael Krasenkow, fourth-seeded Dutchman Friso Nijboer and fifth-seeded Russian Vlaycheslav Iknonnikov.

Dramatic finish

The sudden and dramatic finish to the Caro Kann game came when the 13-year-old, playing white, offered a knight to an already worried Russian who had only 101 seconds remaining on the clock. Had Landa accepted the offering on the centre of the board, Parimarjan would have checkmated him in quick time. A defensive move could have stretched the battle but the Russian chose to accept defeat.

Dibyendu Barua, the conqueror of Landa in the fourth round, was among those trailing the leaders by half a point. Barua drew with sixth-seeded Dutchman Erwin L'Ami in 26 moves to reach five points.

Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and Saptarshi Roy (four each) lost to Moldova's Viorel Iordaschescu and the Netherlands's John van der Wiel, respectively. Roktim Bandhyopadhya caught up with his Kolkata-mates after drawing with local Arlette van Weersel.

The results (involving Indians): Badalona International, Spain: Eighth round: Victor Moskalenko (Ukr, 6) drew with Neelotpal Das (5.5); Reynaldo Vera (Cuba, 6) bt P. Konguvel (5); R.B. Ramesh (6) bt Jan Willem de Jong (Ned, 5); Lluis Maria Perpinya Rofes (Cub, 5) lost to S. Kidambi (6); S. Satyapragyan (5) drew with Ivan Hernandez (Esp, 5.5); Aarthie Ramaswamy (4.5) drew with Jerome Hulin (Fra, 4.5); Prasanna Rao (5) bt Jose Ridameya Tatche (Esp, 4); Swati Mohota (4) drew with David Escofet Martins (Esp, 4); Tatiana Yastrebova (Ukr, 4.5) bt Sai Meera (3.5).

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail