Date:18/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/18/stories/2008051860391900.htm

Sport - Chess

Negi ties for honours

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi defeated sixth seeded Ukrainian GM Yuri Drozdovskij in 42 moves to be part of a three-way tie for the title in the Kaupthing Open chess tournament at Differdange, Luxembourg, on Saturday.

Negi finished with seven points in the nine-round tournament to tie for honours with second-seeded Romanian GM Andrei Istratescu, who upstaged top seed Bartosz Socko in the final round.

Russia’s Dmitry Frolyanov became the third player to reach seven points when he defeated Abhijeet Gupta in 76 moves.

When the tiebreak was resolved, Istratescu, Negi and Frolyanov were placed in that order. Abhijeet finished seventh with six points.

The other two Indians, Tania Sachdev (5) was 32nd and Sahaj Grover (4) was placed 57th.

The results (involving Indians): Ninth round: Abhijeet Gupta (6) lost to Dmitry Frolyanov (Rus, 7); Parimarjan Negi (7) bt Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukr, 5.5); Evgeny Degtiarev (Ger, 5) drew with Tania Sachdev (5); David Thalwitzer (Ger, 4) drew with Sahaj Grover (4).

Eighth round: Istratescu (6) drew with Abhijeet (6); Frolyanov (6) drew with Negi (6); Tania (4.5) drew with Vera Nebolsina (Ukr, 4.5); Sahaj (3.5) drew with Alf Andersen (Nor, 3.5).