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Journalism of Courage
Those who see him jogging, as he does every morning in his East Delhi colony, don’t give him a second look. He’s just another 10-year-old kid, puppy fat and all, getting fit before his time. But Parimarjan Negi is far more than that: he’s now the youngest Indian chess International Master.
Negi beat the ‘‘record’’ of P Harikrishna, who became an IM at 13 years and seven months.
‘‘I’m happy my hard work has paid off,’’ Negi told The Indian Express. ‘‘But I know I have a long way to go.’’
The news came yesterday, though Parimarjan — a student of Amity, Saket — was given the norm for his outstanding performance at the Bad Weissee tournament in Germany last November where he played along with 21 GMs, 16 IMs, three women GMs and one woman IM. Negi finished 36th.
His is a precocious talent. He began playing chess at the age of four and last year won the Asian under-10 title in Tehran. He followed it up with star performances in recent tournaments, beating players ranked above him.
‘‘Parimarjan showed extraordinary memory at an early age. He used to recite verbatim stories that I had told him at night months after he first heard them,’’ says his father JB Singh, an Air Traffic Controller (as is mother Paridhi) with the Airports Authority of India.
It was then that the father gifted son — whose favourite subject is maths — a chessboard for one of his birthdays. Ever since, the board has remained the youngster’s best friend.
Indeed, chess dominates Parimarjan’s life. His study has no posters of Tendulkar, Ganguly or Dravid — nor of Shah Rukh, Aamir or Salman; Anand V. dominates. And his shelves are full of books on chess — and some rapidly filling with the trophies he’s won.
Unlike boys of his age, Parimarjan doesn’t watch television. ‘‘No cartoon network, films or serials for him. Since he’s totally focussed on chess, he has very little time for anything else,’’ says his father.
The junior Negi, of course, spends his morning hours jogging and doing yoga. ‘‘A fresh mind is always necessary to keep fit,’’ the youngster says.
And while his classmates can reel off the full scoreboard from the Adelaide Test, Negi prefers to speak of openings and movements and ‘‘dynamic positions’’. ‘‘I play with calculation rather than intuition,’’ he says. His role model is former world champion Alexander Alekhine. ‘‘Calculation was Alekhine’s forte and I like the way he played.’’
What makes him special, even among chess prodigies? His coach G B Joshi says: ‘‘While most youngsters of his age follow the coach’s instructions word by word, Pari applies his own theory and solves the problems with his logic. He’s a different player, very amazing. He has worked very diligently in the last couple of years and the results are in keeping with his efforts.’’
A bright future ahead. But Negi prefers to look at it move by move, as any good chess player would. ‘‘My immediate goal is to do well at the Commonwealth meet in Mumbai later this month,’’ he says.
