January 12, 2009 12:42:12 am
Nine-year-old Hetul Shah made history in the first round of the 7th Parsvnath International Open chess tournament defeating Grandmaster Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan in New Delhi on Sunday.
Shah betterd Parimarjan Negis record of being the youngest Indian to beat a GM by more than a year. Negi was 11 years old when he beat Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in the Biel Open in 2004.
The first round also turned out well for other Indians with six-time national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly,Negi,GMs Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua starting with victories.
Ganguly made short work of compatriot Niraj Saripalli while Kunte got past DK Chopra and Barua defeated Dinesh Kumar Gupta.
Negi had to work a little harder before beating Vasanta Wettasinha of Sri Lanka.
In the other boards,top seed Grandmaster Areshchenko Alexander of Ukraine opened his campaign with an easy win over Indian player Dasharathi Sahoo.
