By IANS,
New Delhi : Nine-year old Hetul Shah created history in the first round of the seventh Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament, defeating Grand Master Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan Sunday.
Apart from Nurlan, almost all top seeded players of the tournament, which includes 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 Sekhar 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 secured full point against Vasanta Wettasinha of Sri Lanka.
Hetul was a class act Sunday afternoon as he not only recorded his biggest victory but also ensured a name in the record books. Hetul is the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster, bettering the Indian record set up by Parimarjan Negi by more than a year.
Parimarjan had beaten Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in 2004 Biel Open, and at 11 years was thus far the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster from India. Hetul, at 9 years and six months, has now beaten that record.
As many as 426 players from 16 different countries are participating.
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 Sri Lanka (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).