Le Touquet: Former under-10 world
champion Sahaj Grover became India's youngest International
Master, winning the final round game against the higher-rated
Nicolas Clery to finish fifth in the International Open Chess
tournament here.
Sahaj was the cynosure of all eyes in a strong field
comprising seven Grandmasters and eight International Masters.
The class IX student started with two wins, including a
spectacular effort against Grandmaster Vyacheslav Ikonnikov of
Russia and five draws and a couple of more wins later, he
assured himself of his sixth International Master norm which
was inconsequential.
Though just 2288 as per ELO ratings of September 2009,
Sahaj gained the required points to scale his rating well past
the 2400 mark.
The youngster, who also made his maiden Grandmaster norm
just a month earlier during the Kolkata open tournament, will
be 2372 in the next rating list due on the November 1 and here
he gained as many as 35 points to breach the 2400 mark -– a
must for International Masters.
It was an easy ride for Sahaj after he won against
Ikonikkov in the second round, which also got him the award
for the best game of the day.
A spate of draws followed, including one against eventual
champion IM Jean Noel Riff, and in the last two rounds the
14-year-old was in his element once again as he tormented
Frenchman Christan Kieffer in the penultimate round and
cruised past Nicolas Clery -– ranked 86 points higher than him
in current FIDE list -- in his final effort.
While Riff secured seven points in all, it was a four-way
tie at the top with top seed GM Jean Marc Degraeve of France,
GM Yuri Vovk of Ukraine and GM Bartlomiej Heberla sharing the
honours. Sahaj was the lone player on 6.5 points and got a
well-deserved fifth spot.
"It was a good tournament for me as I went unbeaten and
got my second best result ever after the GM norm in Kolkata,"
Sahaj said after winning the last round.
The other Indians in the fray had a mixed outing with IM
Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury finishing 10th on 6 points and IM
Dinesh Kumar Sharma settling for the 21st spot tallying 5.5
points in all.
Bureau Report