9-year-old Hetul Shah (India) youngest ever to beat a GM

In the 1st round of the Parsvnath tournament in New Delhi, 9-year-old Hetul Shah from India defeated Nurlan Ibrayev (Kazachtstan) to become the youngest player ever to beat a grandmaster in a tournament game with regular time control.

India holds many young and highly talented players. Clear proof is the fact that reigning Junior World Champions Abhijeet Gupta (boys under 20) and Dronavalli Harika (girls under 20), both from India, will participate in the 2009 Corus Grandmaster Group C starting next Saturday.

More proof was to be found in the first round of the 7th Parsvnath tournament in New Delhi: nine-year-old Hetul Shah defeated Nurlan Ibrayev from Kazachstan. Shah now holds the official record for the youngest player ever to beat a GM in a standard tournament game. In 1999, David Howell (in Corus C this year too!), then eight, defeated John Nunn in London, but that was a blitz game.





MS Gopakumar, FA, Deputy Chief Arbiter, writes:

Hetul Shah was a class act on Sunday afternoon as he not only recorded his biggest victory but also ensured a name in the record books. While it was confirmed late in the day that Hetul is the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster, he, at the same time, bettered the Indian record set up by Parimarjan Negi by more than a year. Parimarjan had beaten Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in a Biel open and was thus far the youngest ever to beat a Grandmaster from India. That feat was achieved way back in 2004 when Parimarjan was 11 years old. Hetul, at 9 years and six months has won his place in history of the game.

The second round saw another upset: O. T. Anil Kumar, rated 2207, defeated top seeded Ukranian Alexander Areshchenko (2673):



Links:

• Tournament website
• Detailed results and standings