World’s Youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi came back in to reckoning for top honours with a clinical victory over International Master Safarli Eltaz of Azerbaijan in the 8th round of World Youth Stars chess tournament here.
Negi was the lone winner of the day that witnessed as many as five draws. This was a good turnaround performance by the 14-year old after losing the previous game against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.
The win also helped Negi to bridge the gap between him and the leader as the Indian took his tally to 5.5 points to be joint second along with Zaven Andriasian of Armenia and these two are now half a point adrift of the leader.
Results (round 8): Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 5.5) bt Safarli Eltaz (Aze, 2.5); Eduard Gorovykh (Rus, 3) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 6); Ivan Popov (Rus, 3) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 4.5); Avetik Grigoryan (Arm, 5) drew with Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 5); Falko Bindrich (Ger, 2) drew with Daniil Lintchevsky (Rus, 3); Zaven Andriasian (Arm, 5.5) drew with Sergei Zhigalko (Blr, 3).