Negi rues narrow miss
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi on Tuesday rued his narrowly missing third title in a row after losing the World Open Chess tournament tie-breaker in Philadelphia, saying he paid the price of not taking the play off seriously.
Negi had finished joint first with three others but according to rules, top two scorers of progressive points had to fight play off to decide the title winner.
Negi played in the tie-breaker against Russian GM Evgeny Najer, who had white pieces, in the Armaegeddon play off, which provides two minutes less for the player with black pieces.
“I am overall happy but I should have taken the tie-breaker a bit more seriously. That was a blunder on my part,” Negi said.
The 15-year-old youngest Indian GM also said playing two rounds every day at a stretch was a bit exhausting.
“It (tournament) had two rounds per day which was very intense,” he said.
Negi, who is expecting to be around Elo 2574 from Elo 2529 after three top finishes, said he wanted to continue playing at the level henceforth.
“In 8-10 games during my last tournament, I have lost only one game. I am taking my games more seriously and concentrating more.
“I took some time to hit form, actually two years after becoming the Grandmaster. I had almost same rating in that period. But I have to continue playing at this level.
“After this 2600 will be another level,” said Negi, who is also at a critical juncture in his academics being a class X student.
