GiLoCatur Met GM Negi!

What an encounter GiLoCatur had on Monday afternoon at around quarter to 4.00pm. Yes, GiLoCatur met with one of Indian young chess talents and prodigies, GM Negi Parimarjan in person. Just yesterday, GiLoCatur wrote an entry about him. SO UNBELIEVABLE! Even GiLoCatur had a chance to have a short and spontaneous interview with him together with Hairulov and his Nusa Mahkota teammate, Aziz.

GiLoCatur (right) with GM Negi Parimarjan from India.

The wonderful moment GiLoCatur recorded with a picture with him. Surely, meeting a chess wonder kid like him who holds the record of being the second youngest ever to be granted a GM title before he was 14 years old is a great moment for a chess lover and fan like GiLoCatur.

A renown Malaysian chess blogger, Mr Hairulov of http://hairulovchessmaniacs.blogspot.com/, interviewing GM Negi Parimarjan who is participating in the 6th edition of Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open held in Cititel Hotel.

Below are some of the interview questions (not in order):

GiLoCatur : Which game do you prefer? rapid or classical?

GM Negi : Classical

GiLoCatur : How many Grandmasters India currently has?

GM Negi : ... about 20 ... 19 ...

Aziz : When did you start playing chess?

GM Negi : When I was about 4 years old.

Hairulov : Who is your chess idol?

GM Negi : Viswanathan Anand

Hairulov : Do you know Mas Hafizul?

GM Negi : Yes. I played him twice before. I lost one then I drew one.

(GiLoCatur does not put all the interview questions as to let Hairulov write about them.)

Actually, GiLoCatur, from an observation, was amazed with the fact that GM Negi has a very sharp memory (isn't this very important to a chess player?). And also he seems well prepared with questions like that. He could remember well how many times he has played with his opponent, in this case our own IM Mas. Even he knows well his opponent as he is very aware of the International Master (IM) title Mas Hafizul holds (Doesn't this tell that he makes well preparation for his game and opponent). He also knows how many GMs his country has.

In fact, the answer of 19 is surely correct. India has as July 2009, 19 Grandmasters. Do you know who is India's first Grandmaster? The answer is non other than the world champ himself, Viswanathan Anand. And how many Woman Grandmasters does India have? The answer is 11 and 17 WIMs are attempting to become one. (Mr Google has led GiLoCatur to this indianchess.blogspot link). GiLoCatur believes if we ask our young chess players how many IMs, FMs, or WIMs our country has, many might not give the correct answer.

Aziz also took the opportunity to have a picture with the future world champion ... who knows!

Best of luck! from GiLoCatur to GM Negi Parimarjan in the tournament and hope to enjoy his visit in Malaysia. Getting into round 5 on Tuesday morning at 9.00am, GM Negi is currently ranked 15th after four rounds with 3 points after winning the first two rounds and drew both the third and fourth rounds. He will play black on the sixth board againts WIM Zhang Xiaowen, the 25th seed in round 5.

Terima kasih or Thank you for spending your valuable time having pictures and short interview with us.