Anish Giri, 14, makes his final GM norm

by ChessBase
1/31/2009 – Who is the world's youngest grandmaster? The correct answer, as of today, is Anish Giri, a Nepalese-Russian lad who lives in Holland. Anish completed his final GM norm on Saturday by beating GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. The lad is 14 years, 7 months and two days old – a pleasantly precocious, independent, quadrolingual lad. We have some great Wijk aan Zee pictures by John Nunn.

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Anish Giri, 14, makes his final GM norm


The fresh new grandmaster: Anish Giri, 14, minutes after the game that brought him the final norm:

Iturrizaga,E (2528) - Giri,A (2469) [D12]
Corus C Wijk aan Zee NED (11), 30.01.2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Bd2 Nbd7 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Qc2 Bd6 10.h3 0-0 11.0-0-0 Qe7 12.g4 dxc4 13.g5 Nd5 14.h4 c5 15.Nxd5 exd5 16.Bg2 cxd4 17.exd4 Nb6 18.h5 c3 19.bxc3 Ba3+ 20.Kb1 Qd6 21.Rh4 Nc4 22.Bf4 Qb6+ 23.Qb3 Qc6 24.Rdh1 Rfe8 25.Bc1 Rad8 26.hxg6 fxg6 27.Qc2 Bxc1 28.Qxc1

28...Re2 29.Rh8+ Kf7 30.Rxd8 Qb6+ 31.Ka1 Qxd8 32.Qb1 Qd7 33.Bf1 Na3 34.Qd3 Rxf2 35.Bh3 Qe7 36.Rf1 Rxf1+ 37.Qxf1+ Ke8 38.Qc1 Nc4 39.Qb1

39...Qxg5. 39...Qe3 threatening ...Qxc3 and mate would have been faster. 40.Qb5+ Kf8 41.Qb4+ Qe7 42.Kb1 Qxb4+ 43.cxb4 and Black is two pawns up. Anish goes on to win the endgame in convincing fashion: 43...Ke7 44.Kc2 Nd6 45.Kd3 Nf5 46.a4 Ke6 47.Bg4 g5 48.Bh5 Ne7 49.Bg4+ Kd6 50.b5 b6 51.Ke3 g6 52.Bh3 Nf5+ 53.Kd3 Nh6 54.Ke3 g4 55.Bf1 Nf5+ 56.Kd3 g3 57.Bh3 g5 0-1.


Tell me all about yourself. Frederic Friedel of ChessBase talking to Anish

This is what we found out in the press room: Anish Giri is of Russian-Nepalese extraction. He was born in St Petersburg on June 28, 1994. His mother is Russian, his father Nepalese. The family now lives in Holland. Anish speaks four languages: best of all Russian (his "mother tongue"), English (fluent and clear), Japanese (he lived there with his family for some years), and Nepalese (but "just a little", he says with an embarrassed smile). What about Dutch? He is learning it – after all he now lives in Holland, doesn't he? Anish is very computer literate and know how to operated the latest software competently. We invited him to come to Hamburg to learn the final database tricks. "Maybe you will learn something from him," said one of his friends mischievously.


We are going to have to watch his enormously talented kid

While we are at it, here are some more pictures taken by our "rooky photographer", Dr John Nunn, using his beloved Canon EOS 40D and a bounce flash in the press room.


Nigel Short, who had just won his 11th round game with black against..


Czech GM David Navara, whose eyes are synchronised to close when a flash goes off


Nigel (green arrow) and Mickey Adams: the two top British players chat after the round


Leinier Dominguez, who quite sensationally beat the leader Levon Aronian in round eleven


Daniel Stellwagen drew his game with black against his Dutch GM colleague...


Jan Smeets, who is at 50% in Group A, playing 117 points above his nominal rating


German GM Jan Gustafsson, who assisting Jan Smeets as a second


Manuel Leon Hoyos, Mexico's most talented young GM


Tiger Hillarp Persson, who surprisingly lost to Ali Bitalzadeh and relinquished the lead in Group C


Frederic Friedel talking to GM Hans Ree, who writes very interesting articles on chess


Just testing: the bounce flash on the EOS 40D works perfectly, even in a fish restaurant


A picture of the the night sky, taken with John's camera

It is quite remarkable what digitals cameras are able to do these days. The above picture shows the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, and its satellite galaxies M32 and M110. It was taken with the Canon 40D bolted to the top of the telescope and a 300mm camera lens (the telescope optics were not used, just the tracking motor). The exposure lasted two minutes.

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