Hetul makes history after upsetting Kazakh GM
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, January 11, 2009
Nine-year old Hetul Shah made history in the first round of the 7th Parsvnath International Open chess tournament defeating Grandmaster Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan, in New Delhi on Sunday.
Shah betterd Parimarjan Negi’s record of being the youngest Indian to beat a GM by more than a year. Negi was 11 years old when he beat Grandmaster Ivan Nemet in the Biel Open in 2004.
The first round also turned out well for other Indians with six-time national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Negi, GMs Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua starting with victories. Ganguly, who lead the Indian contingent, made short work of compatriot Niraj Saripalli while Kunte got past DK Chopra and Barua defeated Dinesh Kumar Gupta.
Negi had to work a little harder before beating Vasanta Wettasinha of Sri Lanka.
In the other boards, top seed Grandmaster Areshchenko Alexander of Ukraine opened his campaign with an easy win over India’s Dasharathi Sahoo.
Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com
Will he be the next Anand?
Our American records are not all that bad.
On April 5th, 1998 – Hikaru Nakamura defeated GM Arthur Bisguier in an official tournament – at the age of 10 years 117 days.
http://www.nscfchess.org/nscfhikb.htm
And on September 28th, 2002 – Fabiano Caruana, at the New York September Open, surpassed the Hikaru Nakamura record by defeating GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz – at the age of 10 years 61 days.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=959
Caruana is not American.
1. I think UK’s Luke McShane beat a GM at a a very young age, too.
2. Caruana:
And, Wikipedia: “Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992 in Miami, Florida) is a 16-year-old chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States – he plays for Italy.”
“he plays for Italy.”
Which pretty much tells how he declares himself.
Where’s the game?
Congratulations to Hetul Shah in his victory over GM Nurlan Ibrayev!! Unfortunately the claim that, “9 year old breaks record by beating GM”, is incorrect.
In Washington, DC, the year 1994, at the US Chess Center, John Mehler (at 8 months of age) and Sarah Mehler (at two years of age) “defeated” GM Vladimir Epishin. As you can see below the tournament was rated by the United States Chess Federation (USCF).
Event Summary
Event: SARAH’S TRIANGLE (199412266300)
Location: WASHINGTON, DC 20005 USA
Event Date(s): 1994-12-01 thru 1994-12-26
Sponsoring Affiliate: METRO CHESS (A6008645)
Chief TD: SAM BISBEY (12470534)
Processed: Received: 1995-01-03 Entered: 1995-01-12 Rated: 1995-01-18
Stats: 1 Section(s), 3 Players
Section 1 – (unnamed)
Section Date(s) 1994-12-01 thru 1994-12-26
Processed Received: 1995-01-03 Entered: 1995-01-12 Rated: 1995-01-18
Stats 6 Rounds, 3 Players; K Factor: F Rating Sys: R Tnmt Type: S
Pair | Player Name |Total|Round|Round|Round|Round|Round|Round|
Num | USCF ID / Rtg (Pre->Post) | Pts | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 |
———————————————————————————
1 | SARAH G MEHLER |3.0 |W 3|U 0|D 2|W 3|U 0|D 2|
MD | 12575482 / R: Unrated->2538P4 | | | | | |
———————————————————————————
2 | JOHN A MEHLER |3.0 |U 0|W 3|D 1|U 0|W 3|D 1|
MD | 12638759 / R: Unrated->2538P4 | | | | | |
———————————————————————————
3 | VLADIMIR EPISHIN |0.0 |L 1|L 2|U 0|L 1|L 2|U 0|
| 12528452 / R: 2650 ->2608 | | | | | |
Of course this was an impossible feat, but there was, (as you can see above), an official tournament report signed and submitted to the USCF; and the USCF processed it. However, the USCF did not process the official, signed tournament report without question.
On December 22, 2004, while under oath in deposition, David Mehler, (father of Sarah and John), said that after the report was submitted, he received a call from the USCF questioning the results. Mehler said that in the telephone conversation he asked the USCF, “Was the report submitted?” He (Mehler) said that the USCF answered yes. Mehler said he then asked, “Was the report signed?” He (Mehler) said the USCF answered yes. Mehler said he then told them that they had to process the report, and they did.
Thus according to the USCF’s current records, Sarah and John Mehler are the youngest to ever “defeat” a GM.
Mehler also admitted, while under oath in deposition that he had “arranged” for GM Epishin to lose to his children in the tournament.
One would think that it was a very, very bad joke but this was nothing but fraud when you consider that the Chief TD who signed the reports is an accountant who works at the US Department of Justice. The fraud is even more outstanding when you consider that just one year prior to “Sarah’s Triangle”, Mehler had “arranged” to have current GM Alex Sherzer lose to his daughter Sarah who was one year old at the time. Sarah ended up with the highest provisional rating in chess history with a USCF rating of 3019.
(You can confirm the tournaments and ratings via the USCF website.)
I checked Vladimir Epishin’s tournament history and no “Sarah’s Triangle” in January, 1995 is listed.
I thought maybe this isn’t true, who would really try and pull such disgusting fraud using his children?
But then I looked closely at Epishin’s rating: it drops from 2650 to 2608 between the National Chess Congress in November, 1994 and the New York Open in April of 1995, yet no tournament has been played between them!
I guess the USCF got embarassed and deleted the bogus “Sarah’s Triangle”, but couldn’t go back and redo all the ratings for Epishin’s games, so they left it, giving proof that Mehler really did attempt such arrogant nonsense.
Speaking of Mehler, not only does it look like he arranged to cheat for his children, but his own game history looks very suspicious. He hasn’t played anyone decent in the past twenty years (except for one expert on his payroll that he drew against). Everyone else is 500, 900, 1300 rated etc. He has gained one point for each event! Perhaps in another 40 years he can eek his way to master.
Mehler arranged for these fantasy games against Epishin in order to demonstrate a flaw in the rating system at that time, a flaw that was evident when unrated players played really high rated players.
TO be fair, Mehler had been complaining about various flaws in the old rating formula and it was not until his children received the fantasy ratings that the flaws were fixed. Once that happened, the tournament result was removed from the system.