Malmo: GM Parimarjan Negi of India suffered his second consecutive loss at the Sigeman & Co. International Chess tournament, going down in the fourth round to IM Pontus Carlsson to fall to ninth place.

Negi opted for the Sicilian Defence and Pontus decided to play a solid line. He handled the early middle game with masterly strategic play and slowly got a stranglehold on black’s position.

Negi tried to change the pace of the game, but Carlsson countered the attempts with tactical precision.

Negi’s desire to sharpen the position proved to be his undoing, as he lost a pawn and found himself in a losing position by move 22. He did his best to get back into the game, but Carlsson went on to score an emphatic win in 37 moves.

Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov scored the quickest victory of the day, beating IM Emil Hermansson of Sweden in just 25 moves. (PTI)