The battle lines for the much-awaited November 9-28 World Chess Championship between World No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway and defending champion Viswanathan Anand in Chennai are drawn.
Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against world No 2 Fabiano Caurana of Italy in the first round of Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden, Germany. Playing his first tournament after winning the London Classic, the five-times world champion was pleasantly surprised as Caruana went for the Italian opening with white that does not find many followers in top level chess.
According to sources at CAB, the security clearance did not come a day ahead of the historic match between India and Bangladesh in Kolkata.
The fact that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa approved an expenditure of Rs 29 crore for the World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Norway's Magnus Carlsen to be held here points to the significance the event has for the state government.
"The crucial moment was the win against Magnus Carlsen, because he had come back after a defeat against Bu Xiangzhi. He seemed to be in great form, as always.
It was a huge drama on the opening day as World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway lost on time from a winning position in the longest game of the day.
World champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Boris Gelfand of Israel in the fourth round of Tal Memorial chess tournament in Moscow.
India chess captain Vidit Gujrathi shared a memory of beating the legendary Viswanathan Anand for the first time and termed it as a special moment of his career.
'When I started my first game on Day 3 I did not imagine I would be at the top. My hope was to reach top three. I didn't expect to play the tie-break games'
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand failed to press hard with his white pieces and had to settle for a draw with Michael Adams of England in the first round of the London Chess Classic that got underway in London.
With Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen eyeing his numero uno tag, World champion Viswanathan Anand, his pre-tournament favourite tag notwithstanding, just cannot afford to lower his guard in the Grand Slam Chess Final Masters starting in Bilbao, Spain, on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
India captain Virat Kohli embellished the pink-ball Test with a sparkling century and his quick bowlers reduced Bangladesh to 152-6 as the hosts closed on a 2-0 series sweep on day two of the second and final Test.
World champion Viswanathan Anand put an end to two straight losses and settled for an easy draw with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the seventh round of Tal memorial chess tournament in Moscow.
World champion Viswanthan Anand's poor run continued as he suffered his second straight loss, succumbing to American Hikaru Nakamura in the sixth round of the Tal memorial Chess Tournament in Moscow.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with black against local star Anish Giri but slipped to joint second spot after the sixth round of Tata Steel Chess tournament, in Wijk Aan Zee, on Saturday.
Viswanathan Anand continued his roller-coaster ride in the London Chess Classic as he went down to Russian Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in the sixth round.
World champion Viswanathan Anand split points with Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to share the third spot in Group A at the end of the Corus International Chess tournament on Monday.
Chess grandmasters resume COVID-delayed tournament in Russia
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday.
Amid apprehension that the World Chess Championship title contest between reigning champion Magnus Carlsen and former winner Vishwanathan Anand could be postponed, the Indian ace is hoping the rematch would go ahead.
Vladimir Kramnik with a tally of five points won the Dortmund title for the eighth time in his career.
Chess ace Viswanathan Anand termed losing just one game at the World Blitz Championship in Riyadh as a huge achievement after capturing the title at the World Rapid event.
He played out a fighting draw with Peter Svidler to remain in joint lead along with Magnus Carlsen.
The Indian closed the first half of the Morelia Linares chess on a winning note with a thumping win over Peter Leko in the seventh round.
Organizers of the World Chess Championship sued on Monday to block a trio of website operators from broadcasting chess moves at the November 11-30 match in New York, which is expected to draw millions of online viewers.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand began his campaign in the Zurich Chess Challenge on a losing note, beaten by Armenia's Levon Aronian in the first round.
Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand bounced back from his fourth round loss and beat his former world championship challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria on Wednesday in the fifth round of London Chess Classic, the concluding edition of the Grand Chess Tour.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, with a double black, suffered a surprising first round loss at the hands of Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the Sinquefield Cup, in St Louis, the United States.
A group led by English soccer star David Beckham unveiled plans on Monday to build a 25,000-seat soccer stadium on Miami's waterfront for the Major League Soccer team he will own, but the proposal is already facing some opposition.
Five-time world champion Viswanthan Anand continued his fine form and crashed through the defences of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan to notch up his second successive win in the Candidates Chess tournament in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
World champion Magnus Carlsen became the first chess player ever to hold three world championship crowns as he handsomely won the blitz title too with a remarkable 17 points.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand scored a thumping victory over French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to jump to joint-second after the end of the sixth round in the Norway Chess tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Top seed Ivan Ljubicic was the only seed to reach the quarter-finals of the Zagreb indoor tournament
After winning the first game, India's World junior champion drew the second of the two-game mini match in Lausanne Young Masters International Chess tournament .
After soaking in the pressure and being immersed in preparation for months, defending champion Viswanathan Anand on Saturday said he felt relieved that his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen finally got underway but his rival was not too pleased with first day's proceedings.
Anand, who had finished third in the penultimate leg in Bucharest, concluded with a seventh-place finish
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Viswanathan Anand on Saturday said the pressure of expectations of playing at home in the last World Chess Championships in Chennai was not a factor but pointed out that he made a few mistakes against Magnus Carlsen, which eventually cost him the world title last November.