Grandmaster Koneru Humpy's crucial victory helped last-minute entrant Indian women's team settle for a 2-2 draw with Ukraine in the first round of the ongoing World Women Team Chess Championship in Mardin, Turkey.
Grandmaster D Harika scored the only win of the day for the side as India edged past Greece 2.5-1.5 in the seventh round to stay in medal contention in the World women team chess championship in Mardin, Turkey.
WGM Mary Ann Gomes defeated IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB to move into sole lead after the ninth round of the 38th National Women's chess championship in Chennai on Monday.
Padmini Rout's unbeaten run was halted by top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the eighth round of the LIC World Junior Chess Championships, at the Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Tuesday. After a day's rest, the girls' section was dominated by the higher-rated Russians in the fray, with Daria Pustovoitova defeating Anna Iwanow of Poland. Both the Russian girls and Anna Iwanow of Peru jointly lead the girls' section in the 77-player event with 6.5 points each.
India's chances of a medal went up in smoke as the team crashed to a heavy loss against Georgia in the seventh round of the World Women's Team Chess Championship in Chengdu, China.
India's Padmini Rout scored an impressive victory with plenty of fireworks to maintain her joint lead in the Girls section but favourite Viddit Santosh Gujrathi suffered a shock loss in the sixth round of the LIC World Junior Chess championship in Pune.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand continued to struggle in his first open tournament in 23 years as he suffered a shock defeat at the hands of French Grandmaster Adrien Demuth in the fifth round of the masters section of Gibraltar chess festival in Gibraltar on Sunday.
Padmini Rout is well-placed along with four foreigners atop of the points' table after seven rounds in the LIC World Junior Chess Championships, being played at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune. With six rounds left in the tough 13-round Swiss league event, the players in both sections are tightly bunched, making the hunt for the title quite open.
Grandmaster Sahaj Grover failed to capitalise on his chances and played out a draw with Iranian Pouya Idani, while Vidit Gujrathi defeated Polish Marcel Kanarek to be jointly third after the eighth round of the World Junior Chess Championship in Kocaeli, Turkey.
Avinash Sable's national mark headlines strong showing in IGP 2
China's Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi emphatically exhibited their rising chess prowess with convincing victories over Russians Vladimir Fedoseev, the top seed, and Mikhail Antipov, in the 10th round of the World Junior Chess Championships at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Thursday. The victories ensured that the Chinese maintained joint-leader status with eight points each.
Lesser-fancied Indians again stole limelight in the LIC World Junior Chess Championships, being played at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Friday. Nandhidhaa PV created a sensation in the fifth round, upsetting IM Meri Arabidze of Georgia, who is rated and titled higher than her, while 15-year-old Maria Ivana Furtado shocked Nguyen Thi Mai Hung to emerge joint leaders.
Dronavalli Harika and Koneru Humpy came up with fine individual performances to win a silver and a bronze, respectively.
Lesser-known Indian players continued to impress, while the fancied struggled to score, even as overseas Grandmasters took charge in the third round of the World Junior Chess Championships, being played at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Wednesday. S L Narayanan was one of the early finishers, holding second seed and super GM Robin Van Kampen (2641) to a draw, while 10-year-old Nihal Sarin's impressive display again won him many admirers after he held Balazs CSonka (2409) to a draw to remain unbeaten after three encounters against opponents rated higher than 2400.
After the first game against the same opponent ended in a draw, Harika was with black pieces in the second and she employed a French defence and Kosteniuk did not have many answers.
Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna beat Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in his eighth round tie in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand continued to struggle with his form as he lost to 16-year old International Master Benjamin Gledura of Hungary in the seventh round of the Masters section of Gibraltar International Chess festival
Continuing his dream run, Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta held higher-ranked compatriot Pentala Harikrishna to a draw, while Viswanathan Anand kept himself in contention with an easy victory, in the sixth round of the masters section of the Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Festival in Gibraltar, on Monday.
Grandmaster and former national champion B Adhiban crashed through the defences of former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria to remain in joint lead in the Masters section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival.
Former Under-14 world champion and Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi won the bronze medal in the World Junior Chess Championship after settling for a quick draw with winner Yu Yangyi of China in the 13th and final round that concluded in Kocaeli, Turkey.
Indian Grandmaster S P Sethuraman came back into the reckoning for top honours after defeating Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland in the seventh round of the World Junior Chess Championship in Kocaeli.
Indian Grandmasters Vidit Gujarathi and Sahaj Grover maintained a clean slate, defeating Tomas Laurusas of Lithuania and Vyacheslav Lozhnikov of Kazakhstan respectively in the second round of the World Junior Chess Championship in Kocaeli, Turkey.
S L Narayanan, a regular visitor to Pune for the Maharashtra Chess League, has a reputation for shocking seeded players. On Thursday, in the fourth round of the LIC World Junior Chess championships, at the Hotel Hyatt, the teenager from Kerala played true to his reputation and stunned Polish Grandmaster Kamil Dragun.
Lu Shanglei of China defeated Aleksander Indjic of Serbia and was crowned World junior chess champion at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Sunday. In the girls' section, 16-year-old Alexandra Goryachkina successfully defended her title with a round to spare on Saturday.
India had a disappointing outing at the 43rd Chess Olympiad with the men's team finishing a poor sixth and the women ending their campaign at a lowly eighth spot, in Batumi, on Friday.
The Indian men and women missed out on the podium by a whisker as they finished fourth in both the categories at the World Team Chess Championships, in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand made a disappointing start to his campaign at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in Gibraltar after he was held to a draw by International Master Szidonia Lazarne Vajda of Hungary in the opening round of the masters section.
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand shrugged off his first round draw to score a resounding victory over Matthias Bach of Germany in the second round of the Masters section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess festival, in Gibraltar, on Thursday.
Indian Grandmaster P Harikrishna started his campaign by outclassing Eric De Haan of Holland in the first round of the Masters' section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess festival at the Caleta in Gibraltar.
Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni and Grandmaster S P Sethuraman made history, winning the gold medal in the Asian Continental Women's and Open chess championship that concluded in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
P V Sindhu opens her campaign in the China Open women's singles against Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia, in Fuzhou, China, on Tuesday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Indian Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and S P Sethuraman placed themselves for a medal contention as they defeated Jorge Cori of Peru and Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus respectively in the 12th and penultimate round of World Juniors Chess Championship.