Dronavalli Harika stunned world champion Ju Wenjun in the third round to grab a share of the top spot in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix
Russian Andrey Rublev has become the fifth singles player to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin next month, the men's tour said.
R Praggnanandhaa emerged as unconquered king in the World Youth Chess Championship, in Mumbai, claiming the gold in the Under-18 Open category on Saturday.
Harika had carried the Indian hopes nicely till the tie-breaker of the third round. However, she got a jolt in the first game of the rapid tie-break where both players had 25 minutes on their clock.
World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand continued his fine run in the faster version of the game and annexed the Tal Memorial rapid chess title in Moscow after an easy final round draw against Boris Gelfand of Israel.
Serena Williams shook off some COVID-19 layoff rust to grind out a 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(0) win over Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus on Monday to move into the third round of the Western and Southern Open.
Indian wrestlers have been highly impressive at the global level in run up to the Tokyo Olympics and at least three of them are genuine medal contenders at the Games.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Canadian Grandmaster Anton Kovalyov to leave the Indian on the verge of an early exit at the FIDE Chess World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Anand played the Italian game with white pieces but could get little out of opening against Vituigov.
The Indian pair of Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan beat compatriots Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals of the Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Novak Djokovic took a first unsteady step toward completing the calendar-year Grand Slam on Tuesday as the Serb laboured into the second round of the US Open with a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-1 win over dashing Danish teenager Holger Rune.
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.
Steamrolls Dutch Rus to proceed to Round 2
He leads the men's seedings ahead of defending champ Roger Federer, with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov seeded third.
Fabiano Caruana of United States made sure of his maiden title after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland.
With his third victory in the event, Anand came back within striking distance of the leaders. His tally of six points out of ten is only one point less than Holland's Anish Giri, Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, all who have seven points apiece.
World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the ninth round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands. Settling for his sixth draw in nine games, Anand took his tally to five points and remains joint-sixth in the 14 players, 13-round tournament.
With his third draw in five games, the reigning world rapid champion remained in joint lead on 3.5 points and now shares the lead with Anish Giri of Holland and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.
On what turned out to be an easy day, Anand had to stretch himself only a little as Karjakin did not attempt any complicated warfare. The result was exchanging of pieces at regular intervals and the players signed peace in an opposite coloured Bishops endgame.
Top-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, wearing her national colors of blue and yellow, won on "a special night for me," beating Russia's Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday in the first round of the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Mexico.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand gave a fine endgame lesson to young Alireza Firouzja, jumping to joint sixth position at the end of 11th round of Tata Steel Masters, in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, on Saturday. With his second victory, Anand clawed his way back to a fifty percent score and will now hope to end the tournament on a high. At just 16 years, Firouzja is less than one third of Anand's age, and the Indian ace showed that the Iranian still has a lot to learn.
Alireza Firouzja remained in joint lead with Caruana on 5.5 points and these two are now ahead of Wesley So of United States and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland.
Poland's red-hot world number one Iga Swiatek did not drop a game in her Saturday singles match against Romania's Andreea Prisacariu, sending Poland through to November's Billie Jean King Cup finals in decisive fashion.
India's hopes in the Under-18 Open brightened as R Praggnanandhaa outclassed compatriot P Iniyan in the highly-anticipated battle between two Indian Grand Masters in the World Youth Chess Championship, in Mumbai.
News of all people and events who made news on Saturday.
Anand has been trying to play very complicated positions and the sixth round was no different.
It was on move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand squandered away a good start and could just end Day 1 on a fifty percent score after the end of the fifth round of World rapid chess championship in Berlin.
Back in chess just before the Olympiad after a nearly two-year hiatus, Humpy, who has been among the top women players for a long time, will now have to wait for another two years to have a go at the next world championship cycle.
Anand, as white, had simply an extra pawn and this is where the tenacity of Carlsen came to fore.
Anand moved to joint sixth spot with 2.5 points on a day that saw Firouzja Alireza scoring a sensational victory over super-solid Anish Giri of Holland.
Carlsen had previously indicated he would not consider the record truly broken until after two more games as he was not prepared to count two wins he had in the Norwegian league.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday.
India's Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw against Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia in the sixth round to remain static in third spot in the 10th Tal Memorial Chess tournament, in Moscow.
Grandmaster and former national champion B Adhiban was knocked out of the chess World Cup after losing his second game on the trot against higher-ranked Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the third round in Tromso, Norway.
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.
Grandmaster D Harika missed out on some chances to settle for a draw with Georgia's Sopiko Guramishvili, while Padmini Rout survived a scare before enforcing a draw with China's Tan Zhongyi in the first game of the third round of World Women's Chess Championship in Tehran.
Russia asks World Athletics to postpone decision on possible expulsion.
World No 1s Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber have been named top seeds for the first major of the season, Australian Open, which will commences on January 16.
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