Koneru Humpy defeated lowly placed Zeinab Mamedjarova of Azerbaijan to stay in title race as Zhao Xue of China defeated overnight leader and compatriot Yifan Hao to emerge on top after the eighth round of the Is Bank Ataturk women's Grand Prix chess tournament in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Thirteen teams have now qualified for the last 32 including Bayer Leverkusen, FC Zurich and Lazio who had already secured places in the next stage of the competition.
World champion Viswanathan Anand opened his campaign with a thumping win over Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan to take the sole lead after the first round of the 22nd Magistral Ciudad de Linares Chess tournament in Linares.
Professional soccer leagues around Europe are gearing up for a return to action following the novel coronavirus stoppage, but some are more advanced than others.
Viswanathan Anand's incredible winless streak continues unabated as the World Champion played out yet another draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan to slip to the joint fifth spot in the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in Bilbao, Spain.
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.
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.
Contrary to the common assumption that Muslims view globalisation as a threat to their society, a new poll has revealed that majority of people adhering to the Islamic faith view the phenomenon positively.Conducted in seven nations with predominantly Muslim populations in different regions of the world, the poll found 63 per cent of the people favouring globalisation for their countries, while only 25 per cent viewing it as bad.
Asian Games gold medallist Jitu Rai has been recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for his exploits in pistol shooting in the last two years although he couldn't win a medal in the Rio Olympics. "Yes, we have recommended Jitu's name for Khel Ratna award," National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary Rajiv Bhatia said. NRAI has also recommended woman rifle shooter Apurvi Chanela and men rifle shooters Gurpreet Singh and PN Prakash for the Arjuna Awards, according to Bhatia.
In a solid start, the Indian ace started off with as many as six drawn games and ended with three decisive games in a row. But for his loss against Fabiano Caruana of United States in the previous round, the Indian ace could have been at the helm in the strongest chess tournament of the year.
World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand came up with an inspired performance to outplay Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France
Olympic medallist Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal entered the semi-finals of the Indonesia Masters' tournament after a straight-game win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.
World champion Viswanathan Anand crushed Vladimir Kramnik in the blindfold section and romped home with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the crucial eighth round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament, in Nice, France on Monday.
Rifle shooter Chain Singh became the seventh Indian marksman to clinch an Olympic quota place after finishing eighth in the 50m Rifle 3 Position event of the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, on Friday.
Both Anand and Sethuraman inched themselves up to five points out of a possible seven and shared the joint eighth spot after a rather dull day that witnessed several draws on the top tables.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Indian boxers will return empty-handed from the World Championships for the first time in four years after none of their five quarter-finalists made it to the semi-finals in the biennial mega-event, in Almaty, Kazkakhastan, on Wednesday. After the defeats of fourth seed Shiva Thapa (56kg) and sixth seed Manoj Kumar in the afternoon, Vikash Malik (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also lost their quarter-final bouts in the evening session.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was stunned by Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the fourth round of the Bilbao Grand Slam final chess tournament in Bilbao.
IMAGES from the Euro 2020 qualifiers played on Thursday
Harry Kane's injury-time goal gave England a 2-2 draw after a crazy finish to their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday with Leigh Griffiths having struck twice for the home side in the final three minutes.
World champion Viswanathan Anand thumped Shakhriayar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan to register his second straight rapid game victory in the second round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Nice. With nine rounds still to go, Anand is now sitting pretty at the top in rapid along with Levon Aronian of Armenia on two points each after two wins with black pieces.
Thirty-two countries, ranging from Finland and Sweden to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Kazakhstan, have declared interest in hosting matches at Euro 2020 which will be staged across the continent.
Arsenal enjoyed a 3-0 win in Azerbaijan against Qarabag in the Europa League on Thursday and AC Milan beat Greece's Olympiakos Piraeus 3-1 but Sevilla suffered a shock defeat by Russians Krasnodar.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg) and Asian Games bronze-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) will spearhead a nine-strong Indian team at the AIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, starting June 16, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A final round draw was enough for Goa's Ivana Furtado to bag the girls under-eight category gold, while fellow Indians Shalmali Gagare and Prince Bajaj bagged a bronze each in the World Youth Chess Championships in Antalya, Turkey.
The Indian juggernaut seemed unstoppable as four boxers, including Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg), advanced to the quarter-finals with impressive victories.
International Master D Harika is the second Indian girl to emerge Junior World champion. Koneru Humpy won the crown in 2001.
He became the first Indian pugilist to qualify for next year's Beijing Olympics after he defeated European silver medallist Shahin Imranov to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.
World chess champion Viswanathan Anand asserted his supremacy at the Morelia-Linares tournament for the second time on the trot after settling for a facile draw with Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 14th and final round in Linares. Anand ended this category-21 tournament with 8.5 points and finished a half point clear of nearest rival Magnus Carlsen of Norway who played a draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in his last game.
It is the diamond in Africa and Russia that is dazzling India these days. India is planning joint ventures with diamond mining companies across Russia, Africa and the CIS nations.
Indian boxer Gaurav Bidhuri (52kg) is fast making a name for himself at the International Boxing Association's semi-professional World Series of Boxing, churning out three consecutive wins for his franchise Italia Thunder in the ongoing season.
Reigning world rapid champion Viswanathan Anand drew his sixth straight game of the tournament to stay undefeated and have a mid-table placing at number four with three points.
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.
Unable to break through the solid defenses of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by the Azerbaijani in the second round of the Group 'A' of Corus International Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.
Rude defeats for World champion Viswanthan Anand and fellow Grandmaster Koneru Humpy summed up a pathetic day for the Indians in the first round of Corus Chess tournament.
Grandmaster P Harikrishna was held to a draw by GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in the fifth round of the 50th edition of Reggio Emilia International Chess tournament in Italy.
Grandmaster P Harikrishna got the better of David Navara's defence and tamed the Czech to leapfrog to the lead after the fourth round of the 50th Reggio Emilia Chess tournament.
Maverick striker Mario Balotelli has been called up by Italy for the first time since the World Cup in June after being included on Sunday in the squad for next weekend's Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Croatia.
International Master Martin Breutigam, a longtime contributor to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, accused Topalov of soliciting help from his manager Silvio Danailov through gestures and signals during some of the games.
