Indian Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and teen prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa took a big step towards a spot in the fourth round of FIDE Chess World Cup in Sochi
The Indian team includes country's number two Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy. B Adhiban and D Harika are the the reserves members. The field for the event includes six former world champions, plus 12 others who have been Candidates to the throne at some point.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand will lead India's charge at the online Nations Cup beginning on Tuesday, where some of the world's best players will face off amid the coronavirus pandemic which has thrown the sporting calendars out of gear. The six-team event, touted to the richest online team tournament, features all the big names in the game with World champion Magnus Carlsen being the only big gun missing from the line-up.
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 Friday.
In the women's section being held simultaneously, the Indians came back strongly to beat Poland 3-1 aided by victories from D Harika and Tania Sachdev on board two and three. Its surprising that Tania Sachdev was rested in the previous round when the Indian team drew with Serbia, losing on last two boards.
Any player with a Chess.com blitz or FIDE standard rating of under 2000 could play with former world champion Anand by donating US$150 and with the other four GMs by paying US$25 as registration amount.
Meanwhile in the women's event, Padmini Rout and R Vaishali joined compatriot Bhakti Kulkarni in the second round.
Mountaineer Bachendri Pal was, on Friday, conferred with the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, while Gautam Gambhir, BajranG Punia and Sunil Chhetri, among others, received the Padma Shri.
The seasoned Anand beat Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in just 17 moves in a fifth round match. But India were held to a 2-2 draw by Russia in the ongoing Online Nations Cup.
Adhiban will face the winner of the match between Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Alexander Fier, who play the tiebreak on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lavished praise on Indian chess players, including former World champion Vishwanathan Anand, for coming up with an "innovative" way to raise funds for the country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Five leading players Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and B Adhiban, Koneru Humpy and Dharika, alongside Anand had participated in an online chess exhibition and helped raise Rs 4.5 lakh for the PM-CARES Fund.
In the women section being held alongside, Indian women played out a hard-fought draw against experienced Georgia 1 team. All the games were drawn.
The world rapid champion Humpy got the better of Russian 6-5 to set up a last four clash with world No.1 Hou Yifan of China.
Krishnan Sasikiran guided Indian men to a 2.5-1.5 win over Czech Republic but the women's team suffered a shocking 1-3 defeat against Hungary in the eighth round of the 43rd chess Olympiad, in Batumi, on Tuesday.
India men's team's medal chances took a hit as Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran lost a crucial match which resulted in Indian men's team shock defeat at the hands of eighth seeded Armenia in the ninth round of the 43rd Chess Olympiad in Batumi.
Vaishali fell behind early and could not catch up against Gunina, who had finished runner-up in the first leg.
'It will be special. Looking forward to going to a world championship match without the tension of playing. I am a chess fan too and hope it will be a good match'
FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich said the chess world was moving online which would help the sport reach its full potential.
China won the top prize on the basis of having won the round-robin stage.
Back to the Olympiad after a gap of 12 years, Anand was precise in calculation and brilliant in judgement giving away nothing to Ragger who was all at sea defending a difficult position out of the opening on Tuesday evening.
The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on his Twitter page
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.
Indian Grandmasters Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Adhiban Baskaran registered wins in the first game of the two-game mini match in the second round of the FIDE chess World Cup in Sochi on Thursday.
Indian women drubbed Mongolia to climb to the joint top position while their male counterparts slipped to the fourth spot with a shocking defeat at the hands of lower-rated Philippines after the fifth round of the chess competitions in the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Monday.
Indian men's chess team, led by five-time world champion Vishwanathan Anand, played a 2-2 draw against the Russian squad in the sixth round of the ongoing 43rd Chess Olympiad, in Batumi, on Sunday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand and India cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal among others took part in an online chess charity event, raising Rs 8.8 lakh for the waste pickers' community fighting the coronavirus pandemic. "Chess For Charity", held on Saturday on chess.com, saw India No.1 Anand, No. 2 Vidit Gujrathi, Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev and Croatia's Antonio Radic take on a team of comedians comprising Biswa Kalyan Rath, Samay Raina, Abhishek Upamanyu and Aakash Mehta.
International Master Magesh Chandran and Woman International Master Dronavalli Harika continued to hold fort in Sri Lanka.
Despite impressive wins by D harika and Eesha Karavade, the Indian women's team was forced to settle for a draw against Armenia in the opening round of World Women's team chess championship in Ningbo, China, on Wednesday.
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.
With Viswanathan Anand resting, the Indian team managed to hold their own against the favourites before Yu Yangyi subdued B Adhiban with black pieces to secure another victory in the tournament.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
India wasted a winning start as they drew with Vietnam in the second round of the Women's Chess Olympiad
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
Dronavali Harika finished second in the women's championship.
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.
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.
