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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'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'
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.
Vaishali fell behind early and could not catch up against Gunina, who had finished runner-up in the first leg.
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.
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.
The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on his Twitter page
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
International Master Magesh Chandran and Woman International Master Dronavalli Harika continued to hold fort in Sri Lanka.
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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
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
India wasted a winning start as they drew with Vietnam in the second round of the Women's Chess Olympiad
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.
Dronavali Harika finished second in the women's championship.
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.
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