India's Dronavalli Harika defeated former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament in Riga to grab a share of the lead.
Former women's World champion Susan Polgar feels that the rising strength of Indian players makes them favourites to grab three out of the six medals at stake.
Having done all the hard work with spectacular results, Indian players would look to hold their nerves in the final dash to finish at the podium in the World Women Chess Team Championships, in Mardin, Turkey.
Top seed International Master Dronavalli Harika of Andhra Pradesh proved her supremacy when she won her maiden title in the 36th National Women's Premier Chess Championship in Chennai.
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand and five other leading Indian players will compete in an online chess exhibition on April 11 to raise funds for country's fight against COVID-19. The event will be streamed live on chess.com/tv, where all donations made will be sent to the PM's CARES Fund.
Dronavalli Harika and G Rohit all but confirmed individual Grandmaster norms after commendable performances in the eighth and penultimate round in the Aerolfot chess tournament.
Dronavalli Harika and S Vijayalakshmi also tasted success, beating Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian and GM Denis Khismatullin respectively in the Aeroflot International Chess tournament.
Dronavalli Harika proved her superiority in the endgame to outplay Anna Muzychuk in the second rapid tie-breaker and sail into the third round of the ongoing World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik (Russia).
Woman Grandmaster and top seed Dronavalli Harika came back into reckoning for top honours after beating Sona Petrova of the Czech Republic in the fourth round of the World Junior girls' chess championship.
World junior girls' champion Dronavalli Harika played out an easy draw as white with Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the first game of the second round of the ongoing World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik, Russia. Harika, who had beaten Russian Vera Nebolsina in the first round to advance to the last 32 stage in this knock-out event, will play the return game on Tuesday with black.
Dronavalli Harika suffered a setback, losing to top seed Arutyunova Diana of Ukraine in the eighth round of the girls' under-18 event at the World Youth Chess Championships.
The Indian Grandmaster meets Cecile Van Der Merwe of South Africa in her opening match of the tournament.
The less-fancied Maharashtra girl beat the defending champion in the ninth round of the National Women's chess championship.
The FIDE Presidential Board also awarded the International Woman Master title to 12-year-old Dronavalli Harika.
The Chennai collegian beat her team mate to take sole lead in the girls' section at the Asian junior chess championships.
Dronavalli Harika won the world under-14 girls title, while Parimarjan Negi took the bronze in the under-12 boys category in the World Youth Chess Championships.
IM Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan won the girls' and boys' title respectively at the World Junior Chess.
The Indian ace shares the top place with China's Gu Xiaobing after the third round in the Asian women's chess championship.
International Master Magesh Chandran and Woman International Master Dronavalli Harika continued to hold fort in Sri Lanka.
After six rounds, the Woman Grandmaster has four points from six games and looks good for a medal at the World Junior Chess championships.
The Asian champion has 13.5 points after 14 rounds, 1.5 points more than her nearest rival S Vijayalakshmi, in the National women's `A' chess championship.
The reigning Asian women's champion beat Tania Sachdev to lead the field in the Nat. women's 'A' chess championship.
The two Indians have a half point lead over second placed S Vijayalakshmi in the Asian women's chess championship.
The victory put Nadig in a two-way lead with Luong Phong Hanh of Vietnam in the Asian Junior girls' chess championship.
With just two rounds left in the World Youth chess championship, the Indian lass need just a victory and a draw to secure the girls' under-14 title.
WGM Dronavalli Harika was held to a draw by Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the 8th round of the under 14 girls section of the World youth Chess Championships.
WGM Dronavalli Harika took the seventh round honours with a brilliant victory to emerge the sole leader in the under-14 girls section of the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece.
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional ninth move.
The victory over the defending champion gave the top seed the sole lead in the National women's 'A' chess championship.
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.
Grandmaster Levon Aronian of Armenia won the boys' title in the World junior chess championships which concluded on Friday.
'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'
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Dronavalli Harika and Koneru Humpy came up with fine individual performances to win a silver and a bronze, respectively.
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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
It's been seven years since a chess player got the Arjuna award and the iconic Viswanathan Anand is hoping that India's triumphant campaign at the online Chess Olympiad will change this when the national sporting honours are announced next year.
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.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
The 47-year-old former World champion is taking some time off before he gets down to tournament play in St. Louis, United States, where the focus would be on Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov, who is making a surprise return to the game.
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