A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
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.
Dronavalli Harika and S Vijayalakshmi also tasted success, beating Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian and GM Denis Khismatullin respectively in the Aeroflot International Chess tournament.
The Serb set up the breakaway PTPA on the eve of the US Open in September and resigned as head of the player council but last month he confirmed that he had been nominated by his fellow professionals for the current elections which he accepted.
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi added another feather in his cap. The 20-year-old continued his brilliant form and clinched the Politiken Cup 2013 after emerging with a fine score of nine out of a maximum possible 10 points, in Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday.
The Indian GM went down to Kazakh GM Darmen Sadvakasov in the fifth round of the Aeroflot Chess tournament.
With two more rounds remaining, Harikrishna is lying low with paltry three points.
Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko was the surprise inclusion in defending champion Viswanathan Anand's team even as his Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen kept his cards close to his chest ahead of their much-anticipated World Championship match starting 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.
The draw took Anand to two points out of a possible three in the Corus Grandmasters 'A' chess tournament.
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi failed to break the defenses of Ziska Helgi Dam and had to agree for a draw and settle for 12th place in the Hogehschool Zeeland International Chess tournament.
Parimarjan Negi went down to second seed Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow in the eighth round and bowed out of the championship race in the Hogeschool Zeeland International chess tournament.
The Indian GM was beaten by Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich on time in the World Rapid Cup chess tournament.
The former World junior champion won the Marx Gyorgy international chess tournament after settling for an easy draw with GM Ferenc Berkes in the 10th and final round game.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Abhijeet Gupta's silver medal ended a long drought for Indians in the Open section of the Chess Olympiad. After a gap of 22 years -- the last one being Dibyendu Barua's gold medal on board two in Novisad 1990 -- an Indian won a medal for individual performance.
The Indian chess ace beat young Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Linares-Morelia Super Grandmasters tournament.
The young Grandmaster scored a record nine points out of a possible 11 in the tournament.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on sports calendars across the globe, resulting in cancellation and postponement of events, but it has also provided sportspersons a rather unexpected break. Indian sportspersons including some chess players plan to use the time to train and also be with their families.
P Harikrishna went down fighting against Alexander Grischuk in the fourth round of Aerosvit chess
The Indian ace beat Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine in just 37 moves at the Corus Super Grandmasters chess tournament.
Playing black, Ponomariov beat Loek Van Wely, while, with white, Grischuk got the better of American Gata Kamsky at the World Chess Cup.
Abhijeet Gupta scored a thumping victory over Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy at the Dubai Chess Open
GM Tania Sachdev emerged amongst 10-leaders with a finely crafted victory over Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran
The Indian GM is now only 0.5 points behind the combined leader Alexander Morozevich at Amber chess
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand continued to struggle with his form as he lost to 16-year old International Master Benjamin Gledura of Hungary in the seventh round of the Masters section of Gibraltar International Chess festival
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.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly failed to finish among the prizes by a whisker, going down to Vladimir Akopian in the final round of Gibtele.com Masters chess tournament.
The 12-year-old Indian ace held Grandmaster Milos Pavlovic of Serbia to a draw in the fifth round of the Hastings International Chess Congress.
GM Smirnov Pavel tallied 7.5 points out of a possible 9, the same as Short, but won the overall title on better progressive scores.
Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand beat Russian Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in the first game of the quarter-finals in the World Chess Cup.
The only Indian remaining in the World Cup Chess was beaten in the Round 3 tie-break.
The Indian Woman Grandmaster is joint-fifth after the seventh round in the World Junior girls' chess championship.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
The Indian ace gained 11 points to breach the landmark but missed the top rank by just one point.
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.
After drawing with Wang Yue of China, India's world junior champ beat Tigran Petrosian of Armenia to keep the lead in the Sanjin Hotel Cup Grandmasters tournament.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Grandmaster and Asian champion Parimarjan Negi will meet Polish GM Bartosz Socko in the sixth round of the Leiden International chess tournament.
The 18-year-old Indian drew with top seeded Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes of Hungary in the final round to emerge champion.
