Reigning World champion Dommaraju Gukesh's roller-coaster ride continues. The Indian Grandmaster suffered defeat in an Armageddon tie-break and slipped to tied-fifth place, while Arjun Erigaisi upset American world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura to maintain fourth position in the Norway Chess tournament.
Reigning World champion D Gukesh finally got his revenge on Magnus Carlsen as he pounced on a blunder by the World No 1 to defeat him for the first time in a classical game.
With five points in his kitty from eight games, D Gukesh jointly leads the standings with Anish Giri of Holland.
With seven rounds still to come in the first super tournament of the year, Anish Guru maintained his sole lead on 4.5 points out of a possible six and he is now trailed by Iranian turned Frenchman Firouza Alireza who is on 4 points.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa lost to World Champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tie-breaker after the two played out a draw under normal time control in the second round.
'Again this year was not going well, I was working very hard but somehow the results were not going my way, this win is very crucial.'
This is Koneru Humpy's second World Rapid title after she had triumphed in the 2019 edition in Moscow.
Five-time World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway got the better of D Gukesh in the opening round of Norway Chess.
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.
International Master Divya Deshmukh stormed into the final, defeating former world champion Zhongyi Tan of China in the second game of the semifinals and winning the mini-match 1.5-0.5 in the FIDE Women's World Chess Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Wednesday.
Russians Volodar Murzin and Alexander Grischuk, along with Duda Jan-Kryzstof of Poland, share the lead with Arjun on seven points after the end of the second day and Round 9 of the championship, which will decide the best player of the planet after 13 games.
Grandmaster D Harika missed out on some chances to settle for a draw with Georgia's Sopiko Guramishvili, while Padmini Rout survived a scare before enforcing a draw with China's Tan Zhongyi in the first game of the third round of World Women's Chess Championship in Tehran.
On pure experience of playing big games, Humpy goes in the final as the favourite against compatriot Deshmukh.
After the draw with Iranian turned French player Firouza, Gukesh has seven points for his sole second spot.
Newly-crowned world chess champion D Gukesh is looking forward to the day when the sport will become a part of the Olympic curriculum, which, he said, would take it to an altogether different level not just in India but across the world.
Koneru Humpy secured a much-needed draw against China's Ju Wenjun in the second game of the quarter-finals to enter the semi-finals of the World Women's Chess Championship in Hatay, Turkey on Wednesday.
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy took an early lead against Ju Wenjun of China while GM norm holder D Harika played out a draw with another Chinese, Ruan Lufei, in the first game of the quarter-finals of the World Women's Chess Championship in Hatay, Turkey. With another victory in the first game itself, Humpy now needs just a draw in the return game to make it to the last four stage that has been her performance till date in a World Championship.
The Indian needs just a draw in the second game against Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia to qualify for the semis.
The Indian Grandmaster-norm holder beat China's Lufei Ruan to the title on a better tie-break score after both were tied on points.
Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana under Classical but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is still third on 9.5 points in the Norway Chess tournament.
Grandmaster R Pragnanandhaa held tournament leader and defending champion Anish Giri of Holland to a draw on the day.
After the first game against the same opponent ended in a draw, Harika was with black pieces in the second and she employed a French defence and Kosteniuk did not have many answers.
China's Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a flier and defeated Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon game in the first round of Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Tuesday.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored a massive, hard-earned victory over world number two Fabiano Caruana of the United States and made his way to the top 10 of world rankings after the end of fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger.
Humpy excited about young Indian chess brigade, says 'can be worthy successor to Anand'
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi opened his campaign with four victories and a solitary defeat in the World Rapid Chess Championship and was tied fifth, even as defending champion Magnus Carlsen endured a frustrating day, managing to log just one victory in New York.
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.
Indian GM D Gukesh overwhelmed Dutch player Max Warmerdam for his third victory on the trot and elevated himself to a joint lead after the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands on Sunday.
Rameshbabu Vaishali won the women's qualifier scoring 9.5 points out of 11 to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Blitz Championship.
Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control.
Chess will crown a new world champion when Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren begin their battle on Sunday.
Vaishali defeated Muzychuk for the second time in the event in the Armageddon. It was a finely played Classical game wherein neither players could reach an advantage but in the Armageddon Vaishali took advantage of her better placed rooks to call the shots.
Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli came out strongly yet again in the rapid tie-breaker as she outclassed Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia to enter the semi-finals of the FIDE World Women's Chess Championship for the third time in a row.
Young Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu on Thursday beat International Master Munkhzul Turmunkh of Mongolia to storm into the semi-finals of the first leg of FIDE chess.com Women Speed Chess Championships but the country's top player Koneru Humpy bowed out in the opener.
India suffered a double blow, losing its third and fourth round matches to Europe and top-seeded China by similar 1.5-2.5 margins, on the second day of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Wednesday. Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand came up against a strong opponent in Ding Liren and the two agreed to sign peace in 54 moves. P Harikrishna held higher-rated Yu Yangyi to a draw while long-time rivals Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan drew their game.
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.
Women's World chess Champion Hou Yifan of China left everyone stunned at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess tournament when she resigned in a controversial fashion after just five moves in her 10th and final round game against India's Lalith Babu.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
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