Chess

Praggnanandhaa on Friday made the most of the one-move blunder from Carlsen and kept his chances alive of progressing to the knockout stage. The 5th-round match at the USD 150,000 online tournament was heading for a dull draw after Praggnanandhaa's 40th move but in a stunning twist, Carlsen misplayed his knight on his previous move as Indian checked with an attack on his back piece. Carlsen resigned on the spot.

The six-time World Championship Candidate from Israel, Gelfand has been roped in as the coach by the AICF alongside mentor Anand. The members of the first teams in both open as well as women's section will take part in the camp, scheduled to take place at Hotel Leela in Chennai from May 7 to 17.

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) on Monday announced a 20-member squad, the country's biggest-ever, for the mega event that India is hosting for the first time. India being the host is entitled to field two teams each in the Open category as well as the women's section for the first time.

Serbia's Djokovic, while speaking on the issue of the All England Club barring Russian and Belarusian players from competing at this year's Wimbledon, said recently that while he condemns the war, the Wimbledon ban on tennis players from Russia and Belarus was unacceptable. "I will always condemn war. I will never support war being myself a child of war. I know how much emotional trauma it leaves. In Serbia we all know what happened in 1999.

Gukesh, 15, who went into the final round with seven points, defeated Mikhalevski with white pieces to finish with 8.0 points from nine rounds to top a field comprising 193 players. Armenian GM Haik M. Martirosyan finished second with 7.5 points while Indian GMs R Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani finished joint third with three other players -- all five ending their campaigns with 7.0 points from nine rounds. Pragg finished third on tiebreak and Sadhwani was fourth.

Pragganandhaa, Pragg as he is fondly called, finished the 7.5 points from nine rounds, finishing half-point ahead of four players -- Max Warmerdam of the Netherlands, Mads Andersen of Denmark, Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson of Sweden and American Abhimanyu Mishra, the world's youngest GM, all of whom finished with 7.0 points.

Indian chess Grandmaster and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who was present on the occasion, said, "I am delighted that the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2022 will take place in Chennai. I would like to thank the Tamil Nadu government and especially Chief Minister MK Stalin and everyone else who has played a part in bringing the competition to India. I would also like to thank FIDE and FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. And also credit must be given to All India Chess Federation (AICF) for moving very fast, and I am confident that the competition will be a great success."

It was none of these, but Rafique Khan who made India proud at the 1980 Olympiad held in Malta, making everyone present take note of India. Playing on the third board, he scored 10 points out of 13 with nine wins, two draws, and two losses. On the women's side, it was Woman GM S. Vijayalakshmi who got the first Olympiad medal for India in 2000.

With his sixth victory in a row following a disastrous start, Gupta reached 7.5 points to join overnight leaders Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh and Harsha Bharthakoti while S P Sethuraman accounted for Pavel Ponkratov of Russia to match these four on points. Poormosavi Seyed Kian meanwhile became the first player in the tournament to score an International Master norm. The other norm aspirant is Neelash Saha who needs a victory in the final round to make a Grandmaster norm.

With just two rounds remaining, the 19th edition of Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament is heading for an exciting finish as top seed National Champion Arjun Erigaisi along with compatriots Harsha Bharathakoti and D Gukesh are now leading the point table with seven points.