Anand shocked by Kovalyov; faces ouster threat from World Cup

Agencies
September 7, 2017

Tbilisi (Georgia), Sep 7: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Canadian Grandmaster Anton Kovalyov and now faces ouster threat from the World Chess Cup here.

Having struggled in the second game of the first round that he eventually managed to draw, Anand's dip in form continued against Kovalyov who kept his nerves in a thrilling game after a speculative piece sacrifice by the Indian ace.

For the records, it was a Sicilian Najdorf wherein Anand continued with a typical variation he has been using off-late. Kovalyov got a slightly worse position in the middle game but stayed put with some fine defensive manoeuvres.

After the trade of queens, the Canadian Grandmaster was surprised by a knight sacrifice by Anand but again held on to his guard despite his king taking a walk around the centre.
As it turned out, Anand's sacrifice was not enough to get any advantage and in the end Kovalyov's extra piece had the final say.

Down a point in the two-games mini-match, Anand will now have to win with black pieces in the return game. If Anand wins, tiebreak games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Meanwhile, Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi made a strong bid for the third round by winning his game as black against top Vietnamese Le Quang Leim. Gujrathi now just needs a draw in the next game which should not be a tall order with white pieces.

Gujrathi employed the Ragozin defense to draw the first blood. The opening gave nothing to Quang Leim and he even offered an early draw that was rejected by the Indian. As it happened, Gujrathi won a pawn in the ensuing endgame and made the technicalities look like child's play.

Grandmaster S P Sethuraman showed his first round victory against Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine was no flash in the pan and easily held higher-ranked compatriot P Harikrishna to a draw with black pieces.

The other remaining Indian, B Adhiban was up to the task in a deep opening preparation and drew with higher-rated Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. Sacrifice and counter sacrifices ensued right from the beginning in this spectacular game and in the end the draw was agreed through repetition of moves.

In the other top matches, world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway outclassed Aleksey Dreev of Russia while Vladimir Kramnik put it across his Russian counterpart Anton Demchenko. There were just seven decisive games out of a possible 32 in the first game of the second round.

The World Cup is a knock out event with two games under normal time control followed by Rapid or blitz games to determine the winner. The total prize money at stake is 1.6 million USD and the two will qualify to the next candidates' tournament.

Important and Indian results round 2 game 1:

Aleksey Dreev (Rus) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Wesley So (Usa) drew with Matthias Bluebaum (Ger); Lenic Luka (Slo) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Anton Demchenko (Rus); Hou Yifan (Chn) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) drew with Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr); Bruzon Batista Lazaro (Cub) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) beat Boris Grachev (Rus); Jorge Cori (Per) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus); V Anand (Ind) lost to Anton Kovalyov (CAN); Karjakin Sergey (Rus) drew with Daniil Dubov (Rus); Alexander Motylev (Rus) drew with Anish Giri (Ned); B Adhiban (Ind) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus); P Harikrishna (Ind) drew with S P Sethuraman (Ind); Le Quang Liem (Vie) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (Ind).

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News Network
April 14,2020

Melbourne, Apr 14: As all sporting action across the world has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australian bowlers are pondering as to how Indian skipper Virat Kohli might play in front of no spectators.

India and Australia are scheduled to play a four-match Test series later this year, and it is being speculated that the series might end up taking place without any crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon on Tuesday said that it would be interesting to see how Kohli goes about it if he does not get a chance to get the audience behind him.

"He is probably good enough to adapt to any scenario. But I was talking to Mitch Starc the other day and we actually said that if we are playing with no crowd, it'll be quite amazing to see Virat trying to rev up the empty seats," cricket.com.au quoted Lyon as saying.

"It is going to be a little bit different, but Virat is a superstar. He will be able to adapt to any climate that we are able to play in," he added.
During the 2018-19 series, India managed to defeat Australia in Australia for the first time in a Test series.

Australia, at that time were without the services of David Warner and Steve Smith. However, the series later this year promises to be a mouth-watering prospect.

"I am excited about the prospect of India coming out to Australia, it's up there with the biggest series alongside the Ashes. They are an absolute powerhouse of the cricket world, and to have those guys out here is going to be fantastic. Playing in front of crowds or no crowds is out of our control, we have got to follow the advice of all the amazing medical people around the world," Lyon said.

"I have not thought about no crowds or massive crowds, it is just about the opportunity of playing against India again. They had the wood over us last time they came over here but we are a much stronger Australian cricket side at the moment, and I am just unbelievably excited about playing them here at home," he added.

Lyon was slated to represent Hampshire in County Championship this year, however, his stint was called off last week due to COVID-19.
He is Australia's third-highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game as he has total of 390 wickets in Test cricket.

Lyon was last seen in action in the Big Bash League for Sydney Sixers.

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Manchester United's Paul Pogba on Monday paid tribute to George Floyd, stressing that violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated and they have to stop.

Pogba took to Instagram to write: "During the past few days I have thought a lot about how to express my feelings about what happened in Minneapolis. I felt anger, pity, hatred, indignation, pain, sadness."

"Sadness for George and for all black people who suffer from racism Every day! Whether in football, at work, at school, Anywhere! This has to stop, once and for all! Not tomorrow or the next day, it has to end today! Violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated," he added.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis and other US cities on Tuesday after Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest by the four officers.

A viral video showed a police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinning 46-year-old Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Floyd died at a local hospital shortly thereafter.

The four police officers were fired. Chauvin was also charged with murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

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zaki ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jun 2020

This photograph in the above mentioned article is of Floyd Mayweather Jr , the world welterweight & super heavy weight champion & wrongly menitoned as Pogba .

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to India's ODI squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the team for the upcoming South Africa series.

South Africa are scheduled to tour India for a three-match ODI series, starting from March 12.

India's ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C ), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have already announced their squad for the series and spinner George Linde was given maiden ODI call-up.

South Africa squad: Quinton de Kock (c, wk), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Janneman Malan.

The first ODI will be played in Dharamsala while the other two matches will be played in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18, respectively.

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