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Anand shocked at Tal Memorial opener
World champion Viswanathan Anand was off to a disappointing start, suffering a rare defeat as white against Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the first round of the Tal Memorial Chess Tournament here.
World champion Viswanathan Anand was off to a disappointing start, suffering a rare defeat as white against Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the first round of the Tal Memorial Chess Tournament here.
On what turned out to be a tough day for the world champion, Caruana did everything right after sacrificing a pawn in the middle game and Anand had little clues to better the judgement of the young Italian genius.
Playing the white side of a Ruy Lopez, Anand was surprised to find Caruana playing one of the topical systems that involves a pawn sacrifice which, once declined, became a topic of discussion in the press room.
Hesh-Bops make QF
Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna entered the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Aegon Championships after receiving a walkover from French combo of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut. Both Tsonga and Mahut decided not to take part in the second round doubles tie after playing their respective singles matches at the Queen’s Club.
Sahaj-Vidit Prevail
Varna (Bulgaria): Young Indian Grandmasters Sahaj Grover and Vidit Gujrathi kept themselves in the hunt after settling for draws in the fourth round of Grand Europe Golden Sands International chess tournament here. Grover did well to hold Dmitry Svetushkin of Moldova while Gujrathi conceded a half point to Russian David Paravyan to reach 3.5 points out of a possible four.
Eves salvage 1-1 draw
Rotterdam: India’s women’s hockey team eked out a 1-1 draw against Belgium to avoid a second consecutive defeat in the women’s competition of the FIH World League Round 3. Anupa Barla saved the day for India with the equaliser in the 38th minute.
