8-year-old Indian-origin boy from Singapore beats Polish GM
Singapore, Feb 20: An eight-year-old Indian-origin boy defeated Polish chess grandmaster Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland on Sunday, becoming the youngest player to defeat a GM in classical chess. Ashwath Kaushik, who represented Singapore, defeated Stopa, who at 37 is nearly five times older than him, according to a Channel News Asia report. The previous record was set only a few weeks earlier when Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic, who is several months older than Ashwath, beat 60-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Popchev at the Belgrade Open. Currently ranked world No. 37,338 on FIDE, the international chess federation, the Indian citizen, who moved to Singapore in 2017, said, “I felt proud of my game and how I played, especially since I was worse at one point but managed to come back from that.” Singaporean grandmaster and CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation Kevin Goh lauded Ashwath’s feat on ‘X’, saying, “Dad is super supportive, boy is dedicated, school allows flexibility and of course he has natural talent. “Remains to be seen how far he can go as interests can change as the boy gets older. Still, we are hopeful.” Goh also joked that as he is only eight years old, Ashwath still “needs a booster cushion to reach the other side of the board”. He also attributed Ashwath’s success to the “many other coaches and supporters” on his journey. Goh also hopes that Ashwath’s success can inspire more children to pursue chess at a competitive level. (PTI)
Gulveer loses 3000m gold in Asian Indoor Athletics C’ships
Tehran, Feb 20: India’s Gulveer Singh lost his men’s 3000m gold medal in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships here after he was disqualified for ‘lane infringement’. Gulveer had clocked 8 minutes 07.48 seconds to finish on top of the podium in the 3000m final, a non Olympic athletics event, late on Monday. He was later disqualified for lane infringement and a late night ‘appeal’ by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was also rejected. “Yes, it was ruled that Gulveer committed lane infringement. Of course, AFI protested but the protest was rejected,” a coach, who is with the team said. “The jury said they have enough evidence to conclude that Gulveer made lane infringement.” Various clauses of technical rules 17.2 and 17.3 provides for how an athlete can commit lane infringement and under what circumstances he or she may not be disqualified. Keneshbekov Nursultan of Kyrgystan, who had finished second with a time of 8:08.85s, was awarded the gold. Jalil Naseri (8:09.39) of Iran, the original third-place finisher, took the silver and Frolovskiy (8:17.17) of Kazakhstan bagged the bronze.
Sabalenka falls to old foe Vekic in Dubai second round
Dubai, Feb 20: Aryna Sabalenka lost her first match since successfully defending her Australian Open title when she was overhauled by an old foe at the Dubai Championships on Tuesday. The No. 2-ranked Sabalenka blew a set and 2-0 lead as Donna Vekic of Croatia rallied to win 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0 in the second round. They go back eight years, and Vekic dominated the early matchups. But Sabalenka made the Grand Slam breakthrough when she beat Vekic in the Australian quarterfinals a year ago en route to her first major title. Vekic referenced Sabalenka winning “the big one” of their career matchups on Tuesday but her sixth win in their eight contests wasn’t too shabby either. Sabalenka led 5-3 before settling the first set in a tiebreaker. Sabalenka, coming off a three-week layoff after her Melbourne triumph, then led 2-0 with a point for 3-0. “I was on the beach already,” Vekic admitted, but a sliced backhand passing winner that Sabalenka let go saved the game and launched her comeback. Staying aggressive but with improving accuracy, Vekic won the next three games, broke for 5-3 and served out to level the set score after nearly two hours. Sabalenka, forced to her first three-set game of the year, showed more second serves and exasperation, and Vekic was merciless. A sixth double fault by Sabalenka put her 3-0 down in the third and two more double faults dropped her 5-0 behind. Moments later, Vekic won a ninth straight game and wrapped up her first win over a top-two player since 2019. (AP)