World Chess Cup: Diptayan Ghosh ousts Nepomniachtchi
PANJIM, Nov 5: Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh caused the biggest upset of the World Chess Cup, ousting former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after winning the second game of the second round here on Wednesday.In what was simply a one sided affair, Ghosh did not give any chance to Nepomniachtchi who was rather erratic with his white pieces. The opening gave Ghosh an unclear position early and Nepomniachtchi missed a simple tactics early in the middle game which cost him a pawn.Once the technicalities arrived, Ghosh was at the top of his game and kept on increasing pressure by exchanging pieces at regular intervals. Soon, it was a rook and pawns endgame on board in no time.Earlier, Grandmaster P Harikrishna became the first Indian to advance to the third round after crushing Arseniy Nesterov, also of Russia, while world junior champion V Pranav suffered a huge defeat against Aryan Tari of Norway.A leader with the benefit of winning with black, Pranav blew his chances away and his loss to Tari means that both will now play the tie-break games to determine the way ahead.Indian Results (Round 2 game 2): Nogerbek Kazybek (Kaz) D Gukesh; Arjun Erigaisi beat Martin Petrov (Bul); Temur Kuybokarov (Aus) drew with R Praggnanandhaa; Surya Shekhar Ganguly Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid) lost to Diptayan Ghosh 0.5-1.5; Aronyak Ghosh Levon Aronian (Usa); Oro Faustino (Arg) Vidit Santosh Gujrathi; Aravindh Chithambaram Karthik Venkataraman; Nihal Sarin Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis (Gre); P Harikrishna beat Arseniy Nesterov (Fid) 1.5-0.5; Pa Iniyan Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Cze); Murali Karthikeyan Idani Pouya (Iri); Nikita Vituigov (Eng) drew with S L Narayanan 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Dmitrij Kollars (Ger) drew with M Pranesh; V Pranav lost to Aryan Tari (Nor) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Raunak Sadhwani drew with Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) 1-1 goes to tiebreak. (PTI)
Haria, Gupta taste defeats in World Snooker C’ships
DOHA, Nov 5: India’s Dhvaj Haria and Paras Gupta, who were one win away from making the final stage, suffered narrow defeats in the first stage of the IBSF World Snooker Championships here.Impressive in his two previous wins, Haria called the shots for the better part of the last-16 meeting against Thor Chuan Leong Tuesday night. However, the 32-year-old frittered away a 3-1 advantage and lost 3-4 to the Malaysian.At the adjacent table, Gupta, the Asian 6-red runner-up, went down fighting 2-4 to Pakistan’s Shahid Aftab.Despite the defeats, both Haria and Gupta, along with two other Indians-Malkeet Singh and Hussian Khan-were given first-round byes in the second of the two-event first stage.They have to win two matches each if they harbour hopes of joining three-time champion Pankaj Advani and Brijesh Damani in the final stage of the competition.
Venus Williams plans to start 33rd straight pro season
AUCKLAND, Nov 5: Tennis great Venus Williams plans to play for a 33rd straight season on the WTA Tour, starting in Auckland in January.Organizers of the ASB Classic in New Zealand said Wednesday that the 45-year-old Williams would feature at their Jan. 5-11 event.It suggests the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion is preparing for the Australian Open later that month, a tournament she has twice lost in the final.Williams made her pro tournament debut in 1994 in Oakland, California and has played at least two WTA events in each season since, the tour said.She last played in singles at the U.S. Open in August, losing in three sets to 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova in the first round.Ranked No. 570, Williams is five years older than the next oldest ranked players, Naoko Eto and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. (PTI)
