Category: Sports

The 17-year-old Chennai Grandmaster, D Gukesh has replaced the legendary Viswanathan Anand as India’s top chess player after more than three decades. Anand has been India’s No.1 since July 1986.

Gukesh broke into the top 10 of the FIDE rating list for the first time. He recently lost in the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup in Baku to Magnus Carlsen, but managed to move ahead of Anand to be ranked No.8 in the world. A five-time world champion, Anand is currently ranked No.9. As per the FIDE ratings effective September 1, Gukesh’s rating is 2758, while Anand’s is 2754. The teenaged GM has gained three places in the rating list since August 1.

Another teen prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, who made the world take notice of him by reaching the World Cup final where he lost to Carlsen, has risen to No. 19 in the list with a rating of 2727. He is India’s No.3 player behind Gukesh and Anand.

There are five Indians currently in the top 30, including Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (no.27) and Arjun Erigaisi (no.29). Senior chess player P Harikrishna is at number 31st.

Barely a week after becoming the new world champion, India’s Neeraj Chopra finished second in the men’s javelin throw event at the Zurich Diamond League 2023 at the Letzigrund Stadium in Switzerland on September 1. With a throw of 85.71 m, he finished behind Jakub Vadlejch with 85.86 m.

India’s Murali Sreeshankar, meanwhile, finished fifth in the men’s long jump event at Zurich with a best effort of 7.99 m. This was his third Diamond League event of the year. The Indian long jumper finished third at the Paris leg and was fifth in Lausanne.

The Indian javelin throw champion, Chopra’s best effort at the Zurich Diamond League 2023 came with his final throw. His best throw is 89.94 m, a national record. The Indian javelin throw champion had earlier won the Diamond League legs in Doha and Lausanne before winning a historic gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Letzigrund Stadium was the same venue where Chopra became the 2022 Diamond League champion last year.

India was crowned Asian Hockey 5s champions after beating Pakistan 6-4 after penalty shootouts in the final in Salalah, Oman on September 2. With the victory, the Indian men’s hockey team qualified for the FIH Men’s Hockey 5s World Cup Oman 2024 scheduled to take place from 24-31 January 2024.

Pakistan led the game with 3-2 at half-time, but the men in blue managed to come back and level the score at 4-4 before the full-time whistle. Mohammed Raheel scored two goals, once in the 19th minute with the second in the 26th minute. Jugraj Singh (7’) and Maninder Singh (10’) were the other two strikers.

From a score of 2-4 down in the second half, India took the game to the shootout after two goals from Mohammed Raheel. While the scoreboard read 4-4 in the regulation time with the game going into the shootout, India’s Gurjot Singh and Maninder Singh scored for the side. In the shootout, Pakistan missed all their chances, while India’s Maninder Singh scored India’s second goal.

Earlier in the evening, India had thrashed Malaysia 10-4 in the semifinals. Pakistan had reached the final after defeating Oman 7-3.

Max Verstappen has equalled Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine successive Formula 1 wins with victory at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 27. Fernando Alonso claimed the second spot for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly took his first Alpine podium in the rain-hit race. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez came fourth.

Verstappen had claimed pole on August 26, but lost his lead as heavy rain during the first lap led to a major reshuffle of the order, with the track becoming more suited to intermediate tyres than the slicks the entire field had started on. Perez then took the lead, but as the rain stopped and the surface became favourable for slick tyres again, 25-year-old Verstappen reclaimed the lead. Following a delay of more than 40 minutes, he calmly controlled a rolling restart on intermediate tyres.

With the Dutch Grand Prix win, Verstappen will now have the opportunity at Italian Grand Prix on September 3 to move beyond the nine successive wins Sebastian Vettel recorded for Red Bull in 2013.

The recent triumph also maintained Red Bull’s record of having won every race this season, with the team’s record run of victories, which goes back to the final race of 2022, now at 14. Verstappen’s latest win takes him closer to a third successive drivers’ title, extending his advantage over Perez to 138 points with nine races to go.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India sanctioned 634 athletes across 38 sporting disciplines for participation in the upcoming Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8.

Out of the 850 athletes recommended by the Indian Olympic Association, 634 athletes met the set selection criteria, said the ministry in a release on August 25. The athletes include 320 men and 314 women. The number is up from 572 athletes in the 2018 Asian Games at Jakarta and Palembang where India won 70 medals, including 16 Golds.

The return of cricket and Indian football teams’ qualification boosts the team’s number in the forthcoming tournament and hopes to win more medals.

The 19th edition of the tournament will kick off on September 23 with five new sports, namely Esports, baseball, softball, karate, and sport climbing making their debuts. Cricket was played during the 2010 and 2014 edition of the tournament, but this is the first time India is sending its teams to the Asian Games.

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra on August 27 made history by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal in the World Athletics Championships with a throw of 88.17m in the men’s javelin final in Budapest. Kishore Jena (84.77m) and DP Manu (84.14m) took the fifth and sixth spots, respectively, making three Indians finishing in top eight of an event in the World Championships for the first time.

The 25-year-old Chopra achieved his best throw of the day in his second attempt. He had a foul to start with, but then got 88.17m, 86.32m, 84.64m, 87.73m and 83.98m.

Pakistan’s reigning Commonwealth Games champion Arshad Nadeem won the silver with his season’s best throw of 87.82m. Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic got the bronze.

Chopra has now become only the second Indian after shooter Abhinav Bindra to concurrently hold the Olympics and World Championships title. The Indian superstar also became only the third javelin thrower in history to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships titles after Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic and Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway.

With his latest victory, Chopra has won every title his sport has to offer. He has won gold in the Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018), besides four individual Diamond League Meeting titles (two each in 2022 and 2023) and Diamond League champion’s trophy last year. He also became junior world champion in 2016 and bagged the Asian Championships title in 2017.

The Indian women’s blind cricket team won the gold at the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) World Games in Birmingham on August 26. The team defeated Australia by 9 wickets by restricting their opponents to 114/8 in the allotted 20 overs and accomplishing the revised target of 42 in the fourth over.

The Indian women’s team remained undefeated, winning all their league games as blind cricket made its debut in the IBSA World Games.

In Saturday’s match, Australia went off to a poor start after batting first as they lost the first wicket in the 4th over. India picked two wickets in the eighth and ninth overs, reducing Australia to 39/3. While C Lewis and C Webeck supported the Australian innings with a 54-run partnership, India remained focused on picking wickets at regular intervals to restrict the Aussies to 114/8.

The match was interrupted due to rain, and the Indians were given a revised target of 42 runs as per the Duckworth-Lewis method. The women in blue chased down the target in just 3.3 overs with 9 wickets remaining.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the cricket team on winning a gold medal at the IBSA World Games, saying the country beams with pride at their success.

In an outstanding performance at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on August 27, the Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh clocked 2 minute 59.05 seconds to break Asian record and make the finals for the first time ever in history. The team finished second behind the USA (2:58:47). Japan had set the previous best Asian record of 2:59.51 in 2021.

As per the rules, the top three finishers in each of the two heats and the next two fastest qualify for the final. India’s timing was the second best overall across the two heats and the team competed against USA, Great Britain, Bostwana, Jamaica, France, Italy and Netherlands in the final on August 28. The team finished fifth in the final of the 2023 World Athletics Championships, clocking 2:59:92 seconds.

In the final, the USA claimed the gold, crossing the finish line with a remarkable time of 2:57.31 seconds. France came second with a time of 2:58.45 seconds, while Great Britain was third with 2:58.71 seconds.

In the qualifying stage, Rajesh even momentarily outpaced USA’s Justin Robinson in the anchor leg, leaving the audience in awe of the Indians’ extraordinary effort. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa made the nation proud with his sensational run in the FIDE World Cup Final in Baku, Azerbaijan, on August 24. Magnus Carlsen came good and stopped his Indian competitor 2.5-1.5 for his maiden World Cup title. Though Praggnanandhaa went down fighting to the world no.1 player, he garnered huge praise and appreciation for his performance in the tournament.

The 18-year-old chess prodigy from Chennai lost to Carlsen in the tie-breaks after the classical games in the final ended in a stalemate. Despite the defeat, he registered a historic feat and became the only Indian player after Viswanathan Anand to book a spot in the Candidates Tournament.

President of India Droupadi Murmu also credited Praggnanandhaa for displaying the highest level of excellence.

The two classical games on August 22 and August 23 between the two Grandmasters ended in draws, forcing the final to a tie-break. Carlsen on August 24 overcame a stiff challenge from his Indian opponent in the first tie-break game, winning it in 45 moves. The second 25+10 tie-break game then ended in a draw in 22 moves.

Brazilian winger Neymar has joined Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in a two-year contract that reports say could earn him 160 million euros ($174 million). With the move, the 31-year-old forward ends a six-year stay in the French capital and follows in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane in swapping Europe for the Middle East.

The soccer star on August 19 received a rapturous welcome from a multitude of devoted fans at Al-Hilal, marking his entry into the ranks of high-profile footballers who have joined the Saudi Pro League. A spectacle of flame-throwers and an impressive burst of fireworks illuminated the sky over the grand King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh. A drone exhibition added to the visual spectacle, forming the words “Neymar is blue.”

Neymar was previously the world’s most expensive footballer following his transfer to PSG in 2017. He joined Qatar-owned PSG from Barcelona six years ago for a world-record fee of 222 million euros ($242 million), scoring 118 goals in 173 matches despite a series of injuries.

The Brazilian will earn 100 million euros a season in Saudi Arabia, say reports. In addition to the astounding amount, he has reportedly secured a handful of other perks, including an incredible £2.5 million-a-week contract in the Al Hilal deal.