India lose to leader Ukraine

The Indian men succumbed to their first defeat against Ukraine going down by a minimal margin of 1.5-2.5 in a keenly contested match of the ...

The Indian men succumbed to their first defeat against Ukraine going down by a minimal margin of 1.5-2.5 in a keenly contested match of the seventh round of the Chess Olympiad here.

For India, Viswanathan Anand drew with Vassily Ivanchuk, Sasikrian held former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov to a draw, P Harikrishna missed his winning chances before signing peace with Pavel Eljanov while Abhijit Kunte was humbled by Sergey Karjakin.

In the biggest sensational result of the Olympiad, ninth seed Bulgaria defeated top seed and Russia 2.5-1.5 to change the equations dramatically.

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As things stand now at the half-way stage in the biggest chess event, Ukraine moved to 21.5 points after their triumph over India and also stretched its lead to 2 points. Anand had come well-armed for this important match and for the first time Ivanchuk was in serious troubles in this Olympiad.

Eves hold US

Indian eves held third seed United States to a creditable draw in the seventh round of the women’s section. It turned out to be an all-drawn encounter for the Indian girls as all three — Koneru Humpy, S Vijayalakshmi and Dronavalli Harika settled for truce with Zsuzsa Polgar, IM Irina Krush and WGN Anna Zatonskih without any real troubles.

The Indian girls next in the standing list along with US, Russia, France, Ukraine, Sweden, Bulgaria, Armenia and Kazakhstan who all have 13.5 points.

Nepal’s Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigns after 19 killed in ‘Gen Z’ protests

World9 hr ago

Nepal's Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak has resigned after 19 people died during youth-led protests demanding reforms and accountability. The protests spread across major cities and police opened fire on demonstrators. Lekhak tendered his resignation to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli during a Cabinet meeting, following calls from Nepali Congress leaders earlier in the day.

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