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Negi at the bottom

World8217;s second youngest Grandmaster ever,India8217;s Parimarjan Negi played out a draw with Nguyen Ngoc Truong of Vietnam in the fifth round of the Young Grandmasters tournament,a part of the 43rd Biel chess festival. After three losses in the first three rounds and a draw in the fourth,it was the second successive draw by the Indian who took his tally to one point from the first five rounds. Fabiano Caruana of Italy shot in to sole lead at the expense of overnight leader Wesley Soof Philippines. Parimarjan is at the bottom of the tables with four rounds still remaining in the category U-17 event.

Dipika,Siddharth bow out

India8217;s challenge at the Malaysian Open Squash championship came to a premature end after qualifiers Dipika Pallikal and Siddharth Suchde bowed out in the first round of the tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Asian junior champion Pallikal went down fighting to eighth seed Laura Massaro of England 11-9 9-11 11-9 8-11 9-11 in the USD 53,500 WISPA World Tour Gold event. Meanwhile in the USD 52,500 PSA Five-Star event,Suchde,world ranked 88,suffered a crushing 4-11 7-11 9-11 defeat at the hands of top seed Mohamed El Shorbagy of Egypt to bow out in just 33 minutes.

Yasin,Manan lose

Veteran Yasin Merchant and Manan Chandra failed to register a single win in the preliminary stage of the Sangson Six-Red World Snooker Championship in Bangkok. With their ouster,Indian challenge came to an end in the six-day-long event. Merchant and Chandra lost all their respective five matches and failed to qualify for the pre-quarterfinal stage. Playing in Group 8216;C8217;,Merchant suffered twin defeats against Brazil8217;s Igor Figueiredo and England8217;s Stuart Bingham last night. Chandra in his group 8216;D8217; went down to Hong Kong8217;s Fung Kwok Wai.

World Cup broadcaster fined

South Korea8217;s SBS TV has been fined 1.97 billion won 1.64 million by the state regulator for not sharing coverage of World Cup matches with other broadcasters. SBS had exclusive rights to show the matches from South Africa but the KCC said SBS was fined as it did not sincerely comply with the request to negotiate and the company had not taken into account the universal viewers8217; rights. South Korea reached the last 16 of the World Cup for the first time on foreign soil at the June 11-July 11 event in South Africa.

Kerala crush Himachal 10-0

Kerala and Assam maintained their winning streak in the 64th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy.In other matches,the Railways secured their second consecutive win,while Mizoram picked their first victory. Kerala crushed Himachal Pradesh 10-0 at Yuba Bharati Krirangan,while Assam registered a 7-0 win over Uttarakhand. Railways thrashed Orissa 4-0 while Mizoram recorded their maiden win in style with a 10-0 rout of Bihar.

Anand targets No 1 spot

Having defended his World Championships title two months back,Viswanathan Anand has set his eyes on regaining FIDE number one spot by the year end. 8220;I wanted to win the world championship and now that I have done it,I will focus on ranking and regaining number one status by this year end,8221; Anand said. He is currently ranked third with 2800 ELO points,which he touched for the first time since April 2008. 8220;But I believe,I should focus on the board rather than the scoreboard because once I do that,the ranking will take care of itself, Anand added.