Sports

written by Atharva Jori Indians will take on the reshuffled pairing of Ren Xiang Yu and Xie Haonan, the latter having become popular after the Chinese trend of 'Watermelon Challenge' which he aced with his left hand It’s been a surfeit of left-right combinations for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to face, since last Tuesday at Hong Kong. It can be disorienting playing those two side angles. But just like that, while getting on with their everyday assignments, the Indian duo have grown to be comfortable against that deceptive pattern, that used to once bother them mightily. After beating their fifth ‘leftie-rightie’ combo in six matches when they ousted one half of reigning Olympic champion Wang Chi Lin in a new partnership with Chiu Hsiang Chieh 21-13, 21-12, Satwik-Chirag are preparing to take on their sixth L-R (left-right) opponents. This is Chinese Ren Xiang Yu and Xie Haonan. The Indians beat Ren and his partner in an earlier iteration, and have slightly mor...

written by Atharva Jori FIDE Grand Swiss: Vaishali's win helps her secure a Candidates spot, thus making her the third woman to qualify for the Candidates along with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh. FIDE Grand Swiss 2025:Vaishali Rameshbabu has won the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament for the second time in two editions after drawing her final game against former women’s world champion Tan Zhongyi on Monday. Vaishali winning the title is historic because no player in the short history of the event has won the Grand Swiss twice. Even more significantly, Vaishali’s win helps her secure a Candidates spot, thus making her the third woman to qualify for the Candidates along with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh. In the open section, Arjun Erigaisi ended with a draw in his final game against Vincent Keymer, which meant he missed on securing a Candidates spot. Anish Giri and German grandmaster Matthias Bluebaum secured the two Candidates spots on offer. You can trace how each of our featur...

written by Atharva Jori At Grand Swiss, Gukesh has been held to a draw by 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, handed a defeat by 16-year-old American GM Abhimanyu Mishra, and has now lost to another 16-year-old from Turkey, Ediz Gurel. In chess circles, there’s an informal club, whose membership swells by a little each year. It’s called the Mikhail Chigorin Club, named after the Soviet Union player who dueled in two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz but unfortunately lost both times. Membership of the the Mikhail Chigorin Club can be gained by defeating a reigning world champion in a classical chess game. players have already entered the club, with Ediz Gurel becoming the latest addition after taking down world champion Gukesh Dommaraju in round 7. Earlier, Abhimanyu Mishra and Nikolas Theodorou had also joined the club. Even after a rest day at the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament on Wednesday, there was no change in teenage world champion Gukesh’s fortunes. He lost his...

written by Atharva Jori I have known Shubman since he was a kid, but I don't know if he remembers me," Simranjeet Singh, the left-arm spinner from UAE recollects with a shy smile. On the eve of the biggest moment of his cricketing career, an Asia Cup game against India, the 35-year-old from Ludhiana, distinctly remembers a talented 12-year-old, who would come for training at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) nets in Mohali. "It was around 2011-12 and Shubman must have been 11 or 12 at the max. We used to train at the PCA Academy in Mohali from 6am to 11am. Shubman would come accompanied by his father at around 11 am. "I was someone, who would also do a lot of extra bowling after our session. Don't know if he would recognise me but during those days, I had bowled a lot to Shubman," said the journeyman cricketer, whose life changed decisively during the COVID19 pandemic. The 35-year-old slow left-arm orthodox bowler is a crafty customer according to U...

written by Atharva Jori The former world No.1 combination looked sharp in the opener, allowed their rivals to force a decider, but reasserted control in the third with their trademark net domination and powerful smashes. India’s top men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty began their Hong Kong Open Super 500 campaign on a winning note on Tuesday, while Kiran George fought his way through qualifying to make the main draw of the men’s singles competition here. Satwik and Chirag, who recently bagged their second bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, overcame Taiwan’s Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin 21-13, 18-21, 21-10 in their opening round. The former world No.1 combination looked sharp in the opener, allowed their rivals to force a decider, but reasserted control in the third with their trademark net domination and powerful smashes. The eighth seeds will meet the winners of the match between Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi/Hiroki Okamura and Thailand’...

written by Atharva Jori Winning with black means that Gukesh will play with white pieces in the next game and his expertise there is well known. Seeking to prove himself across formats, reigning world champion D. Gukesh of India began his campaign in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with a crushing victory over France’s Etienne Bacrot in the first round. The Indian ace used all his resources at the right time to deliver a knockout punch when the situation arrived and his choice of opening – the Caro Kann — was deemed as a perfect defence to counter Bacrot. The Caro Kann was deceptive. Bacrot is a veteran of many matches and he could not confine himself to attaining equality out of the middle game which turned insanely complicated. Playing on Gukesh’s ground of complexities has not been easy and that’s what unfolded as the Indian uncorked an exchange sacrifice and went all in with his instinct. The technicalities remained but Gukesh was ruling the roost and he conve...

written by Atharva Jori Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli are known followers of Premanand Ji Maharaj, and over the years. One often sees videos of the couple visiting Vrindavan to meet him. Fans are touched by their interaction with Premanand ji Maharaj and their spiritual inclination. One has also seen how they have been motivated to chant the name of the Lord (naam sankirtan) by the influence of Premand Maharaj. Meeting him, however, is no easy task—reportedly, the wait time stretches up to a year since the guru only interacts with about 50–60 people a day. Recently, one also saw Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty visiting him.In a recent interview, Raj Kundra opened up on meeting him and what compelled him to pledge his kidney to him. Raj spoke about it during an interview with Filmygyan and said, “I have been following a spiritual guru for a very long time. In fact, for the last two years, I have been reposting Premanand Ji’s messages and I had the opportunity… He only meets 50-60 peo...