Anand looks to bounce back in Zurich Challenge
ZURICH: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will have to put his dismal show in the justconcluded Grenke Classic behind him and get his act together when he takes on another elite field in the Zurich Chess Challenge here.
Losing three games out of a possible seven, Anand finished the Grenke Classic with one of his worst performances. Anand not only lost three games but also ended up losing 15 rating points, which also saw him slip to ninth spot in the world rankings.
While the Grenke Classic was dominated by world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany, this event will see Fabiano Caruana of Italy start as the top seed in the absence of Carlsen.
ATWAL SOARS, SHIV SLIPS HUA HIN: Arjun Atwal fired a fiveunder 67 to jump 55 places and finished joint 35th, while Shiv Kapur slipped with a 73 after the second round of the True Thailand Classic here on Friday.
Atwal made amends for his one-over 73 in the first round at the Black Mountain Golf Club. On the contrary, Shiv, who was fifth with a 66 on Thursday, carded one-over 73. His struggle put him at tied 29th. The other Indians in the fray, Jyoti Randhawa and Anirban Lahiri, shared the 48th position with 14 others.
SSP Chowrasia scored a 71 to make the halfway cut, which was set at two-under with a total of 79 players making it into the weekend rounds. Gaganjeet Bhullar, Rahil Gangjee, Rashid Khan and Jeev Milkha Singh missed the cut.
Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat fired his way back into contention with a 67 to pile the pressure on leader Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain.
SHAMIM WINS
NOIDA: Shamim Khan coasted to a five-shot win in the Hemisphere PGTI Masters at the Noida Golf Course on Friday. He fired a threeunder-69 in the final round to end up with a tournament total of 14-under-274. Mukesh Kumar finished runner-up at nine-under-279.
Shamim (72-67-66-69), the overnight leader by one shot, wrapped up his 11th career title and ninth victory on the PGTI with an errorfree final round that saw him sink three birdies.
BI UNITS DEMAND MEET THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Miffed with Boxing India’s (BI) threat to ban boxers who participated in the ongoing National Games, the state units that defied the diktat have demanded that a special general body meeting be called to discuss the matter even as BI remained steadfast on its stand.
As many as 27 states participated in the boxing competition of the Games defying a threat of ban by BI, which boycotted the event to protest against the IOA’s refusal to grant recognition to it. Although the teams were not pleased with the manner in which the competition was conducted under the old scoring system, they decided to compete nonetheless.