Star-studded WR Chess repeat World Blitz title amid controversy in London
WR Chess, the star-studded world top 10 team, retained their World Team Blitz crown in London last week, but only after an almighty scare and with significant help from the appeals committee,WR had already been beaten for the World Rapid title by MGD1, a Pune-based group led by India’s Arjun Erigaisi,WR lost 2-4 to Germany in their Blitz quarter-final, but got the match annulled on the grounds that they had been advised of the wrong start time so had arrived two minutes late for a three-minute game,All the other teams arrived on time,WR stands for Wadim Rosenstein, a tech billionaire who plays on the amateur board of his team and who persuaded Fide to launch this new competition two years ago.
His squad even included Magnus Carlsen until the No 1 fell out with Fide.WR Chess defeated Kazakhstan in the gold medal blitz match, with Hexamind third.Earlier, Erigaisi’s MGD1 won Rapid gold, with Levon Aronian’s Hexamind taking silver and Vishy Anand’s Freedom winning bronze.Leading English teams disappointed, although all gained valuable experience against top opposition.The national squad, named Malcolm’s Mates after England’s international director, Malcolm Pein, suffered on the top boards in the Rapid as Luke McShane scored 2/9 and Gawain Jones 3/8, and never looked like matching their seeding of third.
The Blitz went better, but in the last 16 Malcolm’s Mates were paired against the WR Chess heavyweights and were overwhelmed 9.5-2.5.WR Chess had an epic group match against the all-junor Turkish Airlines squad, who rose to the occasion with an impressive performance.Argentina’s 11-year-old prodigy Faustino Oro drew easily with Russia’s No 1, Ian Nepomniachtchi, then forecast himself to become world champion in 2032.
The English teenagers Sohum Lohia and Indy Southcott-Moyers fought well against the world stars Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, China’s Lu Miaoyi drew with the all-time No 2 woman, Hou Yifan, and, most remarkable of all, a little-known 13-year-old from Azerbaijan, Khagan Ahmad, beat the US world No 2 and popular streamer, Hikaru Nakamura, in a marathon 112-move queen ending,All six games of this match are here,Unknowns of all ages very occasionally catch top stars out, but it normally occurs due to a sudden tactic that the great one overlooks, not after a prolonged marathon with the loser fighting tooth and nail,For a historic comparison to Ahmad v Nakamura, I think of David Bronstein Hugh Alexander, Hastings 1953-54,Several of the best-known world talents made significant advances in London.
Besides Oro, the Turkish pair of Ediz Gurel and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus both totalled 8.5/12 in Rapid, while Russia’s 10-year-old youngest ever IM, Roman Shogdzhiev, who Carlsen recently named, along with Erdogmus, as a potential world champion of the future, achieved a 2500 rating performance in Rapid.Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionMany England juniors gained experience in the World Rapid and Blitz, but few could boast successes on the score table.The dedicated squads from Chess Trust Accelerators and the UK Chess Challenge could not match their more experienced opponents.There was one exception, though.
Bodhana Sivanandan, England’s youngest ever Olympiad player, had her best result for many months.The 10-year-old, competing for her sponsor GM Ali Mortazavi’s firm e-therapeutics, unleashed a blitz sequence that included the best individual score for her team, an unbeaten 10-game run and five wins in a row, plus a 2307 rating performance.3977: It’s mate in six by 1…Rg4+! 2 hxg4 (if 2 Kxh5 Qxh3 mate) Qh1+ 3 Kg5 f6+ 4 Kg6 Qe4+ 5 Kxh5 Qh7+ 6 Qh6 Qxh6 mate.
Royal Ascot 2025: Cercene claims major Coronation Stakes shock on day four – as it happened
That’s this blog wrapped for the day. We’ll be back tomorrow.Don’t forget to gaze through Tom Jenkins’s photo gallery.6.10 Royal Ascot result1st Adrestia 10/12nd Hammer The Hammer 9/23rd Redorange 12/14th Zayer 16/124 ran,Non-runner 15, 16, 18, 3A fine winner from Oisin Murphy who seems the best judge of these races, give or take Ryan Moore
Jack Draper earns Wimbledon seedings boost by making Queen’s Club last four
Jack Draper is a perfectionist in every sense of the word, which means that for the third consecutive match he departed the court quite unimpressed by the level of tennis he demonstrated. There were, after all, quite a few self-sabotaging concentration lapses, his forehand was too erratic and he did not always seem comfortable moving on the slick grass.In the most important moments, however, when the match hung in the balance, the 23-year-old locked in and produced his best tennis. Once again, the British No 1 held his nerve in the final stages of a tough three-setter as he defeated Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals at Queen’s Club for the first time in his career.The victory means Draper will return to his career-high ranking of No 4 on Monday, securing him a top-four seeding at Wimbledon
India’s Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal make tons to leave England toiling in first Test
India slightly snuck into the country four weeks ago, dribs and drabs getting an A tour under way before the bulk of the first-teamers landed and began playing intra-squad cricket. The delayed finish to the Indian Premier League commanded eyeballs, then the World Test Championship final last week. All told, it was a soft launch.But on day one of this summer’s marquee series, the tourists announced their arrival with a flex of the muscles and an eruption of runs. Sublime centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (101) and Shubman Gill (127 not out) had driven England potty and taken India to 359 for three at stumps
Cercene’s shock Royal Ascot victory ends long wait for Joseph Murphy
A lifetime of hope and endeavour enjoyed a glorious reward here on Friday as Joseph Murphy, who is two years short of a half-century with a trainer’s licence, finally added a Group One winner to his record as Cercene, at 33-1, edged out the 6-4 favourite, Zarigana, in the Coronation Stakes, the feature event on day four at Royal Ascot.“It’s 50 years of work by the family,” Murphy said afterwards. “Going from a small yard, switching from National Hunt to the Flat and always believing, buying horses and believing that they’re going to be good. It’s a lifetime’s ambition to have a Group One winner.”Cercene had to dig deep for the win, as Zarigana headed her at the furlong pole but then failed to put the race to bed
Fries with everything: fans swelter on Headingley’s Test return as Jaiswal tucks in
Queues for water refills and ice creams surpassed even those for beer at a sun-baked ground offering unseasonably hot sustenanceAfter two years without a Test here, 23 in which India’s red-ball side had visited only once, seven months since the last tickets for the first three days were snapped up and six in which the sum total of England’s action in this format had been a low-key three-day win over Zimbabwe, it is fair to say that Leeds was ready for this. Or at least, in classic Yorkshire fashion, that it would be ready in its own sweet time.Play started with the stands barely half-full and television commentators feeling they had to remind viewers the day was actually a sellout. That much was swiftly evident, but as India’s batters settled in for the long haul there was no need for anyone to hurry.As those words were spoken, and just beyond the reach of the cameras, the concourses were packed with people still getting geared – or in many cases beered – up
Your Guardian Sport weekend: England v India, Club World Cup, tennis and NBA
Day two of the first Test gets under way with Rob Smyth and James Wallace your over-by-over hosts. India are seeking a first series win in England since 2007, having been held to a 2-2 draw last time out, a garland their new red-ball skipper, Shubman Gill, ranks higher than going all the way in the Indian Premier League. “You don’t get many opportunities as a captain to be able to come to England and you get to have a crack at the IPL every year,” says one of the IPL’s poster boys and a title winner with Gujarat Giants in 2022. “In my opinion winning a Test series in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa is bigger.” Ali Martin, Andy Bull and Simon Burnton are our reporting team at Headingley
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