Anand draws with Giri in Tal Memorial opener

Moscow: Fivetime world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against Anish Giri of Holland in the first round of the Tal Memorial Chess tournament

Updated At : 06:59 AM Sep 28, 2016 IST

FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the launch of official emblem of FIFA U-17 World Cup India-2017 in Panaji on Tuesday. PTI

Moscow

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw as black against Anish Giri of Holland in the first round of the Tal Memorial Chess tournament. Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia was the lone winner in the first round of the super tournament that carries a total prize fund of $200000. Nepomniachtchi defeated compatriot Evgeny Tomashevsky in a beautiful miniature lasting a mere 23 moves out of a Scotch opening.

Seoul

Shuttler Kashyap qualifies for Korea Open

Shuttler Parupalli Kashyap (in pic) qualified for the men’s singles competition of the Korea Open Super Series after he won two qualifying matches. Kashyap first defeated home challenger Gyung Bo Ko 15-21, 23-21, 21-19 before overcoming Thailand’s Pannawit Thongnuam 15-21, 21-16, 21-15. In the first round match, Kashyap will face Tian Houwei of China.

Panaji

India is passionate giant of football: Infantino

FIFA president Gianni Infantino described India as the “passionate giant” of football and asked AIFF to ensure that there is a steady growth of the sport in the country. “India has always been mentioned as the ‘Sleeping Giant’. But from what I have seen here I am sure that India is now the passionate giant of football,” Infantino said. “India are the world champions of passion. The work done by AIFF is impressive and it is not a coincidence that football is developing in India and the passion is growing year after year,” he added. — Agencies