Sinquefield Cup: Anand draws with Vachier-Lagrave

St. Louis (USA)

Viswanathan Anand’s hunt for an elusive victory continued as he was held to a draw by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the fifth round of Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour. Getting his third draw besides two losses, Anand took his tally to 1.5 points out of a possible five and with just four rounds left, the Indian needs some big wins to recover the lost ground. Magnus Carlsen continued with his demolition act and downed Wesley So of the United States to join Levon Aronian of Armenia in lead on 3.5 points. 

Prague
Kapur best among Indians in first round at Czech Masters

The Indian quartet had a disappointing start at the D+D Real Czech Masters in the first round as Shiv Kapur was the best placed in tied 52nd place with a score of one-under 71 that included an eagle on par-4 fourth. SSP Chawrasia had a birdie hat-trick from 10th to 12th but he also had four bogeys and another birdie for an even par 72, and Gaganjeet Bhullar also shot an even par 72. Jeev Milkha Singh struggled with a round of 76. Chawrasia and Bhullar were tied 77th and Jeev was further down. Kapur, who started on the 10th, birdied the 16th, but had bogeys on either side on 15th and 17th. Then he had an eagle on fourth and parred the rest of the holes on the front nine. Chawrasia had four birdies and four bogeys.

Chennai
Nagal to clash with Bisht in ITF final

Sumit Nagal advanced to the final of ITF Men’s Future tennis tournament after posting a comfortable straight-set victory over VM Ranjeet here on Friday. Nagal served 12 aces during his semifinal match on Friday as he outplayed Ranjeet 6-3, 6-1 to set up a summit clash with Ronit Singh Bisht. Bisht, ranked 1023, dropped the first set before winning against a fighting Prajnesh Gunneswaran 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in another semifinal encounter. Meanwhile, in a well-fought doubles final, the experienced pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth got the better of younger duo of Mohit Mayur and Kaza Vinayak 6-4, 7-6(5). 

Ho Chi Minh City
Shuttler Verma loses in Vietnam Open

The Indian challenge came to an end at the $50,000 Vietnam Open Grand Prix as shuttler Sameer Verma lost his mens’s singles quarterfinal to South Korean second seed Lee Hyun Il. The Korean took just 42 minutes to beat Verma 21-15, 24-22. — Agencies