Nihal Sarin stays in second spot at Grand Swiss chess tournament
The Hindu
Harikrishna posts another win
In-form Nihal Sarin maintained his joint second position following a draw with Russia’s Pavel Ponkratov to reach three points after four rounds of the $425,000 FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament in Riga, Latvia, on Saturday. France’s Alireza Firouzja stayed ahead of the pack at 3.5 points.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for the 15-member Indian contingent.
P. Harikrishna posted his second straight victory, S.P. Sethuraman drew with Boris Gelfand while D. Gukesh and K. Sasikiran continued their unbeaten run.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.