No breakthrough yet at the World chess championship
The Hindu
Carlsen and Nepo draw Game 3 in 41 moves
A day after a cracker of a contest, challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi and champion Magnus Carlsen were involved in a quick 41-move draw, in under three hours, in the third round of their World chess championship clash in Dubai on Sunday.
Going into Monday’s rest day, the players were locked 1.5-1.5 after three rounds. The first player to reach 7.5 points in this 14-game contest will win the title.
The third game, that followed the opening lines of Ruy Lopez seen in the first game on Friday, was evenly fought. A series of exchanges followed and the battle reached an endgame where the players had a bishop and five pawns each. The equal game was drawn after a three-fold repetition of moves.
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.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.