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Ding grabs hold of the jaws of defeat.

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Ding snatches draw from jaws of defeat

Gukesh has Ding on the ropes for most of Game 7 but the world champion digs deep to escape with scores level at halfway

Bengaluru: After a quiet game in his previous turn with the White, Gukesh arrived for Game 7, armed and ready to spill blood on the board. He drove daggers through Ding Liren and nearly mummified him before the reigning world champion returned from the dead with some stellar endgame defence to force a draw. The spectators’ arena broke into a rapturous applause as the players shook hands after a game that lasted 72 moves and over five hours. It’s the longest game played so far in this World Championship match and the contest remains tied at 3.5-3.5, with seven more classical games remaining.

It mustn’t be easy for Gukesh to reconcile with a setback like this, having had his opponent on the ropes through the greater part of the game. “It’s never pleasant to miss a winning position but I’m happy that I could outplay my opponent quite easily in the opening,” said Gukesh in the press conference that followed, “It’s a missed chance but he also missed some chances earlier in the match… but quite a few positives to take away from it. I guess the biggest lesson is to stay focused and convert good positions.”

The Indian teen won the opening battle on trotting out 1.Nf3 for the first time in this match and went on to uncork a rare, ingenious 7.Re1 move that was clearly cooked up by his team. It cast Ding right away into contemplation for over 20 minutes. “Re1 is a relatively new move and the point was to go dxc4-e4 and get a new position on the board… he didn’t react in a very precise way so I guess the idea worked,” Gukesh said.

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Ding later admitted that he was completely thrown off by the move. “I came back from the toilet and was totally shocked,” he said. “I took a lot of time to come up with a reply. Even then it wasn’t accurate.” The world champion ended up responding with the principled 7. dxc4 which led to a fascinating fight for the centre. Ding was soon down to 24 minutes on the clock by move 21.

Gukesh went on to make the strategic mistake of rushing to trade the dark-squared bishops, and then went after Black’s c4 pawn. Here he perhaps overlooked Ding’s resource of springing his knight back into the game. Ding defended bravely and even looked like he might make it over the line alive, with a draw. All he had to do was manoeuvre his knight, hit move 41 and then figure out the rest. But nerves can make players do the inexplicable things. With the clock ticking down to its dying seconds on move 40, Ding blundered. Seven seconds on his clock, he pushed his King to the e5 square instead of galloping his knight to c8 – which would have kept his drawing chances intact. Leela Chess Zero right away pegged Gukesh’s chances for a win at 75 percent, from roughly 19 percent.

After the players reached time control, Ding was on the ropes. Down a pawn, with a weak king on d5 in an objectively lost endgame, he was again back burning through his clock, shaking his head, occasionally looking up at his opponent and trying to pick out the right move out of twenty-odd tempting, false continuations. Gukesh sat at the other end, hands folded across his chest, watching the reigning world champion suffer. Around move 44, Leela gave Gukesh 92 per cent chance of winning the game.

But after spending over 22 minutes trawling through defensive resources, Ding had a few answers. “I was fearing that I was getting outplayed,” Ding said, “But my position was maybe not so bad, I should be more confident of my position.”

Gukesh’s decision to go Bd1 on move 46 allowed Ding to stir up activity. It’s here that Ding brought his endgame skills and resilience to bear – not faltering, even though Gukesh found ways to keep the game going.

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Ding’s idea was to restrict White’s bishop and drum up counterplay for his knight. Black’s knight was centralised, King was activated while White’s bishop was on the first rank. Ding went on to trade off the rooks and got rid of White’s final pawn to make a miraculous escape and take a half a point for his efforts. Ding’s team heaved a sigh of relief. “Today I did not give up in a very difficult position… My second (Ni Hua) said I saved my life,” Ding told Chess.com. In the end it was brilliant preparation from Gukesh, outplaying his opponent thoroughly before the reigning world champion dug deep and summoned a fightback. Gukesh was not quite able to see through his opponent’s resources in the endgame.

The match moves to Game 8 on Wednesday and Ding will have the White pieces. It’s possible he might want to play a solid, quiet game and we could see the fireworks back again for Gukesh’s game with the White pieces on Thursday.

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Jagbir Singh, a former hockey coach for India, had a heart attack and is in intensive care.

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Jagbir suffered a heart attack while the doctors were treating him for the blocked artery.

Former India forward and hockey coach Jagbir Singh on Friday complained of chest congestion and was rushed to the hospital, where he suffered a massive heart attack during a procedure.

The two-time Olympian is here for the Hockey India League (HIL) with Team Gonasika.

Jagbir felt breathing problems during the team’s training session on Friday afternoon and was immediately taken to Apollo Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a blocked artery.

He suffered a heart attack while the doctors were treating him for the blocked artery.

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“Jagbir felt breathing problems after he went to hotel following the Team Gonasika’s training session with whom he is associated. He was instantly taken to Apollo Hospital where he is under ICU now,” a source told PTI.

An excellent forward of his time, Jagbir is currently in ICU.

The 59-year-old former Air India employee represented India in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

He played for India between 1985 and 1996, winning a bronze medal in the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul and a silver in the 1990 edition in Beijing. In all, he earned 175 international caps.

Jagbir coached the Indian men’s team in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

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According to the ICC’s Test bowling rankings, one-man army Bumrah is currently the highest-rated Indian ever.

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Bumrah, who is in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin

Jasprit Bumrah is the only reason why India still go into the Sydney Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a chance of levelling the series, and everybody in the world knows it.

With 30 wickets in the series at a remarkable average of 12.83, the pacer has kept Australia on the edge, and as a result of that performance he is not only the highest-ranked bowler in the ICC Test rankings but has also recorded the highest peak rating points ever achieved by an Indian bowler.

Bumrah, who is also in the running for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year award for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and also the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award, has moved up from his previous tied high of 904 with Ravichandran Ashwin. His tally of 907 rating points — he is on top of the rankings released on Wednesday with Josh Hazlewood of Australia at 843 a distant second — now places him joint 17th in the all-time ratings list.

Ashwin had achieved the 904 rating in December 2016 after the fourth Test against England at Wankhede after picking up 24 wickets in his previous three Tests.

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The peak ratings list is led by England seamers Sydney Barnes (932) and George Lohmann (931), who played more than a century ago, while Imran Khan (922) and Muttiah Muralitharan (920) are third and fourth.

The nine-wicket match haul at Melbourne also saw Bumrah become the only bowler in Test history with more than 200 wickets at an average under 20. That’s better than the great Malcolm Marshall (20.94), Joel Garner (20.97), Curtly Ambrose (20.99) and Fred Trueman (21.57).

Incidentally, the highest ever rating points achieved by an Indian batter is 937– by Virat Kohli after the Test against England at Southampton in 2018. He is 11th in the list of all-time highest rated batters.

While ratings form the basis of the ICC’s weekly rankings, plotting of week-on-week cumulative rating points also offer a clear insight on how a player’s career panned out over the years. The highest rating points achieved goes on to show where a particular player reached the peak of his career.

The ICC says its ratings “take account of the opposition strength; so there shouldn’t be any obvious advantage to playing against any particular team”. But the ratings are not really comparable over different eras. The reason for that is simple: how a player performs is linked to the quality of the opposition in any given era, so a rating of 900 during the time of the West Indies bowling greats may actually be at par with 950 at a time when such a bowling attack not in operation. Still, the ratings are a useful tool that tell you about a player’s consistency and impact on the sport at a given time.

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“He (Bumrah) has been their most influential player and he’s made it difficult for us at times,” Australian skipper Pat Cummins said about Bumrah after the Melbourne Test. “He poses the biggest threat. Bumrah is still going to create a threat no matter where he enters the game. In Sydney, he’ll be a threat again, so we’re going to have to be able to combat that.”

To be sure, Cummins has a ratings peak of 914 — achieved after the 2019 Old Trafford Test against England — which places him fifth on the all-time list. He is currently third in the ranking with a rating of 837.

On the batting front, Kohli, who once ruled the rankings, has fallen to No 24 with a rating on 633. Rohit Sharma comes in at 40, with a rating of 560 (his best-ever rating was 813 after the Test against England at the Oval in 2021). Yashasvi Jaiswal is currently the top Indian batter in fourth place in the rankings at 854, which is also his peak rating.

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Days after the argument, Magnus Carlsen was purchasing a new pair of jeans when he arrived one minute and eleven seconds late for the three-minute game.

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Only a few days back, Magnus Carlsen was disqualified from the Rapid event for refusing to change into formal trousers.

Magnus Carlsen, who shared the 2024 World Blitz Championship title in Wall Street, New York, on Wednesday along with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, made another late entry on Monday when round 1 of the tournament began as he was buying a new pair of jeans.

Only a few days back, the world No. 1 was disqualified from the Rapid event for refusing to change into formal trousers. Carlsen was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, which was “explicitly prohibited” under the original tournament regulations. He was also disqualified after he refused to change his attire by chief arbiter Alex Holowczak ahead of the ninth round.

However, on Monday, Carlsen returned to the World Blitz Chess Championship after FIDE’s decision to allow players to compete in jeans. Announcing the change in policy, FIDE boss Arkady Dvorkovich said “I took the decision to trial an approach to provide more flexibility to FIDE officials in judgements regarding the suitability of the attire.

“The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress-code, but elegant minor deviations (that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket) are allowed,” Dvorkovich said in a statement on X.

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However, in round 1 of the tournament against Michael Bezold, a 52-year-old German grandmaster, the five-time champion turned out late by a minute and 11 seconds for a three-minute game. Bezold, who was playing with white pieces, had already made his first move before Carlsen made his move with his one minute and 49 seconds left on the clock. The Norwegian eventually won.

“It feels good to be back,” Carlsen told the presenter after his win when asked if he was wearing a new pair of jeans. “Yes, a new one. I got them just for the game today, which is one of the reasons why I was late. But of course it’s my responsibility.”

Magnus Carlsen defends Blitz title
In an unprecedented result, Carlsen defended his title after he shared the Championship with Nepomniachtchi. he decision was made by both the players after three straight draws in the sudden death. Earlier, Carlsen kicked off the final on a winning note, winning back-to-back games, implying a draw could have sealed the title in his favour. But the Russian bounced back in style, winning next two games to force a tie-breaker.

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