The Sports-India Community

India's Grandmaster Harikrishna remains strongly in contention for the World Junior Championship, now being played in Kochi. He was leading for much of the way, but is now sharing the lead after 12 rounds:
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 ... 292001.htm

There continues to be discussion in other threads about whether chess is a sport. It is certainly a game, and both Chess and Bridge have always been covered on the sports pages of Indian newspapers (as well as most non-US newspapers). I don't think that a sport necessarily needs physical activity; anything that involves competition between two individuals or teams is a game/sport. Some sports require mental rather than physical dexterity, and of course Chess is very much an Indian sport -- as it was created in India long before finding a more comfortable home in Russia.

Harikrish after Anand won the Junior world championship..

http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/01/stories ... 961800.htm

CONGRATULATIONS to Harikrishna, the new world junior champion.
What was truly astonishing was that there were three Indians who finished in the top-10 in the boys' event and FOUR among the top-10 girls. No other country had more than 1 representative among the top-10 on either side.
This definitely suggests that the future of Indian chess is very bright indeed -- particularly on the women's side. Humpy (the 2002 world junior champ) courageously chose to play on the boys side and finished 10th (probably a slightly disappointing outcome for her, but suggestive of her potential on the men's side of professional chess). In effect, 5 of the top 11 junior women players are from India! Amazing.

Congrats to Harikrishna for winning World Junior Championship ... Also Isha Karavde won bronze medal at Girl side and in that also capture 2nd norm for WGM ... Heartly congratulation to all Indian players, who perform well above their level ... Keep it up, atleat in Chess we can ay our future is in proper hands ..

Jaydeep.

indians can be proud of atleast 1 sport at the moment

Congrats Harikrishna for World Junior Title. It's been a while since Anand won it back in 1987.
And, Anand won Keres Memorial by a score of 5/5. Amazing!

Hari is playing at Intl invitational tournament in Bermuda and is leading after 5 rounds along with two others with 3 points

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/05/stories ... 271700.htm

Harikrishna finished tied for 1st with Gelfand in the tournament, with a TPR of 2731 (he is rated 2632 at the moment). Great tournament for him.

See this url for pics and report:
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2185

World Junior Champion Harikrishna just finished playing in Dos Hermanas 2005, just about performing at his rating.

Final Standings: 1. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2673 5.5; 2. Azmaiparashvili, Zurab g GEO 2671 5.0; 3. Dreev, Alexey g RUS 2705 5.0; 4. Felgaer, Ruben g ARG 2593 5.0; 5. Rustemov, Alexander g RUS 2573 5.0; 6. Harikrishna, P g IND 2646 4.5; 7. Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2635 4.5; 8. Dominguez, Lenier g CUB 2658 3.5; 9. Korneev, Oleg g RUS 2611 3.5; 10. Illescas Cordoba, Miguel g ESP 2633 3.5;

Great news. GAIL (Gas Authority of India) decided to sponsor Harikrishna. According to the pact they will invest 10 lakhs on Harikrishna every year. It is a welcome news especially because Harikrishna's performance was hampered due to sponsorship issue. Our sportsminister Sunil Dutt did a great Job here. He recommended Harikrishna to GAIL. He has been doing some good things as sports minister.

Harikrishna is planning to go to either Niegel short ( Did I spell correctly) in Britain or to Ubilava in spain for coaching. Man I don't know If my spellings are correct or not. I am translating it directly from a Telugu paper.

His next tournament is going to be at Minnesota

Thanks Sandeep for the news.

Three cheers for Gas Authority of India. We must acknowledge the sponsors when they come through for our players.

Mr Sunil Dutt seems to be doing a decent job of helping our players.

Thanks Sandeep for this great news ... All Kudos to GAIL and our Sports Minister Mr. Sunil Dutt.

So now sponsorship issue is solved and we can expect more entertaining display by Harikrishna.

Jaydeep.

Good news! Thanks Sandeeep for pointing this one out. I still wonder why Wipro pulled out after few good years with him. The Hindu has the news as well.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 ... 151911.htm

Funny even Nigel Short lives in Spain these days. Ubilava is Anand's second for a number of years. So, looks like he wants to set up a base close to Anand, who lives in Spain too.

This news article made my day !!!

http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/18/stories ... 201800.htm

If this works out, Hari Krishna will altogether be a different force to reckon with. I think this is the right time for Hari to have such a thing happen to him. I won't be surprised if he crashes into top 15-20 by around 2007. IMHO, appointing Ubilava as second was a big turning point in Vishy's career.

"Thanks to GAIL, there is very little worry about money. They have assured me of full reimbursement for travelling, coaching and participating in tournaments," Harikrishna said.

Does anyone know who this GAIL is?

Regards,
Varma

GAIL is Gas Authority of India. It is a public sector company. Varma this was mentioned just 3 posts prior to your one