6 h. ago Chess: Erdogmus, 14 , wins ‘Immortal’ game on Silk Road as Grand Swiss nears climax

The ‘Turkish Immortal’ allowed two white queens on the board, then sacrificed the black queen for a pawn, followed by checkmate by a previously unmoved black pawnThere were two new frontrunners on Thursday at the $625,000 Grand Swiss in Samarkand on the ancient Silk Road, after Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo, who had led for the first six rounds, was beaten. The top two finishers after 11 rounds will qualify for the 2026 Candidates and a potential title shot at the shaky crown of the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju.Leaders after round seven were Nihal Sarin (India) and Matthias Blübaum (Germany) 5.5, Maghsoodloo (Iran), Abhimanyu Mishra and Hans Niemann (US), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Alireza Firouzja (France), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Vidit Gujrathi (India) 5. Continue reading...

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7 d. ago Chess: Gukesh wins impressively on Silk Road as Grand Swiss starts in Samarkand

The contest in Uzbekistan will qualify two of the eight 2026 world title Candidates, but Nakamura, the world No 2, has controversially preferred a low-rated qualification routeThe 11-round $625,000 Fide Grand Swiss, which began on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the capital of the Silk Road, will decide two of the eight qualifiers for next year’s world title Candidates.India has a strong hand, as the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju (ineligible to qualify), is joined by the world No 4, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, and the world No 27, Vidit Gujrathi, who won the 2023 Grand Swiss in Douglas, Isle of Man. Praggnanandhaa is already well placed to qualify via the 2025 Fide congress circuit, from which the world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, qualified in 2024. Continue reading...

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7 d. ago Chess: World champion Gukesh falters against teenager as Grand Swiss starts on Silk Road

The contest in Uzbekistan will qualify two of the eight 2026 world title Candidates, but Nakamura, the world No 2, has controversially preferred a low-rated qualification routeThe 11-round $625,000 Fide Grand Swiss, which began on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the capital of the Silk Road, will decide two of the eight qualifiers for next year’s world title Candidates.India has a strong hand, as the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju (ineligible to qualify), is joined by the world No 4, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, and the world No 27, Vidit Gujrathi, who won the 2023 Grand Swiss in Douglas, Isle of Man. Praggnanandhaa is already well placed to qualify via the 2025 Fide congress circuit, from which the world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, qualified in 2024. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago My favourite childhood outfit: ‘I was an innocent Muslim girl – and a walking endorsement for ecstasy’

At 14, on a family road trip to Europe, I mixed traditional shalwar kameez and trendy T-shirts. Unfortunately, I didn’t really understand what was on my shirt ...My favourite teen outfit was memorable for the wrong reasons. Age 14, in a desperate attempt to be cool, I bought a graphic print T-shirt depicting a bright green can of 7Up with bubbles effervescing from the top – oblivious to the fact that it didn’t say 7Up at all, it said, “EUp”, and the bubbles were not bubbles, but MDMA pills being dropped into the can. To make matters worse, the image also included Fido Dido – the cartoon mascot for 7Up – sporting bloodshot eyeballs while smoking a spliff. Little did I know that I, an innocent, drug-free Muslim girl, was a walking endorsement for ecstasy.I wore it in 1992, the year my dad decided it was time for a grand family road trip across Europe. There were 12 of us in total, aged between five and 50: aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins – we all piled into a minibus my dad had hired...

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3 w. ago Cars belonging to Jewish tourists from Britain are covered in 'Free Palestine' graffiti in Alpine town

The incident occurred in the village of Châtel in the northern part of the French Alps, near the Swiss border.

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3 w. ago Dominant Hull KR see off Wigan to go six points clear at top of Super League

Wigan 6-10 Hull KRHadley try and three Martin goals enough for victoryHull KR underlined their position as Super League’s new dominant force with a statement victory at the home of the reigning champions and took a giant step towards completing the second leg of a historic treble.Having won the Challenge Cup ­earlier this summer, the Robins are now close to clinching a first ever League Leaders’ Shield after the kind of performance that confirms they are very much the team to beat on the road to the Grand Final at Old Trafford this October. Continue reading...

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