Chanu Opens with a Bang

Women's World Boxing Championships Qinhuangdao 2012

On the opening contest of the worldwide event in the 57kg weight category, India's two-time National Champion Mandakini Chanu Kangabam did not give too many chances to Serbia's Silesian Open Tournament silver medallist Bojana Ranic. The Indian boxer led by 10:3 after the first two minutes and finally the referee stopped their unequal fight in the third round.

In the welterweight category, India's Asian Women's Cup bronze medallist Neetu Chahal advanced to the last 16 after beating Hungary's EU Champion 23-year-old Bianka Nagy who is member of the national team since 2006. Neetu dominated the fight and won the bout by a large margin of points

India's best bet Mary Kom Chungneijang  starts her campaign in the Flyweight class tomorrow. The 29-year old five-time AIBA World Champion is one of the big favourites in the competition but will have to pass through some tough competition.

India's former AIBA World Champion, Sarita Devi Laishram, moved up three weight classes this year and won the gold medal at the Asian Championships in March, so she will be expected to go far in Qinhuangdao where the host nation's best fighter, Dong Cheng, will also want to show her pedigree.

India has fielded a maximum number of 10 boxers in the tournament along with the host nation, China, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

World Chess Championship 2012

Anand starts with characteristic d4

World Chess Champion, Vishwanathan Anand started his campaign against seasoned Israeli, Boris Gelfand, in his popular d4 opening leading to Gruenfeld by Boris in the World Chess Championship being played at Moscow. The game continued with 3...d5 4. Nf3 Bg75. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc37. bxc3 c5 8. Bb5+ Nc6 9. d5 Qa5 (surprising move by Boris and Anand took time to make the next move)10. Rb1 a6 (attacking the bishop at b5, this move would be deeply analyzed by experts after the post match conference) 11. Bxc6+ bxc6 12. 0-0 Qxa2 13. Rb2 Qa5 14. d6 Ra7 (almost forced) 15. Bg5 exd6 16. Qxd6 Rd7 17. Qxc6 Qc7 18. Qxc7 Rc7 19. Bf4 Rb7 20. Rc2 0-0 21. Bd6 Re8 22.Nd2 f5 23.f3 fxe4 24.Nxe4 Bf5 1/2-1/2 and both agreed for a draw.


Looked like one of the home preparations of Boris. Rumor has it that his good friend, Levon Aronian helped him in his preparations. Boris has quite a number of players in his seconds who are good at Gruenfeld.


Anand has to go back to his preparation now. What seemed like an advantage to the white earlier just fizzled out. He has to do a lot of homework before he comes back tomorrow.






:-Rakesh S Ranbir

Asian Squash Championship 2012

Top Seeds India lost to arch rival Pakistan in the Men's section while the Indian eves had their task cut out against the top seeds, Hong Kong to bag the gold in Asian Squash Championship 2012, played in Kuwait, yesterday.

Playing against tournament favourites always brings about the best in our girls said an ecstatic National Coach, Cyrus Poncha. Both Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa outplayed higher ranked opponents Annie Au and Joey Chan, World No.6 and World No.16 respectively. Joshna is currently world no. 71 and just came back from an injury layoff, but nothing stopped her from stopping her much fancied opponent from Hong Kong.

In the Men's section, a much improved Farhan Mehboob defeated top seed Sourav Ghoshal 11-7,7-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, while Farhan Zaman defeated Siddharth Suchde 11-6, 11-7, 11-13, 7-11, 11-9. Both the matches went into the deciding set as the crowd got ecstatic at the Salem Al-Sabah Int'l Squash Complex, Kuwait

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

Golden Girl Deepika

If there was anything for an Indian to be proud of, today, in the world of sport, it had to be in Archery. 17 year old from Jharkhand, Deepika Kumari, stunned World No.1 Lee Sung Jin of Korea in the women recurve Archery event to bag gold.

In the beautiful beach of Antalya when all the top seeds went on to bag the top spot in their respective finals, 27 year old Korean, Lee, was denied by the gritty teenage Indian. Lee was competing in her 4th World Cup and was a member of the Korean National side from 2003 to 2007. Lee was crowned individual and team world champion in 2005 and won the Universiade title in the same year. 

Deepika would turn 18 in this June and is currently ranked 6th in the world. She was cadet world champion in 2009 and is the current junior world champion from 2011. She has many more years to dominate in her field. 

When will India learn to rejoice the achievement of this stature in any other sport, other than cricket?

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

London Prepares.....continued

India bowed down to clinical Great Britain by 2-4 in a match dominated by the hosts in the first half. Britain opened its account within 4 minutes of start, with the help of an Indian foot, through Simon Mantell. Rob Moore got past the Indian goalkeeper with an excellent reverse-stick shot to score the second goal. Jackson scored the 3rd and the 4th goal as he delicately lifted past the keeper from close range. The consolation goals for India came from V R Raghunath and Sandeep Singh, the drag flick specialists, through Penalty Corners. The British goalkeeper denied a third one when he deflected a waist height shot from a penalty corner. India came back strongly in the second half but it was little too late as the British took it away with good defence.

In the other match, Germany defeated world champions, Australia 3-2. India will play its last and final match against the might Germans on Saturday.

:-Rakesh S Ranbir

London Prepares

India went down to the mighty Australians 0-3 in their opening match of the Visa International Invitational 4 Nation Hockey tournament being played at London. This forms a part of the "London Prepares" program. Playing against the World No.1 at the River Bank Arena, India took some time to adjust to the new blue and pink turf. Russel Ford (23rd minute), Matt Ghodes (42nd) and Luke Doernor (64th) scored for the Aussies. 

Had it not been for the Indian custodian at the goal, P R Sreejesh, India would have been beaten by more than a dozen goals. Though the Indian attack was strong, the defence let them down. 6 minutes before the hooter, V R Raghunath messed up inside the striking circle and the Aussies scored from the penalty stroke. Inda will now play Great Britain tomorrow and the last match with the mighty Germans on Saturday.

With the first match lost, India would try to salvage some pride with the next two matches. 

:-Rakesh S Ranbir