Esports World Cup 2025: Nihal Sarin enters quarterfinal
Sarin pulled off back-to-back wins on Wednesday in the lower bracket, first against Netherlands' Anish Giri (2-0) and Vachier-Lagrave (1.5-0.5).
Sarin, representing S8UL Esports, held Vachier-Lagrave with black pieces in the first game, before claiming a win with white to secure his progression.
The time control for all games is 10 minutes with no increment and every fixture is a two-game match (with a possible armageddon tiebreak).
On Tuesday, Arjun Erigaisi, along with other group winners - Levon Aronian, Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen - progressed to the last-eight stage of the 16-player event which has a prize money of USD 1.5 million.
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First Post
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- First Post
Chennai Grand Masters 2025: Full schedule, participants, prize money and everything else you need to know
The third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters, India's strongest Classical tournament, gets underway in Chennai on Wednesday, 6 August and features some of the biggest names in the sport including Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi and Anish Giri. read more World No 5 Arjun Erigaisi and No 10 Anish Giri are the top contenders for the title at the 2025 Chennai Grand Masters. Image: Norway Chess/FIDE After his impressive performance at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh last month, where he represented Gen.G and had gone as far as the semi-finals, Arjun Erigaisi is set to compete on home turf in the third edition of the Chennai Grand Masters tournament, India's strongest Classical tournament. However, the 21-year-old Indian Grandmaster, who had also reached the semi-finals of the Freestyle Chess Las Vegas event before chess' debut at the Esports World Cup, is set for quite the challenge even if he can count on the support of the crowd to boost his morale. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The world No 5, after all, is part of a 10-man field that comprises names such as Anish Giri and Vincent Keymer besides fellow Indians Vidit Gujrathi and Nihal Sarin. Arjun thus faces quite the steep path to the summit even if he enters the tournament as a title favourite. Gukesh had won the inaugural edition in 2023, beating Arjun on the Sonneborn-Berger score after both players finished with 4.5 points each at the end of seven rounds. Arjun was also involved in a three-way tie with Aravindh Chithambaram and Levon Aronian on 4.5 points after seven rounds. Aravindh would go on to win the tie-breaks to be crowned champion. Having fallen narrowly short twice before, Arjun will be hoping to emerge triumphant on his third attempt. With the third edition of the tournament set to get underway on Wednesday, 6 August, we present to you the full schedule, format, list of players and everything else you need to know about the tournament: When will the third edition of Chennai Grand Masters be taking place? Chennai Grand Masters 2025 will be taking place from 6 to 15 August. Play will begin at 2 pm IST everday except on the final day, in which it will begin a couple of hours earlier. Where will the third edition of Chennai Grand Masters be taking place? The 2025 Chennai Grand Masters will be taking place at the Hyatt Regency in Chennai. ♟️ Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters LIVE in Chennai! The Board is Set. The Legends are Ready. Are you? 🎟️ Book now on Kynhood or just hit the link in bio! 📍 Hyatt Regency, Chennai | 🗓️ August 6–15, 2025@ChessbaseIndia @chess24com @chesscom_in@QBResearch @kyn_hood… — Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters (@Chennai_GM) July 30, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Who are the players competing in the Masters event at Chennai Grand Masters 2025? Following are the players who will be participating in the 'Masters' section: – GM Arjun Erigaisi (India) – GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) – GM Vincent Keymer (Germany) – GM Vidit Gujrathi (India) – GM Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) – GM Awonder Liang (USA) – GM Nihal Sarin (India) – GM Ray Robson (USA) – GM Murali Karthikeyan (India) – GM Pranav Venkatesh (India) What format will the games be played in in Chennai Grand Masters 2025? The tournament will take place in a single round-robin format with Classical time controls – in which players start with 90 minutes on the clock with an increment of 30 seconds per move. Should two or more players finish tied for the first spot after nine rounds, the winner will be decided in the tie-breaks which will comprise two blitz games with 3+2 time controls followed by an Armageddon game, if necessary. How much prize money is on offer at Chennai Grand Masters 2025? Here's the total prize money (in Indian rupees) that's will be awarded to the players competing in the Masters section, as per final standings: 1st: Rs 25 lakh 2nd: Rs 15 lakh 3rd: Rs 10 lakh 4th: Rs 7.5 lakh 5th: Rs 5 lakh 6th: Rs 3.5 lakh 7th: Rs 3 lakh 8th: Rs 2.4 lakh 9th: Rs 1.8 lakh 10th: Rs 1.8 lakh Besides the trophy and prize money, the tournament also offers crucial FIDE Circuit points that count towards qualification for next year's Candidates Tournament. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Where can I watch Chennai Grand Masters 2025 LIVE? The 2025 Chennai Grand Masters will be streamed live on YouTube by the ChessBase India channel.
The Hindu
17 hours ago
- The Hindu
Chinese club Shandong Taishan given two-year ban from Asian club competition after no-show
Chinese club Shandong Taishan has been banned from Asian club competition for two years for its no-show against South Korean side Ulsan HD in the Asian Champions League (ACL) Elite in February. The Chinese Super League side pulled out hours before the February 19 match, blaming 'serious physical discomfort' of players and saying it was unable to form a team. The Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Disciplinary and Ethics Commission said Shandong would not be able to play in the AFC's club competitions up to and including the 2026/27 season editions, and fined the club USD 50,000. ALSO READ | Son Heung-Min agrees terms with MLS club Los Angeles FC: Reports It also ordered Shandong to return a participation fee of USD 600,000 and a performance bonus of USD 200,000 to the AFC, along with compensation of USD 40,000 to Ulsan 'in respect of damages and losses claimed' by the South Korean club. Shandong's pull-out came days after the club said it had banned supporters for 'inappropriate behaviour' during a home ACL match against South Korean team Gwangju after fans in the crowd displayed images of South Korea's last military dictator, Chun Doo-hwan. Hundreds of people are estimated to have died or gone missing when the South Korean government violently put down the Gwangju uprising by pro-democracy protesters in May 1980, when Chun was the de facto leader of the country after leading a military coup.
The Hindu
17 hours ago
- The Hindu
NCAA tennis programme facing threat of elimination at multiple colleges
This should be an exhilarating moment for college tennis. Wimbledon featured a record 26 current or former college players in men's singles and nine more in the women's draw. TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones and San Diego's Oliver Tarvet, who reached the second round, played for their college teams just this spring. Ben Shelton, a 2022 NCAA singles champion at Florida, reached the quarterfinals. All of this is occurring as the threat of elimination faces numerous tennis programs. Prairie View A&M became just the latest Division I college to eliminate tennis when it announced on Monday it was dropping its men's and women's programmes. According to the International Tennis Association, which governs college tennis, other Division I schools cutting tennis since 2023 include Central Arkansas (women), Eastern Illinois (men and women), Lindenwood (men), Louisiana-Monroe (women), Radford (men and women), St. Francis College (men and women), San Francisco (men and women), Seattle (men) and UTEP (women). Former San Francisco men's player Asaf Friedler noted the Dons hadn't even finished the 2024 season when the athletic director emailed about a meeting the following day, where they learned the program would be dropped in a matter of weeks. Asaf Friedler practices for the 2024-25 season at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. | Photo Credit: AP Friedler remembers players crying at practice later that day. He said a recruit had committed to San Francisco just a couple of days before the announcement, a sign that even coaches were caught off guard. 'We were all like in shock,' Friedler said. 'We didn't know what to say. We looked at each other and we were very confused.' READ | NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships 2025: How did Indian athletes fare? During the pandemic, nearly two dozen men's or women's tennis programs were eliminated. But the latest cuts come as colleges across the country deal with the hard choices and financial realities of the USD 2.8 billion House settlement. Revenue sharing tends to favour football and basketball, and there are roster caps. The calculations are different for each school. David Mullins, CEO of the ITA, says college tennis is a great pathway to the pros. 'Our position within the tennis industry has never been better,' Mullins said. 'But on the other side, we're dealing with all these things happening with the NCAA model. Probably the challenges that we're facing from the collegiate side domestically have never been greater.' John Hartwell, who announced on Monday that he was stepping down as Louisiana-Monroe's athletic director to pursue other opportunities, noted earlier this summer that schools opting into the settlement must sponsor at least 16 sports. Louisiana-Monroe had 17 sports before eliminating women's tennis. 'Probably a factor for some folks is the squad size, that probably has something to do with it,' Hartwell said. 'Facilities are a challenge, too. I think those are probably key components. But I also think a lot of these schools that have more than required 16 sports are analysing everything cost-wise.' Cutting tennis saved Louisiana-Monroe about USD 250,000. Hartwell said the scholarship funds that went to tennis now will be directed toward the school's other women's teams. Roster size also leaves tennis vulnerable. Dropping a different sport with more team members leaves more athletes disappointed. 'When you're cutting a sport, it's not a fun position to be in,' Central Arkansas athletic director Matt Whiting said. 'You have to factor in numbers in those situations. (Tennis) certainly has a smaller roster.' ALSO READ | Krishna Jayasankar goes beyond basketball lineage, becomes first Indian woman to compete in NCAA finals Schools that eliminate tennis programs generally allow players to remain on scholarship throughout their time at the school. Many choose to transfer, searching for a new school while adjusting to a new country. Mullins estimates about 60 per cent of the players on Division I teams generally come from outside the U.S. Alex Aldaz, who is from Spain and played for Eastern Illinois this year, said his team got the news after the season already had ended and many of them were already back in their home countries. 'Their faces were like they didn't know how to react,' Aldaz said. 'They were lost... sad and angry.' Aldaz is now at Mercer. Friedler, who is from Israel, played for Tulane this past season. Many of their former teammates at their original schools weren't as fortunate. Many college tennis programs don't have facilities on campus, forcing them to rent local courts. Whiting said Central Arkansas had a facility on campus that required an estimated USD 1.5 million to USD 2 million in repairs. Hartwell said Louisiana-Monroe's tennis facility needed about USD 750,000 in improvements. Mullins said the US Tennis Association has offered grants to colleges opening full-service tennis centres to foster the sport's growth in their communities. Those schools then can make money by renting out their courts when their teams aren't using them. South Carolina is the latest school to attempt this, hiring Dainyell Fox as the Carolina Tennis Center's operations manager within the past year. Fox has started organising tennis lessons and classes while also exploring other potential revenue options. 'Our goal isn't going to necessarily put us completely in the black, but it reduces the financial footprint of men's and women's tennis,' South Carolina deputy athletic director Judy Van Horn said. The list of former Gamecocks includes Francisco Cerundolo, who is in the top 25 of the ATP rankings. Just as a growing number of former major-conference players succeed on the pro circuit, the struggle to survive is real for plenty of smaller programs. 'Our position is strengthened with each passing Grand Slam,' Mullins said. 'But on the other side, we have all these challenges here domestically that we're not able to control.'
