Latest Sports Updates from ESPN India: Norway Chess, T20 World Cup, and More!

Welcome to ESPN India’s daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.

June has plenty of sporting action taking place – which you can find listed out in ESPN India’s sporting calendar.

Norway Chess: Carlsen beats Pragg in armageddon; Vaishali secure bonus point

India’s R Praggnanandhaa lost to world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen in armageddon in Round 8 of the Norway Chess 2024. Carlsen has now extended his lead at the top to a full point while second placed Hikaru Nakamura suffered defeat against Alireza Firouzja in armageddon after their classical match ended in a draw.

R Vaishali, who lost her last two classical matches, secured a much-needed bonus point after beating Anna Muzychuk in armageddon.

Meanwhile, world champion Ding Liren once again squandered winning positions to lose against Fabiano Caruana in the armageddon.

Praggnanandhaa defended well against Carlsen’s white pieces to secure a draw in classical but couldn’t keep in armageddon where Carlsen was once again at his best.

With the extra point, Carlsen now has 14.5 points with two rounds to go followed by Nakamura with 13.5 points and Praggnanandhaa with 12 points. All three are still in the race to win the tournament.

There has been a change in lead in women’s standings with China’s Ju Wenjun on top after securing three points against Pia Cramling. She leads with 14.5 points to her name followed by Muzychuk with 13 and Vaishali with 11.5 points.

Another Indian in the fray, Koneru Humpy lost her classical match against Lei Tingjie.

In Round 9, Praggnanandhaa faces Caruana while Vaishali is up against Tingjie.

What’s on today?

Badminton: PV Sindhu faces Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu in the first round of the Indonesia Open.
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden play their French Open Men’s Doubles quarterfinal against Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
Cricket: India face Ireland in their opening game of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Football: Expect news from Kolkata as India prepare for their crunch World Cup qualifier against Kuwait in what will be captain Sunil Chhetri’s last game for the national team.

What happened yesterday?

Tennis: Rohan Bopanna picked N Sriram Balaji as his partner for the men’s doubles event at the Paris Olympics.
Badminton: HS Prannoy lost to Priyanshu Rajawat in the first round of the Indonesia Open, Lakshya Sen beat Kanta Tsuneyama
Shooting: Esha Singh finished 6th in the women’s 25m pistol event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich.
Chess: Arjun Erigaisi reached the top 5 of the FIDE Live Rating standings, making him the highest ranked Indian by live rating.
Chess: R Praggnanadhaa won an armageddon against world champion Ding Liren; Koneru Humpy beat R Vaishali

You can find all the details of yesterday’s events here.