Correct Answer :   Sayantan Das

Sayantan Das became India’s 81st Chess Grandmaster as well as the 11th player from West Bengal to bag the honour after he crossed the 2500-mark in live ratings and won the Cannes Open on Sunday (26th Feb 2023) with a score of 7.5 out of 9.

* The 26-year-old had achieved his final GM norm in 2017 but had to wait 6 years to cross the 2500-mark in order to become a grandmaster.

* Das had entered the Cannes tournament with 2476 rating points and finished the event with 2504.

* He joins the likes of Dibyendu Barua, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda, Neelotpal Das, Deep Sengupta, Saptarshi Chowdhury, Diptayan Ghosh, Saptarshi Roy, Mitrabha Guha, and Koustav Chatterjee who are all GMs hailing from West Bengal.

* Das, who is a member of Kolkata’s Alekhine Chess Club, is also a former U-12 World Champion as well as an U-16 Chess Olympiad bronze medal winner..

Source : Indian Express

Correct Answer :   Tejinderpal Singh Toor

Former Asian Games champion, Shot Putter "Tajinderpal Singh Toor" improved his record by 1cm on his way to gold in men’s shot put in the second AFI national throws competition on Wednesday (1st March 2023).

* Toor, looking to break the 20m barrier, throws beyond 19.51m but had to settle for a best performance of 19.95m.

* Tajinderpal Toor, the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist, showed supremacy in the shot put ring and left Karanveer Singh struggling to find his rhythm late in the day of the competition.

* Karanveer fouled in the first two attempts and with his brilliant efforts of 19.35m and 19.54m in his last two attempts, he bagged the silver medal. It was Toor’s performance and Karanveer’s last two attempts that lit up the arena as expected.

* The best efforts from Haryana’s Manjeet put Praveen Kumar of Rajasthan in second place in the men’s Discus Throw event. Manjeet showed his explosive energy at the end of the competition to send the Discus over 51.24m to earn the gold medal. Army’s Praveen has thrown the Discus to 50.88m on his second try to hold the lead till Manjeet’s superb final try.


AFI National Throws Competition: Results

Men Shot Put : 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Haryana) 19.95m (New Meet Record. Old: 19.94, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Patiala, 2022); 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 19.54; 3. Sahib Singh (Delhi) 18.77.

Discus Throw : 1. Manjeet (Haryana) 51.24m; 2. Praveen Kumar (Rajasthan) 50.88; 3. Deepak Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 49.72.

Hammer Throw :  1. Yuvraj Jakhar (Rajasthan) 52.69m; 2. S Dinesh (Tamil Nadu) 52.32; 3. Meraj Ali (Uttar Pradesh) 51.71.

Women Discus Throw : 1. Kalavathi Basappa (Karnataka) 44.83m; 2. Nandhini Vellaichamy (Tamil Nadu) 43.50; 3. MN Sushma (Karnataka) 42.98.

Hammer Throw : 1. Rekha Singh (Uttarakhand) 54.44m; 2. Manju Bala (Rajasthan) 53.83; 3. Amreen Subramanyam (Karnataka) 46.71..

Source : Kreedon

Correct Answer :   D Gukesh

* Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh has been honoured with Player-of-the-Year award by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) for clinching the gold medal with a record-breaking score of 9/11 in the 44th Chess Olympiad at Mahabalipuram last year (2022).

* In March 2022, Gukesh became only the sixth Indian to break the 2700 Elo-rating mark, and the youngest Grandmaster from the country to be rated above 2700.

* The All India Chess Federation (AICF) bagged the ‘Most Active Federation’ award conferred during the ACF annual summit

Correct Answer :   Anupama Upadhyay

Former world junior no. 1 Anupama Upadhyaya and Mithun Manjunath registered contrasting victories to clinch the women’s and men’s singles titles at the 84th Senior National Badminton Championship at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Tuesday (28th Feb 2023).

* Eighteen-year-old Anupama got the better of Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22, 21-17, 24-22 in an hour and 18 minutes in the women’s singles final before Mithun dominated the men’s singles summit clash against Priyanshu Rajawat for a 21-16, 21-11 victory in just 38 minutes.

* Top seeds Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly were crowned the new women’s doubles champions while T Hemanagendra Babu and Kanika Kanwal clinched the mixed doubles crown.

* S Kushal Raj and S Prakash Raj wrapped up the proceedings by clinching the men’s doubles title.

* The women’s singles final was a topsy-turvy affair with both players fighting for every point.

* The experienced Aakarshi fought back from 11-15 in the opening game by winning seven of the next eight points and pocketed the game on second game point.

* But the reversal only made Anupama more determined to go on the offensive as she began with a 3-0 lead in the second, extended it to 9-1 and then maintained the advantage to force the decider.

* The 18-year-old from Haryana looked like running away with the title and prize purse of Rs 3.25 lakh when she opened up a 17-10 lead in the decider. But Aakarshi wasn’t willing to give up.

Winners List :

Women’s singles : Anupama Upadhyaya bt Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22, 21-17, 24-22

Women’s doubles : Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly bt Kavya Gupta/Deepshikha Singh 21-10, 21-9

Men’s singles : Mithun Manjunath bt Priyanshu Rajawat 21-16, 21-11

Men’s doubles : S Kushal Raj/S Prakash Raj bt Akshan Shetty/Deep Rambiya 8-21, 21-19, 21-8

Mixed doubles : T Hemanagendra Babu/Kanika Kanwal bt Siddarth Elango/Khushi Gupta 21-17, 21-16.

Source : The Hindu

Correct Answer :   Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson now has more runs 7684* (92 tests) in test cricket than any other New Zealand player in history.

* Williamson moved to the top of the list early on day four of the second test between the Black Caps and England at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Monday (27th February 2023).

* Starting on his overnight score of 25, the former test captain needed four more runs to move past Ross Taylor, who tallied 7683 test runs before retiring last year.

* The 32-year-old, in his 92nd test, reached the new mark in the first over of the day when he clipped James Anderson off his toes to the mid-on boundary for four.

Most test runs for New Zealand : (* Williamson’s total when he set the new mark)

* Kane Williamson 7684* (92 tests)

* Ross Taylor 7683 (112)

* Stephen Fleming 7172 (111)

* Brendon McCullum 6453 (101)

* Martin Crowe 5444 (77)

* John Wright 5334 (82)

* Tom Latham 5038 (72).

Correct Answer :   Pramod Bhagat

Odisha's Pramod Bhagat excels in the Spanish Para-Badminton International Tournament. He won two medals in two events of the Level II tournament which concluded at Victoria in Spain on Sunday (26th Feb 2023).

* Meanwhile, Pramod had to be satisfied with a silver medal in the singles event as he went down against Daniel Bethell of England 18-21, 08-21 in the final.

* The Odia star partnered Sukant Kadam to get the better of compatriot Nitesh Kumar and Tarun Dhillon 22-20, 12-21, 22-09 in a high-voltage final match.

* Earlier, Pramod and Sukant had defeated the Chinese Taipei duo of Hsing Chih Huang and Yeh En Chuan 21-16, 21-17 in the semi-final to seal their spot in the summit clash of the doubles event.

* The Para-Badminton International Tournament was held in Victoria, Spain. Another Oriya player Subhrajit Moharana won a bronze medal in the doubles event.

* District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh) Suhas L.Y. won the bronze medal in the Men's Singles SL4 event of this tournament..

Source : Odishatv

Correct Answer :   Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi (35) won FIFA's best men's player of the year for 2022 after winning his maiden World Cup title with Argentina in December 2022 in Qatar.

While Alexia Putellas (Spain) was awarded the best women's player for a second straight year.

Other awardees :

* Best fans award: Argentina

* Fairplay award:  Luka Lochoshvili (Georgia)

* Best men's coach: Lionel Scaloni (Argentina)

* Best women's coach: Sarina Wiegman

* Best goal (Puskas award): Marcin Oleksy..

Source : Indian Express

Correct Answer :   Shabnim Ismail

* South Africa's Shabnim Ismail has become the most successful bowler in the history of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023.

* Ismail represented the South African Women's team between 2009 and 2023 in which she played 32 matches.

* Shabnim Ismail has left behind Anya Shrubsole of England, who has taken a total of 41 wickets.

* Poonam Yadav is the highest wicket-taker for India in the World Cup as she has taken 28 wickets in 18 matches.

Correct Answer :   Manchester

Manchester United’s six-year wait for a trophy is over after beating Newcastle 2-0 to win the League Cup on Sunday (26th Feb 2023).

United manager Erik ten Hag has wasted no time in guiding the club to silverware just 10 months after being hired.

Casemiro headed United in front in the 33rd minute of the final at Wembley Stadium and Sven Botman’s own-goal made it 2-0 in the 39th.

It is United’s first trophy since winning a League Cup and Europa League double under Jose Mourinho in 2017. The victory keeps alive Ten Hag’s four-pronged challenge this season, with his team in contention for the title and still competing in both the Europa League and FA Cup.

For Newcastle, the wait for a first major domestic trophy since winning the FA Cup in 1955 goes on. The Saudi Arabian-backed club mounted a fightback in the second half, but could not find a breakthrough goal.

Source : Indian Express 

Correct Answer :   Ankit Gulia

Indian Greco-Roman wrestler Ankit Gulia has won a bronze medal in the Ibrahim Moustafa ranking-series in Alexandria, Egypt (25th Feb 2023).

The 19-year-old Ankit, who lost 9-0 to Georgian Otar Abuladze, got the better of Nurzhigit Keneshbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan 9-0 in the repechage round.

The Indian grappler won the medal after Iranian 67kg Olympic champion Mohammadreza Abdolhamid Geraei withdrew from the bronze medal match due to an injury. Geraei suffered the injury in one of his earlier bouts..

Source : AIR