Humpy and the Chinese duo of Zhao Xue and Yifan Hao shared the lead going into the all-important final round. Of the trio, only Humpy managed to win her match against Marie Sebag of France, while Zhao bowed to Elina Danielian of Armenia and Hao was held to a draw by compatriot Shen Yang.

Humpy finished the tournament with a commendable 8.5 points out of a possible 11.

The victory gives Humpy a head-start in the newly constructed Grand Prix series which is also a part of the next world championship cycle. Apart from the title the Indian went home richer by Euro 6400.

Playing his final white game against the Russian, Anand forced Kramnik for a draw to win the championship 6.5-4.5.

Anand was in the driver seat even before the start of the penultimate game of the championship as he required only a draw against his challenger Kramnik to clinch the title. And after the 10th game fiasco, Anand kept things under control against the Russian through-out the match on Wednesday.

In the tenth game on Monday, for the first time Kramnik came into reckoning in what had been a one-sided affair so far. The Russian punished Anand’s reckless play in great style and proved his fighting qualities just while everyone thought that the match was over.

The 12-game final carries a purse of 1.5 million euros (about $1.8 million) and both get equal amounts regardless of the result on Wednesday.

Leading by 6-3 before the start of the 10th game of the much hyped match, Anand failed to perform to his own expectations and went down fighting when Kramnik started to show the sparks he was expected earlier.

Anand, who was ruling the match by a 6-3 margin coming in to the 10th game, simply slipped it away as for the first time Kramnik proved much superior player in the match.

Anand retained his 3-points lead following the draw with white pieces and is now just a draw away from retaining the crown he won last year in Mexico. The scoreline now stands at 6-3 in Anand’s favour with three more games to go.

If one goes by the rules of the world championship, the match is as good as over unless Kramnik is able to win the last three remaining games, an almost impossible task possible only if disaster strikes Anand.

The 39-move draw took Anand to just one point away from taking the title in this 12-game match. The Indian leads the Russian 5.5-2.5 now. The next board is slated for Sunday with Anand having white pieces.

The World Chess Championship is taking place from Oct 14 – Nov 2, 2008 in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.

The match consists of twelve games, played under classical time controls: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

The prize fund is 1.5 million Euro (approximately $2.35 million), including taxes and FIDE license fees, and is split equally between the players.

The seventh game with Anand having black will be played on Thursday after a day’s rest. Anand, who has scored two wins with black pieces, will have three more whites in the remaining six games. The victory has not come with his natural King-pawn opening with white.

The victory took Anand to 3.5 points out of a possible 5 and he now leads by a huge 2 points margin. The fact that both his victories have come as black is a clear indication that Anand is simply turning out to be the much better prepared player in the match.

With seven rounds still to come its probably not all-over for Kramnik, but the Russian will have to do strike back very quickly in order to stay in the match. As things stand, Anand has four white games remaining out of sevens and the some experts say that the Indian is all set to retain the world championship crown.

After suffering his second loss in the tournament, Anand’s number one world ranking also came under threat and unless there is a revival in fortunes of the Indian ace, he stands to lose some precious rating points as well from the tournament.

Anand is now a distant joint fifth having just 6 points apiece. For him, there were two disturbing things from the defeat against Aronian. One he lost with white and secondly he misplayed a superior endgame.

He is the current world champion in classical chess and considered the world’s best in rapid and blitz, too, Anand won the first two games of the four-game final to move into a driver’s seat. A draw in the third meant he had sealed the title with one game to spare. The fourth game was a formality with an 11-move draw.

It was Anand’s 11th win in Mainz as he extended his own record on Sunday. Anand, who also plays for a local team in the German chess league, is very popular here and over the last decade or so has been winning various tournaments in the city located on the banks of the Rhine.

The 10-time winner Anand could do little with his white pieces against Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen and world’s strongest ever woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary and settled for draws in the first two rounds while his victory as black against Morozevich raised visions of the 11th title victory here for the Indian ace.

The four-player double-robin event will see best two fighting it out for the title. The games are being played on a rapid chess format with 20 minutes to each player and a 5 second increment after every move is made.

Ivanchuk had recenty won the MTel Masters before coming to this tournament and has denied Anand of his 8th Leon title.

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Shetty, however, said film stars were welcome to watch cricket matches. BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla said the Cricket Board had no objection to Khan or any other film personality coming to watch international cricket matches involving the national side.

A visibly hurt Khan said in Mumbai that “God has given me enough and I don’t crave publicity”.

“I went to watch the match for the love of the sport. It is not in my nature to promote my films in others’ platforms,” he said.

“I think it is strange that just because I am popular, I can’t take my children to watch a spectator sport without creating some kind of ill will or ill thought in the mind of people. I am very disappointed,” Khan said.

                      KUMBLE who has engineered countless  victory platform for Indian team at home as well as at overseas and as per the saying that “Better late than never” BCCI finds his worth in the team .

The selectors could have fallen back on Sourav Ganguly , the most successful Test captain in the history of Indian cricket, or opted for Mahendra Singh Dhoni . Maybe, they didn’t want to take any risk with Ganguly because of his unpredictable form with the bat. As far as Dhoni is concerned, maybe they’re a bit confused, as many former players felt that it would be too early to hand him the Test captaincy.

                      YOUNIS KHAN’s brilliant century helped Pakistan to snatch a sensational four-wicket victory in the second One-Day International in Mohali on Thursday night.

                 After India rattled up an imposing 321 for 9, with Sachin Tendulkar  stroking 99, Younis slammed 117 as the visitors overhauled the target with one ball to spare in the high-scoring cliffhanger.

Younis and Misbah-ul Haq (49) did the spadework, but it was the flamboyant Shahid Afridi (29 not out) who dramatically changed the complexion of the game with his amazing stroke-play in the dying moments.

At one stage it looked as if the Indians would scrape through, but the charged-up Pakistanis made amends for a mid-innings slump largely because of the efforts of Younis and Misbah, who put on 102 runs for the fifth wicket.

Needing six runs off the last over, Afridi did not disappoint his colleagues in the dressing room and the visitors ultimately got past the target with one ball to spare.

Earlier, Tendulkar was distinctly unlucky to be dismissed for 99, the third time since the series against South Africa, but not before giving glimpses of his vintage stroke-play that laid the foundation for the commanding Indian total.

He found an able ally in Gautam Gambhir  (57) and the two stitched a record 173-run second-wicket partnership at the floodlit PCA stadium.

 The victory helped Pakistan level the series1-1.

                  M.S. Dhoni  who is leading india in ODI will we be the next choice of the board to hand over this responsibility.

The Hyderabadi said it would be the first time she would be seeing and India-Pakistan ODI live.

“The last one I watched was between India and New Zealand at Hyderabad,” said Sania, whose father and some friends are accompanying her.

Sania, who spent the last weekend in Goa trying to relax during the off season, said she would re-start training at the end of this month.

“I am trying to relax during the off-season,” she said, adding coming back from injury takes a lot of physical and mental effort.

                                         It’s a big opportunity for Delhi’s cricketers and I can’t wait to get on the field,”Gambhir said, “I am in good form and I am hopeful that will continue in the series. Pakistan are a strong tem but we won’t turn up just to make up the numbers.we are playing to win”.