Daily Excelsior.........state

V V S Laxman

India face must-win
situation against Pak

HOBART, Jan 20: Tottering on the brink of an early.....more

Viswanathan Anand & Kasparov

Corus Grandmasters Chess Tournament
Anand held to draw as
Kasparov survives scare

WIJK ANN ZEE (HOLLAND), Jan 20: India’s Viswanathan Anand failed to.....more

National Football League
Tollygunge Aggragami hold Mahindra 1-1 draw

CALCUTTA, Jan 19: Tollygunge Aggragami shrugged off their lethargy...more

Gurdarshan wins
National Walk

PUNE, Jan 20: Maintaining a steady pace Gurdarshan Singh of the Services....more

All India Indira Gold Cup Hockey
PP to take on PSB,
CRPF to meet Corps of
Signals in semis today

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 20: The CRPF XI, Delhi and Corps of Signals today defeated their rivals to find berth in the last four, in the ongoing 23rd All India Indira Gold Cup Hockey Tournament organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Hockey Association and sponsored by the J&K State Sports Council, here......more

Bhopal girls complete
adventure course

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 28: Twenty girls students of Barkat-Ullah University, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh today completed their ten-day long adventure course organised by the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports (Batote), here.......more

Rainbow School bags
two prizes in debate

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Jan 20: Shallu Mahajan, a class 10th student of Rainbow Modern School, here bagged second prize in debate contest speaking.....more

Jammu girl tops in
national essay competition

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 28: It was unbelievable fact for Sonia Pawar when she was told that she has claimed the first position in the Inter-state Hindi essay competition which held in Jammu last month......more

India face must-win situation against Pak

HOBART, Jan 20: Tottering on the brink of an early exit following three straight defeats, India face a must-win situation when they take on arch-rivals Pakistan in a crucial one-day triangular cricket series tie here tomorrow.

India, with three players nursing injuries and their morale at its lowest ebb as the disastrous tour down under shows no signs of a turnaround, will have to win the day tie at the Bellerive Oval if they are to keep themselves in the race for a place in the best of three final.

India, yet to play five league ties, can make the final against Australia of they win all games from now on while Pakistan are better off having won two out of four.

With batting in a shambles and skipper Sachin Tendulkar yet to resolve his dilemma whether to open the innings or come at number four, injuries to paceman Ajit Agarkar and seasoned all-rounder Robin Singh have added to Indian worries.

Agarkar, who suffered a Hamstring Strain on January 12 against Australia at Melbourne, is out for tomorrow and ignored seamer Debasish Mohanty might finally be included.

Mohanty’s exclusion proved costly on a lively wicket at SCG where India lost by five wickets after they were skittled out for 100 runs, but only after their two-man pace attack had reduced the hosts to 59 for 5. The placid oval pitch, however, is not expected to provide pace bowlers much assistance. Robin Singh, who has remained a picture of consistency, needed two stitches after a rising ball from Aussie paceman Brett Lee struck his left hand, but team management is confident he will play tomorrow.

India, looking for their first meaningful victory on the tour, will have to come up with a positive approach if they are to reverse the slump. Pakistan also were swept 0-3 in the test series by the Kangaroos, but have put up a spirited show to win two matches so far in the tri-series .

Skipper Tendulkar, made only one run after reverting to his role as opener at Sydney, will have to weigh in with a big knock and Saurav Ganguly alongwith the woefully out of touch Rahul Dravid will have to click if India are to come up with a big score or chase effectively.

With V V S Laxman, drafted into the one-day side after his splendid 167 in the third test at Sydney, proving a big failure and leg spinner Anil Kumble no where near his usual match-winning form, India will be the side under pressure.

Pakistan have also been struggling due to the poor run of their main batsmen, but their pace attack led by skipper Wasim Akram and the controversial Shoaib Akhtar has done fairly well and the team showed a refreshing approach by going after the Aussie attack at Sydney yesterday before leg spinner Stuart Macgill did the star turn for the hosts.

India squandered all advantage in their opening clash to allow Pakistan to come back from nowhere to pull off a last ball win and will have to guard against any such let-off if they are to remain in the race.

Middle-order bat Jacob Martin has recovered from his shoulder injury suffered while fielding in India’s 28-run loss to Australia at the MCG on January 12. But the team management will decide whether to include off spinner Nikhil Chopra instead of a specialist batsman. (PTI)

Corus Grandmasters Chess Tournament
Anand held to draw as Kasparov survives scare

WIJK ANN ZEE (HOLLAND), Jan 20: India’s Viswanathan Anand failed to capitalise on the advantage of playing with white and was held to a draw by Russian Vladimir Kramnik even as world number one Gary Kasparov survived a scare in the fourth round of the Corus Super Grandmasters Chess Tournament.

The Indian world number two, however, maintained his joint second position on 2.5 points along with Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Hungarian Peter Leko, who defeated Sambat Lputian here last evening.

The three overnight leaders - Kasparov, Kramnik and Dutchman Jeroen Piket - also continued to share the lead with three points each as the day featured only two decisive games out of a possible seven.

The Anand-Kramnik game looked destined for a draw after the Indian opened with his favourite king pawn and Kramnik refuted with a classical sicilian.

The players followed the routine opening moves of the Richer-Rauzer attack but anand was forced to think for a long time on the 19th move after Kramnik delayed castling. The Indian also missed a promising continuation (19. A4) which would have helped him in the ensuing endgame.

Kramnik took advantage of the chances and castled on the queenside whereon his position became safe. Anand played an enterprising 26. QF6 move and entered an endgame which was more dangerous than he thought but less promising than Kramnik figured. The peace treaty was signed on the 40th move.

Top seed Kasparov was lucky to salvage half point against England’s Michael Adams (1.5) with black pieces.

After an unusal move order in sicilian defence a position akin to the maroczy bind appeared on the board where black had sufficient chances to equalise. However, Kasparov decided to complicate the matters with a dubious pawn sacrifice on his 19th move.

Adams gained a huge advantage with well crafted piece manoeuvres and looked on course to cause a major upset after the first time control. Resourceful as he is, Kasparov put up a stiff resistance before his opponent fumbled in the second time control to steer the game into a draw after 61 moves.

Leko survived some anxious moments before scoring his first win of the tournament against Lputian.

In a theoretically ‘English’ opening, white produced a new move on 15th turn and gained the upper hand. Leko counter attacked on the queenside and took advantage of the weak rook manoeuvre by Lputian on the 22nd move to win in style.

Englishman Nigel Short (2) beat Judit Polgar of Hungary in the only other decisive result of the day. Playing with white, short opened with king pawn and was up against sicilian scheveningen of [olgar. He rejected a draw offer on 27th move and won a piece following a blunder by polgar on 32nd move.

Piket and compatriot Leok Van Wely played a friendly 11-move draw while Morozevich and veteran Vicktor Korchnoi decided to share the point when there was a lot to play for.

The game between Jan Timman (Holland) and Predrag Nikolic (Bih) also ended in stalemate though Timman had to use all his skills to thwart his rival. (PTI)

National Football League
Tollygunge Aggragami hold Mahindra 1-1 draw

CALCUTTA, Jan 19: Tollygunge Aggragami shrugged off their lethargy in the nick of time to hold Mahindra and Mahindra to a 1-1 draw in the Fourth National Football League here today.

Striker Seriki Abdulateef struck the equaliser midway through the second session to save the day for the home team after Mahindra and Mahindra shot into the lead at the stroke of interval through striker N Najeeb.

Tollygunge failed to play cohesively in the initial stages but raised their game by several notches in the second session and could have even won the match had their forwards not squandered a few scoring opportunities.

With this draw, Mahindra have 16 points to their credit from nine matches while Tollygunge have secured 13 points from as many matches.

The Mumbai outfit, who had won their last four matches in a row, forged ahead in the 43rd minute with striker N Najib finding the target, capitalising on a defensive lapse.

The goal was the result of a fast counter attack which saw Najib break through the defence with a sudden burst of speed and deft footwork and place the ball into the goal, beating Tollygunge custodian Bivash Ghosh who rushed out to foil the move but without much luck. (PTI)

All India Indira Gold Cup Hockey
PP to take on PSB, CRPF to meet Corps of Signals
in semis today

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

In the first match which played in the afternoon, CRPF, Delhi down Sikh Regimental Centre, Kapurthala, while in the second match of the day, Corps of Signals overpowered BSF, Jallandhar in the last 20 minutes game to secure victory in the tie-breaker 7-6.

Now, in the semi-finals on tomorrow, Punjab Police will take on Punjab and Sindh Bank at 1.30 pm, whereas, CRPF, Delhi will be meeting Corps of Signals at 3.30 for the finals berth.

There is going to be a tough match between Punjab Police and Punjab and Sindh Bank. On the one hand, Punjab Police has a number of international players to their side, while on the other hand, the moral of the Bank team is quite high and furthermore, both are linked with the state of Punjab.

Earlier, BSF, Jallandhar who was leading by two goals in the first half were overpowered by the Corps of Signals, who draw the level sounding the board in the 50th and 57th minutes of the match.

From BSF, centre-forward Bismavir Singh and Marinus Lara (left-in) were the scorers in the 33rd and 36th minutes to gain the first half lead. After the breather, both sides made equally well moves, but superb play by the Corps of Signals goal-keeper, Imran Khan resisted BSF to convert their moves into goals.

Whereas, Corps of Signals got success in the 50th minutes and 57th minutes. In the 50th minutes, right-in, D V S Rana converted a plenty corner, while left-in, Pawan Kumar scored a feild goal in the 57th minutes to level the score.

Later in the tie-breaker, the very first miss by international player, Harbhajan Singh proved costly for BSF, Jallandhar, whose goal-keeper was unable to stop any of the shot taken by the Corps of Signals shooters and the match went out of the BSF’s hands.

From BSF, Marinus Lara, Bismavir Singh, Iqbaljeet Singh and Kuljinder Singh were successful shooters, while for Signals, J P Singh, D D Barla, G Dass, Pawan Kumar and D V S Rana successfully scored.

In other match, CRPF, Delhi registered easy victory of Sikh Regimental Centre, Kapurthala by three goals to nil.

First goal was scored in the 10th minutes through plenty corner by left-half, Birsa Ekka. While, the remaining two goals came in the second half.

Centre-forward, Jonal Tapno has sounded the board in the 55th minutes on a plenty corner shot from the right side. And the third and the final goal came in the 62nd minutes through centre-half Parbhat Sahni.

During the match, CRPF won three plenty corners, but could convert only two, while Sikh Regimental Centre won two and none was converted into the goal.

Messrs Dalbir Mehta, Shaterpal Singh, Arvind Srivastav, Ranbir Singh, Mushtaq and Ram Gopal officiated today’s matches.

As the tournament is proceeding towards finals, a large crowd has started pouring in the incomplete K K Hakhu Astroturf Hockey Stadium, the venue. Where the only side of the playing field having the stairs, while the rest of the sides does not have any sitting arrangements, thus forcing a large crowd to stand on legs to watch two matches having around two and half hours duration.

Bhopal girls complete adventure course

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

In a simple, but impressive function, the participants most of whom came for the first time to the City of Temples shared their experiences before the chief guest, Mrs Raj Bharati, ex-state commissioner of the Bharat Scouts and Guides and other guests on the occasion to mark the concluding of their eight day long course.

Earlier, reading the course report, Wing Commander, S S Puri, Principal, Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering disclosed that this was for the first time that an exclusive course for the girls from Bhopal was organised by the Institute. During the course in adventure, which had also included lady teacher, Miss Vandana Mishra, Assistant Professor, Barkat-Ullah University and director Adventure Sports Club of the University, Mr R R Mate, the trainees were exposed to trekking, rock climbing, river crossing, PT and Yoga. They were also given theoretical knowledge on flora and fauna, first aid and were also taken around the city and the Holy Shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi for darshans and sight-seeing

During the course few guest lectures of Dr Seth, Director WWF, Mr Rawal of YHAI and Dr Karan, an eminent social worker were also delivered to the trainees.

A unique short nature trek was laos organised at Ramnagar sanctuary in which more than 100 students including handicapped and those from slum areas took part.

On the closing day, the participants put up a short but attractive cultural programme including songs, skits, poems and gazals.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest, advised the children not to forget the things taught during the course and do practice them and disseminate to others.

Mr R R Mate, director adventure sports of the University reveled that the University will send more number of students for regular mountaineering and skiing courses in Jammu.

The participants were also given special prizes for wining in environment quiz and debate competitions, besides inter-rope competitions. Besides this, prizes were also given for distinguished performance during the course and overall trophy.

Arshi Aziz bagged first prize, while second and third prize went to Madhu Beghel and Nidhi Mehta respectively for distinguished performances during the course. Sweta Simon got a special prize for being the best orater. In Inter-rope competition on debate on environment, Rope number IIIrd was declared as the overall champion.

Ms Simon bagged first prize in environment quiz, while first prize in Rock Climbing and Trekking went to Shikha and Preeti respectively.

The Institute had also displayed specialised equipment and gear used in mountaineering and trekking. The colourful high Aly tents pitched add a festive look to the venue and also attracted the passers-by.

Those participated in the camp included Sweta A Simon, Kiranjeet Griwal, Leena Sharma and Sushma Santani of Sai Satya Sai College; Ritu Chuksey, Pooja Rajgas, Anshu Sanena, Smita Naik and Durga Sanena from Gitanjali College; Chitra Kushwah, Madhu Baghal, Nidhi Mehta were from Nutan College, while Shikha Chaturvedi, Arshi Aziz, Preeti Shrivastava, Suman Sharma and Rajana Jain of M L B College.

Rainbow School bags two prizes in debate

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Jan 20: Shallu Mahajan, a class 10th student of Rainbow Modern School, here bagged second prize in debate contest speaking in favour of the topic, "Should India prepare for Nuclear War".

Geetanjli Sharma of class 7th class of the same school bagged second position speaking against the topic. The divisional level competition was organised by the Science Wing of the State Institute of Education, here recently. The winners were awarded cash prize and certificate by the Principal, SIE, Jammu.