Kasparov Handed Iranian Chess Gold Medal

Sports Desk

Iranian chess player Motahare Asadi grabbed Iran’s sole gold medal World Youth Chess Championship 2012 in Slovenia in category of female below the eight-year.
According to IRNA, the gold medal of the Iranian chess player was given by Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kimovich Kasparov.
Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion in 1985 at the age of 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov. He held the official FIDE world title until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association.
He continued to hold the “Classical” World Chess Championship until his defeat by Vladimir Kramnik in 2000. He was the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to Deep Blue in 1997.
Kasparov’s ratings achievements include being rated world No. 1 according to Elo rating almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005 and holding the all-time highest rating of 2851. He was the world No. 1 ranked player for 255 months, nearly three times as long as his closest rival, Anatoly Karpov. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive tournament victories and Chess Oscars.
Kasparov announced in Linares, Jaén his retirement from professional chess on 10 March 2005.
Asadi collected 10.5 points out of 11 games stood on the first spot. Chess players from Russia and Hungary stood second and third, respectively.
In the previous round of the competition held in Brazil, Iranian team took a silver in the boys U-18 and a bronze in the girls U-14.
The 2012 World Youth Chess Championship opened in the northeastern Slovenian city of Maribor on November 7, and wrapped up on November 19.
A total of 1,587 young chess players from 93 countries compete in various age groups.

Rise of Youth Football Hailed

The Organizing Committee for AFC Youth Competitions, which met under the chairmanship of Myanmar’s Zaw Zaw on Saturday, hailed the development of youth football in the continent and took some key decisions to enhance its growth.
The committee, which met on the sidelines of the ongoing AFC U-19 Championship, approved the qualifiers and finals regulations for the 2014 AFC U-19 and U-16 championships, pending further discussions on the date of birth cut-off for these competitions, Afc.com wrote.
At the outset, AFC Acting President Zhang Jilong thanked the members for playing an active role in the development of youth football in Asia.
“The performances of teams in the recent AFC U-16 Championship in Iran and now in the AFC U-19 Championship promises a bright future for Asian football and I must thank all the members of this committee for their active role in promoting youth football,” he said.
“The top four teams from both the youth competitions will represent Asia in the FIFA events next year and after looking at the performances of these teams, I am confident that they will fly the Asian flag high at the global stage,” he said.
Zaw Zaw urged the members to continue working together for the betterment of Asian youth football.
“We will have to continue towards development of our youth football because without youth there is no future of Asian football. “I would like to request you to kindly continue to play an active role in taking our football at a higher level,” he told the members.
The committee decided to propose to FIFA, after AFC Executive Committee’s approval, the introduction of FIFA International Dates for youth competitions on which dates the clubs are bound to release youth players to play for their national teams.
The members discussed on minimum standard for hosting AFC championship, date of birth cut-off for age group competitions, coordination with other confederations on arranging preparatory tournaments before age-group World Cups.

Czech Lead Spain in Davis Cup Final

Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych gave the Czech Republic a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup final when they beat the Spanish duo of Marc Lopez and Marcel Granollers 3-6 7-5 7-5 6-3 in the doubles rubber in Prague.
After splitting the opening singles rubbers on day one at the O2 Arena in the Czech capital, Stepanek and Berdych came in to replace the nominated duo of Ivo Minar and Lukas Rosol and take on the experienced Spanish duo of Lopez and Granollers, Eurosport reported.
The result leaves the hosts in the driving seat heading into Sunday’s reverse singles, when Berdych will take on David Ferrer and Stepanek will face Nicolas Almagro.
Spain, without the injured Rafa Nadal, are bidding for a fourth Davis Cup crown in five years, while the Czechs are aiming to become the first country in 22 years to win men’s and women’s team titles in the same season.
The Czech duo took some time to settle into their rhythm and quickly found themselves trailing by a break after just two games, Granollers producing a beautiful lob and unreturnable forehand combination.
In spite of Berdych’s late finish to the season, he was involved in the season-ending championships in London, it was actually Stepanek who looked the more sluggish of the two Czech players, slapping down a double fault in the process of dropping his serve.
Lopez and Granollers not only took full advantage of their opponents indifferent start but also made their extensive doubles experience tell as they raced through back-to-back love service holds before taking the first set when Granollers held with a dipping forehand winner.

Celtic Search for More Glory in Lisbon

Celtic’s 2-1 win over Barcelona two weeks ago was described as the second greatest occasion for the club and by a quirk of the fixture list they go back to the city where the greatest took place on Tuesday--Lisbon.
It was in the Portuguese capital, on May 25 1967 that Celtic became the first British club to win the European Cup when they beat Inter Milan 2-1 at the National Stadium, Reuters reported.
That team, of which every player was born within 30 miles of Glasgow are now immortalised as the “Lisbon Lions” and if today’s side, comprising of diverse nationalities, can conjure a victory there and beat Benfica in their penultimate Group G match they will secure their place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Celtic travel in buoyant mood after the win over Barcelona, the shock of the season so far, lifted them on to seven points in Group G, two behind the Spaniards and three ahead of Benfica. Spartak Moscow are bottom with three.
They returned to the top of the Scottish Premier League with a 2-0 win at Aberdeen on Saturday, their first league win in four outings with both goals coming in a four-minute burst in the second half from substitute Lassad Nouioui and Charlie Mulgrew.
Joe Ledley and Miku, both of whom played against Barcelona, were rested and should be fresh to face Benfica.
Striker Giorgios Samaras was substituted in the 80th minute, while 18-year-old Tony Watt, who came on to score the decider against Barca, played the full 90 minutes but is likely to start on the bench.
Celtic did not play all that well to beat Aberdeen, and will need to show greater resolve against Benfica, who were European champions in 1961 and 1962.
To keep their hopes alive of any further involvement this season, Benfica badly need to win on Tuesday as they face a daunting trip to Barcelona in their final group game.

Hamilton Wins US Grand Prix

The title stand-off will go down to the final race in Brazil after Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix from standings leader Sebastian Vettel and hopeful Fernando Alonso at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The result means that the battle moves onto Brazil with just 13 points between Vettel and Alonso in the standings but Red Bull did secure another constructors’ championship despite the retirement of Mark Webber with an alternator problem on lap 18, Eurosport reported.
Felipe Massa finished fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Jenson Button and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen in a well attended first running of the race at the new Austin venue.
“To be able to beat Red Bull and Sebastian is definitely a tough challenge but we managed to do it,” said Hamilton afterwards. “We weren’t so bad in the first stint but weren’t able to get past and in trying to do so my tires went off. He came out ahead and the traffic worked out quit well. Traffic usually catches me out so I was glad it worked slightly in my favor.”
Hamilton pitted from second on lap 21 and Vettel responded to the move for his only stop a lap later. The McLaren stayed all over the back of the Red Bull for 42 laps before Hamilton made his move, squeezing past Vettel and almost touching the enraged German into turn 12 in the process. And that’s where he stayed until the end of the race, Vettel finishing a mere 1.8 seconds behind.
“I wasn’t too happy to send a nice big invitation to Lewis when I had to go through [Narain] Karthikeyan [of HRT],” said Vettel.

16 Wrestlers to Compete In Aliyev Cup Sports Desk

Iran will partake in the 2012 Aliyev wrestling Competition in Azerbaijan with 16 wrestlers.
According to ISNA, Iran squad is comprised of young medal grabbers of the Asian and world championships, the top wrestlers of Takhti Cup and a talented wrestler in the 55-kg category.
The coaching staff of the team regarded the Aliyev Competition, as a warm up for the prestigious FILA Wrestling World Cup which scheduled for February in Tehran.
FILA Wrestling World Cup is an international wrestling competition among teams representing member nations of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), the sport’s global governing body.
The championships have been conducted every year since the 1973 tournament. The World Cup began as a dual-meet competition for the top teams on each continent, but now features the top teams in the rankings of the previous year’s world championships.
The Aliyev competition will be held in Makhachkala, Dagestan from November 28-30.
The members of the Iran’s team are as follows:
55-kg category: Mohammad Hossein Soltani and Mohammad Tahmasebizadeh
60-kg category: Behnam Ehsanpour and Arash Dangesaraki
66-kg category: Mohammad Naderi and Meysam Nasiri
74-kg category: Mostafa Hosseinkhani and Iman Mohammadian
84-kg category: Ehsan Amini and Mohammad Javad Ibrahimi
96-kg category: Abbas Tahan, Hamed Talebi, Mehran Mirzaei and Elyas Bakhtiari
120-kg category: Parviz Hadi and Mohammad Reza Azarshakib

Galaxy, Houston to Meet MLS Final

LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo will meet in the MLS Cup final for the second straight year after clinching their Conference championships.

Iran’s Futsal 7th in World

In the latest Futsal World Ranking released by FIFA on Monday, Iran jumped a spot to stand 7th in the standings.
According to ISNA, Iran collected 1519 points. This is while, Brazil, Spain and Italy are the world’s top teams. Russia, Portugal and Argentine are above Iran.
The 10-time Asian champion was eliminated from the 2012 Futsal World Cup, suffering a 2-1 loss against Colombia in the round of 16.

Durant’s Triple-Double LeadsThunder Over Warriors

Three-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant is determined to become known as more than a one-dimensional player.
He took a big step in that direction Sunday night, AP wrote.
Durant notched his first career triple-double with 25 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 119-109.
‘’I really didn’t care, to be honest. If it came, then that’s cool. If it didn’t, then just keep playing,’’ Durant said. ‘’It feels good to get one. Now, I guess I’ve got a little monkey off my back. I can just go out there and play.’’
Durant has endured some growing pains this season trying to improve his floor game, with a bump in his assist numbers coinciding with an increase in his turnovers, too. He came in averaging four turnovers per game, the fourth-worst in the league.
But after ending up with more turnovers than assists in each of his first five NBA seasons, Durant is starting to reverse that trend this season. He’s also grabbing about two more rebounds per game than any other time in his career.
‘’There’s going to be nights where I have to score 30. There’s going to be nights where I have to have seven or eight assists,’’ Durant said. ‘’So, I’m just trying to be an all-around player and just continue to help my team win.’’

Walcott Going Nowhere in January

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger appears ready to risk losing Theo Walcott for nothing next summer after declaring the England star will not be sold in the January transfer window.
Wenger ruled out any prospect of cashing in on Walcott in the new year if the deadlock over the 23-year-old’s contract talks was not broken before the end of next month. Despite having previously set a deadline of the end of 2012 for an agreement to be reached, Wenger insisted after Arsenal’s 5-2 thrashing of Tottenham that Walcott was going nowhere in January, PA Sport reported.
Asked if the winger would be sold if the impasse continued into 2013, Wenger said simply: “No.” Pressed on whether Walcott would see out the season at Arsenal come what may, he replied: “Yes.”
Wenger’s revelation opened up the possibility of Walcott signing a pre-contract agreement with a rival club, Liverpool and Manchester City having both been linked him.