Chess has always been a matriarchy governed by devoted women off the playing field. The unsung heroes are kept secret from the newshounds who are obliviously seeking the champion.
About 50 years ago, a father who was nearing the end of his vain battle with leukemia shared with his wife the final choice of his brief, 39-year-old life in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where Magnus Carlsen and R Praggnanandhaa played the chess World Cup final. Their seven-year-old kid was affected.
The chemical engineer, who is also a skilled violinist and comes from a musical background, had hoped that his small son would also be able to play the same notes. The couple, who had first connected at a performance, however, was in for a shock. The son spent a lot of time at home playing with the little chess pieces and the board with its 64 black and white squares. He would join the family in solving newspaper chess puzzles as early as age five.
The father instructed his wife, “No music… send him to chess,” from his deathbed. In the end, the young widow would do much more. After enrolling him in a chess academy, his mother accompanied him to competitions and served as his mentor, sounding board, and virtual manager. She would never wed again and spent the majority of her adult life pursuing her son’s passion. In contrast, the son would later become a world champion, utilize his position to oppose the Soviet regime while he was playing, and, after retiring, openly criticize Vladimir Putin.
The Blues’ new owners have used a dangerous exception to the rules to spend £850 million on player transfers over three transfer windows.
Late on Friday night, Raheem Sterling brilliantly caressed the ball into the opposing goal while evading a horde of Lupton Town defenders, and Chelsea at last appeared to be a team that had spent £850 million on transfers since American owner Todd Biehl acquired the Club in 2022.
The Blues, who are primarily supported by the California-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital, have been spending money like there is no tomorrow, breaking the British record transfer twice in the space of eight months with the acquisitions of Moises Cicero from Brighton and Argentine World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez. Both players cost less than £100 million.
In the 2023 summer transfer window alone, they have also added players like Romeo Livia, Christopher Nunki, Axel Disuse, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez, Lesley Ugo Chukwu, and Angelo. Even Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, seems baffled by the sums being spent by a team that last season finished 12th in the Premier League. A few weeks ago, Guardiola said, “You would kill me if we spent what Chelsea spent in the last two transfer windows. I couldn’t sit here.”
Javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena was worried before the World Championships in Budapest started. The rice farmer’s son from Kothasahi, Odisha, wasn’t sure he would be able to represent India at the showpiece because of his delayed visa. Neeraj Chopra, the face of Indian athletics, portrayed the older sibling. Jena was on a plane for the global meet as a result of his post, which sped up the procedure.
Jena was among the top 12 throwers on Friday at the National Athletics Centre, earning a spot in the Sunday final. He joined other countrymen Chopra, who won gold at the Tokyo Games, and D P Manu, who won silver at the Asian Athletics, to highlight India’s rising stature as a producer of elite javelin throwers.
This extraordinary achievement sets up an exciting Sunday because Pakistan’s Commonwealth Games gold medalist Arshad Nadeem is among those who have qualified for the medal round. Chopra led the pack with a strong throw of 88.77 meters, with Nadeem coming in second with 86.79 meters. Manu placed sixth with a throw of 81.31 meters, and Jena placed ninth with a throw of 80.55 meters.
