Mangaluru's Noushad on walking journey to Hajj stranded in Riyadh without Hajj permission
Mangaluru: Noushad, a 25-year-old from Uppinangadi, Dakshina Kannada, has undertaken an extraordinary journey from Karnataka to Makkah, covering a remarkable distance of 8640 kilometers. His trek, initiated in January 2023, is not just a pilgrimage but a testament to determination and the pursuit of dreams against challenges.
Inspired by his mother's unfulfilled dream of walking to Makkah for the Hajj pilgrimage, Noushad adopted this aspiration as his own. His aim is to inspire the youth by demonstrating that dreams can be realized through persistent efforts.
Having faced bureaucratic hurdles during his initial attempt in 2021, where he covered 3500 kilometers from Karnataka to Kashmir, Noushad retraced his steps. Undeterred, he embarked on a second attempt, overcoming visa challenges to enter Pakistan by foot. Despite being advised to take a flight from Pakistan to Oman due to extreme weather and security concerns, he resumed his journey from Muscat, walking through the UAE and reaching Riyadh after covering 7800 kilometers.
Currently stationed in Riyadh, Noushad faces a new challenge—he lacks the crucial Hajj permission despite being on an Umrah visa.
"It was my mother's dream to walk to Makkah for Hajj, and since she couldn't take the up the journey by walk, I made that dream mine. I want to inspire the youth that dreams can be achieved," Noushad said while he awaits for a solution to his issue of acquiring a Hajj permission.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
