FIDE Women’s World Cup: Divya Deshmukh storms into finals
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 23 (PTI): International Master Divya Deshmukh stormed into the final, defeating former world champion Zhongyi Tan of China in the second game of the semifinals and winning the mini-match 1.5-0.5 in the FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup here on Wednesday.
In the process, Divya became the first Indian to make it to the Candidates’ tournament.
The stakes are high here as the final berth also ensured her entry in the women’s Candidates’ tournament next year that will decide the challenger to Wenjun Ju, the reigning women’s world champion.
Having already eliminated second seed Zoner Jhu of China and then compatriot Grandmaster D Harika in the quarterfinals, Divya continued to be the giant slayer of the event and her game against Tan was a testament to her growing chess skills.
With the Indian boys making a great headway at the top of the chess world, it was already time for the girls to have a say and Divya is the new girl on the block after R Vaishali.
It was tricks and strategy at display by Divya as she converted to an Alapin Sicilian as white and her time exchange of Bishops for knights guaranteed a pawn plus endgame.
Tan had her chances in the middle game but the former women's world champion did not make use of them and at some point simply missed the thread of the position.
As the endgame arrived, Divya had a couple of extra pawns to coast but Tan remained resourceful right till the end of the game.
Divya had an outside passed pawn after the dust subsided and it should have been an easy picking, but the fortunes fluctuated a lot. For the record, the game lasted 101 moves.
In the second semifinal, Koneru Humpy drew with top seed Tingjie Lei of China. Playing white, Humpy faced the Slav defense and went for the iconic exchange variation that normally yields to either equal or giving white the better prospect.
The opening yielded nothing special for Humpy but she got the Bishop pair against two knights to prepare for an advantage. The Queens were traded as early as on 19th move and the payers eventually reached a rook and pawn endgame wherein the Indian enjoyed an extra pawn.
However, with the extra pawn not so relevant, Lei stayed in the loop as the position was not changing much. The draw was a just result when Humpy had just one extra pawn remaining in the rook and pawns endgame and the point was split after 75 moves.
Humpy will now play the tie-breaker against Lei in shorter format.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
