Stavanger (Norway), June 1

Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in 40 moves in the first round of the classical section of the Norway Chess tournament here.

The win over the French player around midnight on Tuesday enabled the Indian GM to gain 3 points.

American Wesley So beat Teimour Rajdabov in the first round to be level with Anand, while Magnus Carlsen had to settle for a draw with China's Wang Hao.

In the blitz event played prior to the classical, Anand had shocked world champion Carlsen in Round 7 on his way to a fourth-placed finish.

Anand, however, suffered defeats to Anish Giri (the Netherlands) and Vachier-Lagrave in the fourth and ninth round, respectively, to finish with 5 points in the 10-player field.

So finished on top of the blitz standings with 6.5 points, one clear of Carlsen, while Giri took the third spot. So thus earned the right to pick his starting number for the classical event.

Paris: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met India's newest boxing world champion Nikhat Zareen and her teammates Manisha Moun and Parveen Hooda, who won bronze in the recent World Championships in Istanbul. While Zareen clinched gold in the 52kg division, Moun and debutant Hooda earned podium finishes in the 57kg and 63kg categories, respectively. "Glad to have met boxers Nikhat Zareen, Moun and Parveen Hooda who made India proud at the Women's World Boxing Championship," Modi said.

New Delhi, May 31

India opened its account at the ongoing ISSF World Cup with the trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita and Shreya Agrawal claiming the gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle team competition in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Indian trio outplayed Denmark's Anna Nielsen, Emma Koch and Rikke Maeng Ibsen 17-5 in the gold medal contest. Poland won bronze in the event.

Former world No. 1 Valarivan, Ramita and Agrawal had reached the gold medal round after two rounds of qualification on Monday.

The Indian trio had first topped the qualification Stage 1 with a combined effort of 944.4 across 90 shots. They finished second in Stage 2 behind Denmark to make the title round.

In the men's air rifle team competition, Rudrankksh Patil, Paarth Makhija and Dhanush Srikanth fell short in their bronze medal match against Croatia.