A 17-year-old Uzbek is a sensational rapid chess world champion. And in the Premier League, Liverpool lost 1-0 to Leicester. The most important sports news at a glance.
Nordic skiing: Kerttu Niskanen surprise winner in the snowdrift
(sda) Kerttu Niskanen surprisingly takes over the yellow jersey of the Tour de Ski leader. The Finn won the 2nd stage over 10 km in Lenzerheide with a classic single start.
The drifting wet snow around the zero degree limit formed the horror scenario for the wax crew, and the snowfall subsided during the race. Surprises were inevitable: the big favorite Frida Karlsson had to be content with 5th place and 44 seconds behind Kerttu Niskanen, or the best-ranked Norwegian couldn’t get past 10th place in the person of the unknown Anne Kjersti Kalvaa.
Nadine Fähndrich ran into 14th place with the high and therefore cheap start number 58 and was even faster than the Tour de Ski defending champion Jessie Diggins.
In the overall classification, Niskanen is 29 seconds ahead of Diggins. Frida Karlsson is 1:13 minutes behind and has therefore grown. After the sprint, the Swede was 1:07 behind. Fähndrich is in 15th place, 1:18 minutes behind – the fall on Tuesday in the sprint should have cost her at least 40 bonus seconds.
Ice Hockey: Janis Moser’s first NHL goals
Two weeks after being promoted to the NHL squad, Janis Moser (left) scores the first two goals.
Two weeks after being promoted to the NHL team, defender Janis Moser scores his first NHL goals. Despite two hits by the Swiss, the Arizona Coyotes lose 7: 8 at the San Jose Sharks. Not only Moser shone. At the San Jose Sharks, Timo Meier also impressed with a goal (to 5: 3), an assist (to 1: 0) and a plus-1 record. In the end, San Jose prevailed in the penalty shootout, the Swiss weren’t among the shooters.
Moser scored his first NHL goal 140 seconds before the first break to equalize 2-2. 23 seconds before the end of the second section, he later shortened the majority to 4: 5. Arizona was never in the lead in the spectacular game with 15 goals, but four times behind with two goals (2: 4, 3: 5, 4: 6, 5: 7).
Although Janis Moser has not yet been able to stabilize the shaky defense of the Arizona Coyotes, the most unsuccessful NHL team this season, his first two (interrupted) weeks in the NHL can be described as successful. Even with Moser, the Coyotes conceded 16 goals in three games, but the Bieler played significantly more than other defenders, helped Arizona to three points in three games and earned a plus-3 balance in his first three games.
In the game between the San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes, Swiss scored three goals.
Chess: 17-year-old Uzbek becomes world rapid chess champion
Nodirbek Abdusattorow wins the world title in rapid chess in Warsaw.
(sda / dpa) The Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorow has duped all favorites and sensationally crowned himself rapid chess world champion. The only 17-year-old prevailed in Warsaw in a play-off round.
The Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who had led the field for a long time two weeks after defending his title in classical chess, came third.
In the end, Abdusattorow had the best rating of the four players who had scored 9.5 points in 13 rounds. In the event of a tie, the regulations stipulated that the first two would play off. As third place with equal points, top favorite Carlsen was out of the race – the Norwegian then spoke of “an absolutely idiotic rule”.
Abdusattorow prevailed in the jump-off against the loser of the classic World Cup, the Russian Jan Nepomnjaschtschi. Rapid chess is played with 15 minutes per player plus ten seconds per move.
In the women’s category, Alexandra Kostenjuk, a Swiss-Russian citizen, won. The Blitz Chess World Cup will follow in Warsaw on Wednesday and Thursday. The total prize money for all four competitions is one million dollars.
Soccer: Liverpool are subject to Leicester – another Premier League game has been postponed
(sda) Liverpool suffered a surprising 1-0 defeat against Leicester City in the English Premier League and are now six points behind leaders Manchester City after 19 games.
For Liverpool it was the second defeat of the season. The “Reds” missed the best opportunities in the first half after the Corona-related break on Boxing Day: Mohamed Salah only failed after a quarter of an hour with a foul penalty on the outstanding Leicester goalie Kasper Schmeichel and only hit the crossbar in the margin.
Schmeichel also thwarted the former Basel’s next chance brilliantly (33rd). The hosts’ lead was all the more surprising: three minutes after being substituted on, Ademola Lookman made it 1-0 (59th). The favored guest team of coach Jürgen Klopp then did not manage to build up pressure and at the end of the year remained unsuccessful for the first time in the current championship.
On Tuesday evening it was also announced that the game planned for Thursday between Everton and Newcastle United had to be postponed. Everton recorded several corona cases. It is already the 16th Premier League game that had to be canceled in the past three weeks due to Corona cases in the various clubs.
Premier League. Tuesday: Crystal Palace – Norwich City 3-0 (3-0). Southampton – Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 (1-1). Watford – West Ham United 1: 4 (1: 2). Leicester City – Liverpool 1-0 (0-0). – Wednesday: Chelsea – Brighton & Hove Albion (8.30pm). Brentford – Manchester City (9:15 p.m.). – Thursday: Everton v Newcastle United (postponed). Manchester United v Burnley (9:15 p.m.). – Ranking list: 1. Manchester City 19/47. 2. Liverpool 19/41. 3. Chelsea 19/41. 4. Arsenal 19/35. 5. West Ham United 19/31. 6. Tottenham Hotspur 17/30. 7. Manchester United 17/28. 8. Wolverhampton Wanderers 18/25. 9. Leicester City 18/25. 10. Brighton & Hove Albion 17/23. 11. Crystal Palace 19/23. 12. Aston Villa 18/22. 13th Southampton 19/21. 14. Brentford 17/20. 15. Everton 17/19. 16. Leeds United 18/16. 17. Watford 17/13. 18. Burnley 15/11. 19. Newcastle United 19/11. 20. Norwich City 19/10.
Alpine skiing: Worley wins the giant slalom in Lienz – Rast Seventh
The French Tessa Worley completed the giant slalom in Lienz the fastest.
(sda) Camille Rast prevented the Swiss women from being disappointed in the World Cup giant slalom in Lienz. The 22-year-old technician from Valais achieved her best result in this discipline in seventh place.
Tessa Worley achieved her 15th World Cup victory. The French world champion from 2013 and 2017, who was already ahead after the first run, prevailed in the absence of Mikaela Shiffrin and Lara Gut-Behrami ahead of Petra Vlhova and Sara Hector.
Wendy Holdener and Michelle Gisin did not achieve the hoped-for increase in the second run. Holdener, 15th after the first run, retired after three good intermediate times, Gisin dropped from 16th to 21st place and was therefore also overtaken by Andrea Ellenberger (19th).
Ice hockey: The Swiss Juniors win the World Cup game against the USA Forfait
(sda) The match between the Swiss U-20 national team and the USA was scheduled for Wednesday night, but the Americans have to go to a team quarantine after two players have had positive corona tests. According to the rules of the international association, the game is now rated as a 1-0 victory for Switzerland.
The Swiss lost their first game to Russia 2-4. The Americans, on the other hand, are defending champions in the province of Alberta and had won their opening game against Slovakia 3-2.
How long the US will have to remain in quarantine has not yet been determined. This depends, among other things, on whether they can play their next group game against Sweden on Thursday night. In order to enter Canada, all team members had to be fully vaccinated.
Switzerland’s next game is planned for the night of New Year’s Eve against Slovakia. Coach Marco Bayer’s team had to be in quarantine for two days before the start of the tournament and will have to complete the World Cup without his captain Simon Knak, who is out of action due to a positive corona test. The first four of the group of five reach the quarter-finals.
Soccer: Kevin Mbabu is missing Wolfsburg for the start of training – because of Corona
(sda) The defender Kevin Mbabu will miss the German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg at the start of training in the second half of the season. According to a report by the German portal “Sportbuzzer”, the Swiss national player got infected during the Christmas holidays in Dubai and is now stuck there. Mbabu, who is said to be unvaccinated, was infected with the virus as early as the summer of 2020.
Ice hockey: Roman Josi is in isolation
(sda) After Pius Suter (Detroit), the corona virus temporarily incapacitates a second Swiss man in the NHL with Roman Josi, the captain of the Nashville Predators. Josi was put on the so-called Covid protocol of the NHL on Tuesday. Josi will at least miss the away game in Washington (on Wednesday night).
When the NHL stopped playing in the week before Christmas, the Nashville Predators were considered a hotspot with eight positive cases. Most of these eight are now operational again, but Josi plus two teammates tested positive after Christmas.
Tennis: Dominic Thiem does not participate in the Australian Open
(sda) The Austrian Dominic Thiem (ATP 15) will not participate in the Australian Open in Melbourne (January 17th to 30th). The Melbourne finalist and US Open winner of 2020 has planned his comeback for the clay court tournament in Cordoba, Argentina, which begins at the end of January.
Thiem missed the second half of the season due to a wrist injury. He fought his last serious fight in June at the lawn tournament on Mallorca.