Sports round-up
The latest news from chess, handball and football.
Ștefan Baciu, 19.05.2025, 15:45
Chess. 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu of India won the Superbet Chess Classic România 2025 competition hosted by Bucharest as part of the Grand Chess Tour. After a spectacular tie-break on Friday evening with France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja, he collected 5.5 point to win the trophy, which is made of stone and reproduces a section of Constantin Brâncuși’s Endless Column.
Next in the ranking were world no. 5 Fabiano Caruana of the US, with 5 points; world no. 6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, with 4.5 points; and Levon Aronian of the US, Bogdan-Daniel Deac of Romania, Wesley So of the US and the defending world champion and world no. 3 Gukesh Dommaraju, each with 4 points. Last came Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, with 3 points.
Romania’s representative Bogdan Deac, did very well in the competition. Apart from a series of ties, he also defeated Levon Aronian and was very close to winning against Alireza Firouzja and the world champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
Total prizes were worth 350,000 dollars, with the winner getting 77.667 dollars. The Grand Chess Tour was initiated by the former world champion Garry Kasparov. Now in its tenth year, it consists in 5 legs hosted by Poland, Romania, Croatia and the United States.
Handball. CSM Bucharest defeated CSM Corona Braşov 35-33 on Sunday in the 26th leg of the women’s handball National League. This was the final match from Cristina Neagu, who said she would retire from competition and who scored 8 goals for CSM Bucharest in this match. In 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018, the International Handball Federation named Neagu the world’s best player, which makes her the first handball player in the world to win this title four times. Her record includes a bronze medal with Romania at the European Championships hosted by Denmark and Norway in 2010 and a bronze medal at the World Championships of 2015, hosted by Denmark. She is also the Champions League’s best scorer, with 1,232 goals, with only three other players. Montenegro’s Jovanka Radičević, Serbia’s Andrea Lekić and Hungary’s Anita Görbicz scoring more than 1,000 goals in this competition.
Football. FCSB defeated Universitatea Craiova 1-nil on Saturday in the 9th leg of the Superleague, to win their second championship title in a row. In the Superleague playoffs on Friday, Dinamo Bucharest defeated FC Universitatea Cluj 1-3. In the playout, Oţelul Galaţi drew against Farul Constanţa nil-all, as did UTA Arad and Gloria Buzău, Politehnica Iaşi lost to Petrolul Ploieşti nil-2, FC Botoşani defeated Hermannstadt 2-1, and Unirea Slobozia defdeated Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe 2-1.
