Ju Wenjun outclasses rival Tan Zhongyi to retain women’s world chess title

Ju Wenjun has once again proven herself the undisputed queen of the chessboard.On Wednesday in Chongqing, the 34-year-old Chinese grandmaster clinched the 2025 Fide Women’s World Championship, defeating compatriot and longtime rival Tan Zhongyi by a commanding score of 6½–2½. With the victory, Ju becomes only the fourth woman in history to win the title five times, joining a storied class that includes Vera Menchik, Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze.The best-of-12-games match ended with three contests to spare after Ju secured a calm, risk-free draw in game nine to punctuate a stretch of four straight wins that all but sealed the result. She takes home the winner’s purse of €300,000 ($340,580) while Tan earns €200,000

Lois Boisson pokes fun at Harriet Dart ‘deodorant’ jibe on social media

French tennis player Lois Boisson has responded to Harriet Dart’s on-court claim that “she smells really bad” with a social media post that pokes fun at the incident.During a change of ends in Tuesday’s match at the Rouen Open, Dart asked the umpire: “Can you tell her [Boisson] to wear deodorant because she smells really bad?” Her comments were picked up by a courtside microphone and quickly attracted attention and criticism on social media.Dart later apologised on Instagram for the comments made during her 6-0, 6-3 defeat by Boisson, who responded on the same platform. The 21-year-old posted an edited image of herself on court holding a can of Dove deodorant. “@dove apparently need a collab,” wrote the Frenchwoman, accompanied by two laughing emojis

The Spin | In defence of the draw: why Ben Stokes and England should take note

The Bazball win-or-bust mantra has proven successful but it is time for captain to embrace grey in black and white world“A tie is like kissing your sister,” Edward J Erdelatz said to the New York Times in 1954. Erdelatz was the United States Navy’s head football coach and his side had just drawn 0-0 against Duke University. “No one asked the mild spoken navy coach to explain,” the report adds. Well, quite. But sister or not, everyone knew what he meant

Mavericks’ Miriam Adelson is the NBA’s most dangerous owner | Lee Escobedo

In the NBA, villainy rarely looks like chaos. It often arrives in the form of billionaires who believe their power serves a greater good. The NBA’s old guard of terrible owners – Donald Sterling, Glen Taylor and Robert Sarver – have mostly exited the stage, having offloaded their controlling stakes in recent years. Even James Dolan, long regarded as the autocratic overlord of the New York Knicks, has begun to loosen his grip on basketball operations. Yet as the league evolves, the absence of these figures creates a vacuum – one in which a new archetype of villainous owner can emerge

From the Pocket: love and optimism turns to despair as Melbourne reach end of an era

Earlier this year, Melbourne invited several dozen journalists and broadcasters to a breakfast in the MCC committee room. The club felt they had botched their messaging in recent years and were keen to shift the narrative. They spoke about “cleansing” and “trauma”. They locked down a new theme for the year: “Love. Play

Rugby Australia posts $36.8m deficit amid wait for financial windfall to arrive

Rugby Australia says it has “changed the trajectory” of the sport despite recording a deficit of $36.8m in 2024, as the organisation looks forward to the commercial windfall of this year’s British and Irish Lions tour and the coming men’s 2027 and women’s 2029 World Cups.The governing body also took the opportunity at its results announcement to lash out at efforts to poach Australia’s best young talent, after the pursuit this year of multiple junior Wallabies by French recruiters.Operating expenses grew $26m to $156m due to costs of running the NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and now-defunct Melbourne Rebels, and an increase in player payments and match day costs related to hosting more international matches.RA oversaw six home Wallabies fixtures in 2024 compared to two in 2023, but revenue grew only $1