World Chess Championship 2024: Ding Liren v Gukesh Dommaraju pre-match questions, answered

When does it start? Who’s tipped to win? And why isn’t Magnus Carlsen playing? We (mostly) have the answersChina’s Ding Liren is defending the world chess championship against fast-rising Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju over the next three weeks in Singapore. It’s the first time in the 138-year history of world championship matchplay that two men from Asia will compete for the sport’s most prestigious title.But is that all you really need to know? What about the format, how much they’re getting paid and why the world No 1 is watching from the sidelines? Read on for all the answers …The best-of-14-games match is scheduled to take place from 23 November to 15 December at Resorts World Sentosa, an island resort off Singapore’s southern coast. It’s only the second time a world championship match has been held in Southeast Asia and the first since 1978, when Anatoly Karpov retained his title by defeating Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City.Ding Liren became China’s first men’s world chess champion by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi last year on tiebreakers in Kazakhstan

Jofra Archer is caught between an Ashes rock and a Mega Auction hard place | Barney Ronay

Jofra Archer has sensationally re-entered the Mega Auction and people on the internet are annoyed. You’ve got to hand it to the Indian Premier League. It is relentlessly inventive in its language, even if the direction of travel is always towards exhaustion by superlatives. So a six becomes a HyperWang Mobile Attack Maximum, a good catch the Standard Cement Super Happy Sex-grab Of the Day. By the same process, what could possibly be better than an auction? A big auction? A very big auction? No

Eddie Jones will be at Twickenham ‘with bells on’ despite suffering illness

Japan have expressed confidence Eddie Jones will take his place in the coaching box against England on Sunday in what will be his first return to Twickenham as an international coach after he on Friday night pulled out of his pre-match press conference due to illness.Jones, who was sacked after seven years as England head coach in December 2022, is said to be “unwell but nothing too serious”. He has come under considerable scrutiny of late after comments made by Danny Care in his autobiography that the Australian oversaw a toxic environment, ran a “dictatorship” and acted like a “despot who disappeared people” by bullying staff members and players.Shortly after Care’s accusations were made public, Jones claimed to have no knowledge of them, saying: “I haven’t read the book, I haven’t read the comments, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Apologies

Borthwick defends recalling Curry to face Japan despite concussion criticism

The England head coach, Steve ­Borthwick, has defended his ­decision to pick Tom Curry for Sunday’s match against Japan two weeks after he sustained a second head injury inside two months, despite criticism from concussion campaigners.Curry was knocked ­unconscious during England’s defeat by ­Australia earlier this month after a nasty ­collision with Rob Valetini and ­subjected to the 12-day stand-down period in line with World Rugby’s return-to-play protocols.The 26-year-old also sustained a concussion when playing for Sale on the opening weekend of the ­Premiership season against ­Harlequins and in 2022 he returned home early from the England tour of Australia due to a third concussion in six months. ­Earlier this week, the assistant coach Andrew ­Strawbridge explained how England were ­working with Curry to adjust his all-action technique in an effort to keep him safe.Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also ­suffered a head injury against ­Australia but was not called back into camp last week after reporting symptoms over the weekend

Constitution Hill’s new ‘tragic problem’ puts key Newcastle comeback in doubt

Constitution Hill, the unbeaten winner of the 2023 Champion Hurdle, is currently lame and “unlikely” to run in next weekend’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, Nicky Henderson, the gelding’s trainer, said in a statement on X on Friday.Constitution Hill has been off the track since extending his unbeaten record to eight wins in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on 26 December last year and the news that he has suffered a training setback follows a racecourse gallop at Newbury on Tuesday morning that Henderson said would ensure the seven-year-old was “ready for action” at Newcastle on 30 November.“I’m afraid I have to report that we have a problem with Constitution Hill,” Henderson said. “He is currently lame. This wasn’t immediately apparent after his gallop at Newbury on Tuesday but the last 48 hours he has been sore, but for what reason we are still unaware and are currently investigating

Warren Gatland is turning into the fall guy for all the failings of Welsh rugby | Andy Bull

Coach isn’t making the best out of Wales, but his troubled reign could force the country to confront the state it is inTwo years, four months and a lifetime ago, a Wales team not so very different from the one that will be on the field on Saturday beat the Springboks 13-12 in Bloemfontein. A lot of good Welsh sides have tried and failed to win in South Africa in the 60 years they have been touring. That team, coached by Wayne Pivac, and captained by Dan Biggar, were the first and only one to do it. They might even have won the series except the ifs and buts went against them in the first Test at Loftus Versfeld the previous week, when they lost 32-29 after Damian Willemse kicked a penalty in the final minute.Wales have fallen a long way in very little time