Grand Prix

Position No. 6110: White to play and win. From the game John Daniel Bryant-Andranik Matikozyan, Memorial Day Classic, Los Angeles 2010. Solution to Position No. 6109: White wins with 1 d7 Bc7 2 Rxc7! Kxc7 3 Rc1+ Kb8 4 Rc8+ Rxc8 5 Qa8+! Kxa8 6 dxc8Q mate. Both 3…Kxd7 4 Qd5+ Ke8 5 Rc8+ and 3…Kd8 4 Qa8+ Kxd7 5 Qd5+ lead to mate. Ukraine grandmaster Pavel Eljanov, probably the least-known of the world's leading players, won the sixth Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia.

On a recent Sunday morning, at an hour when many a teenager is still prone in bed, Adam Bernstein, 15, and Eli Gruska, 13, were lying face down on the floor of a Los Angeles ballet studio. Both boys would soon be heading to New York City for the biggest ballet competition in the country. They and the others in this all-boys class were awaiting instructions from Marat Daukayev, former principal dancer withRussia'sfamed Kirov Ballet (now the ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre). Daukayev begins his boys' class with sets of push-ups, not pliés.

Feb. 14, 2010 Position No. 6094: Black to play and win. From the game Stephen J. Horrocks-Giustino Mancini, Gibraltar 2010. Solution to Position No. 6093: White wins a Rook by 1 d6! Qxd6 2 e5. Tougher is 1 . . . Qa5 2 dxe7 Bd7, but White wins anyway with 3 0-0 Qc7 4 g3! Rxf3 (or 4 . . . Rg4 5 Qh6) 5 Bc4+ Rf7 6 Rf3 Be8 7 Rxf7 Bxf7 8 e8Q+. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced that the final Grand Prix tournament will begin May 5 in Astrakhan, Russia. The six-tournament series was supposed to conclude in 2009, but three of the six cities that promised to host tournaments backed out. FIDE deserves credit for finding replacements, despite the delay in the schedule.

CAIRO - Cars raced and protests echoed across the island kingdom of Bahrain on Sunday as the embattled royal family gambled on the Formula One Grand Prix to portray stability after more than a year of rebellion, mass arrests and hunger strikes. One of the world's premier sporting brands competed with the longest-running unrest in the "Arab Spring. " Human rights groups criticized Grand Prix officials for allowing the nation's minority Sunni Muslim rulers to revel in international prestige.

The world's newest Grand Prix racetrack, a state-of-the-art complex just outside New Delhi, showcases the brash, high-octane pride of India as it muscles onto the global stage with world-class airports, an ambitious space program and the planet's first billion-dollar home. But just beyond the gleaming track, vestiges of age-old India remain: villages without paved roads, schools without books and legions of people scratching out a meager living. Near the track's VIP entrance this week, just a few days before Sunday's debut race, a corpse was being burned in a modest stone crematory.

The noise level at the Camel Grand Prix in Del Mar on Saturday was 8 to 10 decibels quieter than expected, according to monitoring officials at the Del Mar Race Track and neighboring hillsides. "We seem to be staying below our predictions, and we're very pleased," said Trish Butler, an environmental planner hired by the Del Mar Fair Board to monitor the impact of the race--including noise--on the fairgrounds. Not even the birds seemed ruffled by the roar of the racing cars, she said.

When--Today and Saturday. Where--Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, Kitchener, Canada. Who--Yoshie Onda of Japan, Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya of Russia, Michelle Kwan and Sarah Hughes of the U.S. and Tatiana Malinina of Uzbekistan in women's singles. Ivan Dinev of Bulgaria, Takeshi Honda of Japan, Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin of Russia, and Todd Eldredge of the U.S. in men's singles.

She left Salt Lake City with a silver medal instead of gold, but another wish came true for Irina Slutskaya a few weeks later, when she won the world figure skating championship. "Can you imagine if you dream about some title all your life and you win it?" she said. "I feel very comfortable inside myself. I was dreaming since I was 6 years old, maybe 7, to have this medal." Since then, she has struggled.

THE RACE * Site--Indianapolis. * When--Today (Fox Sports Net, 11 a.m.) * Track--Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road course, 2.606 miles, 13 turns). * Race distance--190.294 miles, 73 laps. * Last year--Inaugural race. * Last race--Michael Schumacher revived his title hopes by winning the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, a race in which a chain collision on the first lap knocked out seven cars and killed a course worker.

Austrian Gerhard Berger dominated today's qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix, beating world champion Alain Prost of France for the provisional pole position. Prost edged Berger's McLaren-Honda teammate Ayrton Senna of Brazil for second place. Prost's Ferrari partner, Nigel Mansell of Britain, finished fourth, setting up two McLaren-Ferrari front rows on the grid. The final qualifying session is Saturday. After 10 of 16 Grand Prix races, Senna leads the driver standings with 54 points.

A scary crash in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach made it clear that despite a new, safer car in the Izod IndyCar Series, certain dangers remain inherent in the sport. The new car, which includes extra body work around the rear wheels, was rolled out this season after Dan Wheldon was killed in October in a multicar wreck in Las Vegas, one in which Wheldon's car and others got airborne after hitting cars around them. Yet in Sunday's Long Beach race, Marco Andretti's car briefly got airborne after he slammed into the rear of Graham Rahal's car as they approached a corner.

This year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach perhaps was best summed up by James Hinchcliffe, who finished third, when the driver was asked to describe the IndyCar race: "I don't know where to start," he said. Indeed, in a race that at times bordered on chaotic because various pit-stop strategies, penalties and accidents kept shuffling the leaderboard, Australian Will Power emerged with his second Long Beach victory. Power, who won the race on the city's ocean-side streets in 2008, was running low on fuel and had to slow slightly in the closing laps Sunday but held off a charging Simon Pagenaud.

Australian Will Power held off a charging Simon Pagenaud to win the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, Power's second consecutive win in the Izod IndyCar Series. Pagenaud finished second, James Hinchcliffe was third and Tony Kanaan took fourth. With five laps left in the 85-lap race on Long Beach's seaside streets, Power was about five seconds ahead of Pagenaud. But Power was running low on fuel, and as he slowed slightly in the final laps to conserve fuel Pagenaud slashed his lead to less than one second.

Simona De Silvestro was among the most promising young drivers in IndyCar racing a year ago. Then she went to Indianapolis. As she made a practice lap for the Indianapolis 500 in May, the suspension on De Silvestro's car broke while she was traveling 220 mph. The car slammed into the wall and slid down the track, upside down and on fire. The Swiss driver was lucky to escape with only serious burns on her hands, and she later managed to qualify for the big race. But De Silvestro, who finished 31st in the 500, had sustained another injury: a crisis of confidence.

Ryan Briscoe was the fastest qualifier Saturday but, thanks to an unusual rules call, reigning IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti will start first in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Briscoe, who drives for Chevrolet-powered Team Penske, turned a lap of 103.264 mph on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn course on the city's seaside streets. His teammate Will Power was second, and 2010 Long Beach winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, another Chevrolet driver, was third. But the three will start 11th-13th because all the Chevrolet drivers incurred a penalty of 10 starting spots due to unapproved engine changes by Chevrolet.

Steady rain all but canceled Friday afternoon's one-hour practice session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Reigning Izod IndyCar Champion Dario Franchitti drove one lap around the 1.97-mile course on the city's seaside streets, then pulled his car in for the day. Scott Dixon, his teammate at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, also attempted a lap but hit a large patch of standing water, spun and crashed lightly into the wall. No other drivers went out on the 11-turn course.

Out for a dry run, 30 powerboats will roll through downtown Ventura this evening in a parade of boats. The procession, which will start at 6, will travel down Main Street from Figueroa Street to Fir Street and will kick off a high-speed weekend of powerboat racing at the Ventura Offshore Grand Prix Festival.

The Italian Grand Prix was canceled by international racing authorities on Friday after local officials refused to go along with safety demands by chopping down 123 trees. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said that it called off the Sept. 11 race at Monza because it could not get a guarantee that the major curve on the track would be altered to slow the cars.

IndyCar's top drivers are taking a back seat to the main focus of this weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach: Their new race car. After using the same car and only Honda engines for several years, the Izod IndyCar Series this season rolled out a new chassis and allowed teams to choose engines from three suppliers: Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus. The new car, which features added driver-safety features, already was being developed when Dan Wheldon was killed in a multi-car accident at last season's finale in Las Vegas.

Friday in Long Beach was a day better suited for ducks than drivers. That was not a good thing, because this is the weekend of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Plenty of drivers are on hand, all itching to exercise their right foot, none seeing much positive in the rain. Except for one, the driver with the surname so famous that his every touch of the clutch is scrutinized. In sports, it is one thing being "the son of," but try being "the son of and the grandson of. " Marco Andretti is 25. He drives for Andretti Autosport, owned by his father, Michael Andretti, 49, a highly successful IndyCar driver, who started in 1984 and drove his last race in 2007.