Translated material
Van Nistelrooy excelled in poker
Chronicle of sporting events
Football. Spanish Championship. 10th round. Betis - Levante - 2:1, Celta - Recreativo - 1:2, Getafe - Mallorca - 1:0, Gimnastic - Deportivo -- 0:0, "Racing" -- "Sevilla" -- 0:0, "Real Sociedad" -- "Espanyol" -- 1:1, "Osasuna" -- "Real" -- 1:4, " Barcelona - Zaragoza - 3:1, Atletico - Villarreal - 3:1, Valencia - Athletic - 1:1. Leading: Barcelona - 23 points, Sevilla - 22, Real Madrid - 20.The goalkeeper of the Spanish national team and Real Madrid, Iker Casillas, was injured during the match with Osasuna - a lighter thrown from the stands hit him in the head. The goalkeeper was able to continue the match, and the Dutch forward of Real Madrid, Ruud van Nistelrooy, took revenge for him by scoring all four goals against Osasuna. Thanks to the victory, Barcelona topped the standings. The Catalans were able to break the resistance of Zaragoza only towards the end of the match. Goals from Ronaldinho in the 86th minute and Saviola in the 90th brought Barça three points.
German Championship. 12th round. "Alemannia" - "Nuremberg" - 1:1, "Hannover" - "Stuttgart" - 1:2, "Eintracht" - "Arminia" - 0:3, "Hamburg" - "Borussia" M -- 1:1, Hertha -- Bochum -- 3:3, Bayer -- Bayern -- 2:3, Schalke -- Mainz -- 4:0, " Wolfsburg - Energies - 0:0, Werder - Borussia D - 1:3. The leaders are: Stuttgart - 24 points, Schalke, Werder - 23 each.
“Nuremberg”, for which Ivan Saenko plays, conceded in the last minute and again tied. Now this is the most peaceful team in the Bundesliga - eight draws in 12 matches.
Italian Championship. 11th round. Ascoli - Empoli - 0:1, Catania - Livorno - 3:2, Lazio - Udinese - 5:0, Messina - Cagliari -- 2:2, "Palermo" -- "Torino" -- 3:0, "Sampdoria" -- "Chievo" -- 3:0, "Siena" -- "Regina" -- 0:1, "Parma" " - Inter - 1:2, Fiorentina - Atalanta - 3:1, Milan - Roma - 1:2. The leaders are: Inter, Palermo - 27 each, Roma - 23.
Palermo, together with Inter, continues to remain at the top of the standings. “This is a great achievement. In recent weeks, we have proven that we are competitive,” noted Palermo head coach Francesco Guidolin, who previously doubted that his team would be able to remain in the lead for a long time. In turn, Inter coach Roberto Mancini is worried about his team’s performance: “There will always be some point that needs to be improved. We should keep working. This season will not be easy for us. Palermo and Roma are strong opponents. Being a favorite does not mean winning the tournament.”
French Championship. 13th round. Troyes - Monaco - 0:4, Lille - Marseille - 1:0, Bordeaux - Auxerre - 0:0, Le Mann - PSG " -- 1:1, "Lance" -- "Rennes" -- 0:0, "Lorient" -- "Nancy" -- 2:0, "Nantes" -- "Saint-Etienne" -- 2:2 , "Nice" - "Sochaux" - 0:0, "Toulouse" - "Sedan" - 3:1, "Lyon" - "Valenciennes" - 2:1. Leading : Lyon - 34 points, Lille - 24, Sochaux, Lens, Nancy - 22 each.
Minimum score has become popular in the NHL
Hockey. NHL. Regular season. “St. Louis” – “Edmonton” – 5:3, “Anaheim” – “Minnesota” – 3:2, “Chicago” – “Columbus” – 1:0.
It was a rare game day when none of the Russian hockey players scored points in the scoring classification using the “goal plus pass” system. “Chicago” conceded only one goal in the last two matches, and in these games the team’s goal was defended by different goalkeepers - Sebastian Caron and on Monday night, Moscow time, Brian Boucher. On the other hand, Columbus leaves the court without a goal for the fourth time in the championship and takes second-to-last place in the Western Conference. Already six matches in the championship have ended with a score of 1:0 in regular time, but no goalless draws have yet been recorded. Edmonton suffered five defeats in six meetings in November. St. Louis broke a streak of three straight losses. Vladimir ILYIN
Kidd recorded his 77th career triple-double.
Basketball. NBA. Regular season. "Clippers" - "New Orleans" - 92:76, "Charlotte" - "Denver" - 101:108, "Portland" - "Dallas" - 96:103, "Lakers" - " Memphis - 91:81, Washington - New Jersey - 93:105 (OT), Miami - Houston - 72:94, Sacramento - Toronto - - 107:92.
The most productive basketball player of the game day was Denver small forward Carmelo Anthony, who scored 36 points. Sacramento shooting guard Kevin Martin made all eight free throws. Taking into account previous games, he has not missed the line 36 times in a row. Lakers coach Phil Jackson played his 500th regular season game in this capacity. New Jersey leader Jason Kidd recorded the 77th triple-double of his career and helped his team win in overtime. Kidd had 15 points, 11 rebounds and 18 assists. Ilya TRISVIATSKY
At the Memorial Tal three leaders
In Moscow, at the Mikhail Tal Memorial, after six rounds there is three-power. Ruslan Ponomarev (Ukraine), Peter Leko (Hungary) and Levon Aronyan (Armenia) are ahead, with four points each. Russian Pyotr Svidler, Azerbaijani Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Boris Gelfand, competing under the Israeli flag, are a full point behind.
The sporting ambitions of modern chess revolve around the move of the king's pawn. But Black also gets his chance to put up a big fight by responding with an asymmetrical Sicilian Defense. All this corresponds to the fighting spirit of the youth staff of the Tal Memorial. Demonstrating their games from the sixth round in the press center, both leader Ponomarev and outsider Alexander Grischuk, without saying a word, commented on the opening 1.e4 c5 - “went to fight,” and Grischuk added: “I looked at the tournament table in the morning and realized that there is nothing to lose." Grischuk won his first victory, and Svidler suffered his first defeat.
It was more difficult for Ponomarev, who in his game with Alexei Shirov took a position that had long been considered advantageous for White, but demonstrated the possibilities of counterplay. Ruslan gave up the b4 pawn, but managed to weaken Alexei's rear, who never proceeded to sell the extra pawn, having signed peace. Leko limited the “Sicilian” ambitions of Alexander Morozevich with White, and when he rushed to the attack in a worse position, he won a pawn, seized the initiative and brought the game to victory.
Young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, after losing in the opening round, held on like a tough nut in subsequent games. It seemed that he would be too tough for Aronian too. But this fighter’s style is to play until resources are completely exhausted. Therefore, his agreement to an early (already on the 10th move) exchange of queens did not promise the Norwegian the illusion of a quiet life. Although Levon methodically outplayed him and even took a pawn, Magnus managed to take the game into a theoretically drawn rook endgame. All that was required was precision in defense, but Carlsen did not have the skill to save the position. Oleg STETSKO