* Spartak Moscow Region won the EuroCup women's basketball title by defeating France's Pays D'Aix in both the away (80:65) and home (72:66) matches of the two-way finals series
* Russian basketball team Dynamo Moscow edged Hapoel Migdal in Jerusalem, Israel, in the dramatic first-leg of the ULEB Cup two-way semifinals series, 84-83, with a crucial steal and free throw by Dmitry Domani 2.4 seconds before the end of the game. The second leg is set for March 28, in Moscow.
* Russian grandmaster Alisa Galliamova advanced to the finals of the Women's World Chess Championship, which is being held in the West Siberian city of Yekaterinburg, by defeating Viktoria Cmilyte of Lithuania 1.5:0.5 in the two-leg semifinals series. In another semifinal, Xu Yuhua of China beat Russian Svetlana Matveyeva with the same score. The four-leg finals series will run from March 23 through March 26. Tie-breakers (if necessary) are set for March 27.
* Russian and Indian grandmasters Alexander Morozevich (world No. 11) and Viswanathan Anand (3) currently share first place in the $260,000 Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament in Monaco. The top world players compete in separate rapid chess and blindfold round-robin mini-matches with prizes for each event, alongside the best combined score. The tournament will run through March 30.
Standings after Round 4 (combined score):
1-2 Viswanathan Anand (3), Alexander Morozevich (11) - 5.0 points
3-5 Levon Aronian (5, Armenia), Peter Leko (7, Hungary), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, world No. 2 and defending FIDE world champion) - 4.5 points
6-8 Boris Gelfand (9, Israel), Peter Heine Nielsen (66, Denmark), Francisco Vallejo (54, Spain) - 4.0 points
9-10 Alexander Grishchuk (12, Russia), Loek Van Wely (54, Netherlands) - 3.5 points
11. Vasiliy Ivanchuk (8, Ukraine) - 3.0 points
12. Pyotr Svidler (4, Russia) - 2.5 points
* Five grandmasters currently hold the top spot at the VII Anatoly Karpov international chess tournament, being held in Russia's Siberian Khanty-Mansiisk region and featuring the world's leading players. The $13,000 tournament will run through March 28.
Standings after Day 4:
1-5 Aleksei Shirov (Spain), Ruslan Ponomaryov (Ukraine), Sergei Rublevsky, Vadim Zvyagintsev, Yevgeny Nayer (all Russia) - 2.5 points
6-8 Ivan Sokolov (Netherlands), Yevgeny Bareyev, Alexei Dreyev (all Russia) - 2 points
9- Alexander Onishchuk (United States) - 1.5 points
10 - Viorel Bologan (Moldova) - no points
Day 4 results:
Nayer - Bologan - 1:0
Onishchuk - Shirov - 0.5:0.5
Zvyagintsev - Rublevsky - 0.5:0.5
Ponomaryov - Bareyev - 0.5:0.5
Sokolov - Dreyev - 0.5:0.5
* CSK VVS Samara beat Lokomotiv-Rostov Rostov-on-Don in the Russian men's basketball national championships regular season, 77:70, at home.
Russian men's basketball SuperLeague Division A standings:
1 CSKA Moscow - 42 points (after 22 games)
2 Khimky Moscow Region - 37 (21)
3 Dinamo St. Petersburg - 36 (20)
4 UNICS Kazan - 34 (19)
5 Dinamo Moscow - 33 (20)
6 Dinamo Moscow Region - 33 (21)
7 Ural-Great Perm - 32 (20)
8 Lokomotiv-Rostov Rostov-on-Don - 29 (21)
9 Spartak VGUES Primorye - 27 (21)
10 CSK VVS Samara - 26 (21)
11 Sibirtelekom-Lokomotiv Novosibirsk - 26 (21)
12 Spartak St. Petersburg - 26 (22)
13 Universitet-Ugra Surgut - 24 (21)
* Russian basketball team CSKA Moscow will host Germany's Bamberg in the fifth leg of the Euroleague tournament's Top 16 stage March 22. The Russian champions, currently holding top spot in Group F with the maximum eight points from the four games, has already advanced to the quarterfinals, regardless of the results in the two remaining matches, but is seeking the first place in the group, allowing it to host two matches in the three-leg quarterfinals series
