The men’s titleholder, Viswanathan Anand of India, successfully defended the championship in May in a grueling match against Boris Gelfand, an Israeli grandmaster. Still, there are signs that Anand’s time at the top is coming to an end. Magnus Carlsen, 22, is now the world’s top-ranked player, and he will have a record high rating when the next rankings are released on Tuesday.

Japan was once an Asian bowling powerhouse, but its reputation has declined in recent times. So it's now looking to strike up a partnership with Singapore to lift the sport, especially at the junior level. Twelve Japanese students, age between 12 and 17 years old, arrived in Singapore as part of a Japan International Exchange programme.

India and Pakistan have used "cricket diplomacy" to improve relations in the past, and over the next little while they will do it again. Pakistan's national cricket team is in India for the first series of games between the two countries in five years. The matches will take place from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6. For this very reason, the Indian government has issued a number of visas to Pakistan cricket fans, allowing them to enjoy the matches live.

Cricket legend Kapil Dev remembers what it was like playing for his country against India's bitter rival, Pakistan, when he made his international debut in 1978: a bowler was expected to aim at the batsman's body...Fast-forward to 2012, and India and Pakistan are once again preparing to face off on the cricket field, playing their first series since 2008, when already brittle relations were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.

The National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce this week participated in 'Doha GOALS,' a first-of-its-kind conference dedicated to advancing international relations through sports. The two-day event brought together more than 2,800 delegates from 62 countries, including sports luminaries from all over the world.

In 2002, Blackwell founded a company called Killerspin, based in Chicago. The idea came to him when he was asked to help host a table tennis exhibition in Chicago in the early 2000s, an event meant to celebrate the anniversary of the good-natured exchange of table tennis players between the U.S. and China later known, of course, as Ping Pong Diplomacy.

The National Hockey League (NHL) lockout has put a damper on the winter of most hockey fans. However, it ended up turning out pretty well for Ben Newman. The Little Falls senior met several locked-out NHL stars, visited historic landmarks and met with top-level government officials recently, all part of a sports diplomacy trip to Russia with a group from USA hockey, Oct. 4-14.

We caught up with Kwan, 32, after she spoke during a Washington Post Live conference on women and leadership Wednesday. Does she see herself with State for the long haul? You never in politics, she said, but “I’m very goal-oriented. I do see myself doing something in public service.”