7 Days, 7 Good News: With Medal Winners, a Dog Lover and a Chess Genius

If you are the fear opponent of a chess genius, what are you? A chess super-genius? A chess god, perhaps? Hopefully Jan-Krzystof Duda doesn't torture himself with such detached questions, but the 23-year-old Pole really did take it to a special level with his repeat victory over 30-year-old Norwegian World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. In 2020, Duda ended Carlsen's record 125-game streak without losing a game of chess. Now, in the World Cup semifinals in Sochi, Russia, Duda prevented Carlsen from finally winning the only major tournament he has yet to win. Carlsen, after all, believes he's made progress despite the loss. We, on the other hand, believe he's already finding it hard to sleep when he thinks about a hopefully imminent World Championship clash with Duda.

Hamburg, my pearl: We would have hoped for Lotto King Karl and his anthem when Hamburg's Senator of the Interior Andy Grote and Mayor Peter Tschentscher received Olympic tennis champion Alexander Zverev in the Phoenix Hall of the City Hall. But pathos was then provided by Zverev in place of the Hanseatic balladeer. "The gold medal doesn't just belong to me, but to the whole city of Hamburg," said the 24-year-old. There was no sign of Zverev's sometimes cool aloofness. But perhaps Lotto King Karl should have been engaged after all. When Tschentscher said that "from Hamburg he has made his way into world class tennis" he could have sung his song "bist meine Stadt, bist mein Leben" (you're my city, you're my life). Maybe at the next gold medal...

Playing football with old mates one more time, discussing the decisive pass for victory or defeat over a crate of beer after the final whistle, and riding home on their bikes at the end of the day, knackered but satisfied: The Bender twins Lars and Sven pursue this weekend hobby kicker's routine after their extremely successful professional careers. Directly after their last season in the Bundesliga, Lars (former Bayer Leverkusen and 19-time national player) and Sven (long time Borussia Dortmund, then also Bayer Leverkusen, 7-time national player) joined TSV Brannenburg in the Upper Bavarian Kreisklasse. With 5:2 the Benders won their starting match against ASV Flintsbach with the club of their youth.. But while their coach was already dreaming of future victories, declaring "this was not a one-off", the Benders must have been grinning with satisfaction above all. After a career with many highs, but also many injuries, they were simply able to kick around again with buddies from their youth - wasn't that what football was born from?

The death of former national goalkeeper Robert Enke left a huge void. But his widow Teresa is doing everything she can to make sure that death doesn't remain meaningless. Now FIFA President Gianni Infantino explicitly thanked Teresa Enke when he unveiled a new campaign by world football's governing body on Monday. With this campaign, FIFA wants to raise awareness about mental illness and encourage those affected by such illnesses to seek help. The campaign is global - supported by the World Health Organisation as well as the Southeast Asian Nations Association (Asean), and former Brazilian World Cup captain Cafu is one of the ambassadors.

As rivals in sport, they have yet to give the other an inch, but in their social engagements, multiple Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are on the same page together. "Super proud of this guy", Hamilton wrote after Vettel wore a rainbow-coloured T-shirt reading "Same Love" at the Formula One race in Hungary. The 34-year-old Vettel was doing so to protest Hungary's policies towards the LGBTQ+ community - "great to see," Hamilton responded. Vettel had collected a warning for his action. Hamilton then announced he would wear the same shirt at the next race. Maybe the guys will just stop at the start of the next race and spray their cars in rainbow colours - that would be more than a gesture.

Who is man's best friend? That's right. The dog. It is simply funny, beautiful, touching, how professional cyclist Simon Geschke was greeted by his - not yet fully grown - French bulldog at Freiburg's main station. The cuddling, the pushing around, the simple dog love is something Geschke has really more than earned. The professional cyclist was not at home for almost six weeks. He flew directly from the Tour de France to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. But stupidly, the 35-year-old was not allowed to start there because he had to go into a Corona quarantine. As his video clip shows, Geschke wasn't the only one who was glad that the trip ended at some point.

Congratulations Bruno Rosetti - great that you were able to win a medal at the Olympics without participating in the final race. But please don't just be the first, but remain the only Olympian in sporting history to receive this honour! Rosetti was one of the rowers in the Italian rowing four in Tokyo. He rowed all the heats for the Italians. Due to a positive coronation test, he was not allowed to participate in the final. Normally he would have been excluded from the medals. But because of a special rule in the Corona pandemic, according to which athletes are not disqualified after a positive test, unlike doped athletes, but are rated as "not started", the 33-year-old still got his bronze medal. "I'm very happy about that. It pays me back in a way," Rosetti said. We'd be happy if at the next Olympics in Paris in 2024, the special rule can be removed again. Goodbye corona pandemic, right?