Tough times for Moscow teams

Hockey: Moscow's teams go into the first international break of the season with plenty to think about after a difficult week. Dinamo suffered more than most, seeing their six-match winning streak come to an abrupt end with a 5-1 drubbing at home to Dinamo Minsk, slowing their pursuit of western conference leaders SKA St. Petersburg.

SKA themselves outflanked CSKA with a 5-3 win on Sunday which made it six away defeats on the bounce for the Army Men, while Spartak ended a two-game losing streak with a hard-fought over-time win against whipping boys Avtomobilist.

The action now shifts to the Eurotour, with Russia going to Finland for the Karjala Cup, a four-team tournament which also features Sweden and the Czech Republic. The KHL campaign picks up again on November 11.

CSKA's Eurowobble

Basketball: After years as one of Europe's strongest teams, CSKA could find this year's Euroleague a bit tougher than usual. The Red and Blues suffered a rare home defeat last week, going down 74-69 to Virtus Roma, having opened up their campaign with a narrow 66-65 win at Marussi Athens.

But among the Russian game's traditional powerhouses, it's Dinamo who are having a worse time - two defeats in the opening two Superleague games leaves the side rooted to the foot of the table.

Triumf Lyubertsy currently lead the way, with three wins from three in a season where reduced budgets at the big clubs could lead to a more competitive league, despite the withdrawal of several cash-strapped teams from the competition.

Injured Safina loses top spot

Tennis: Russia's Dinara Safina failed to hold on to her World No. 1 ranking after the season-ending Doha showpiece ended amid a rash of injuries. Safina herself withdrew after just two games of her opening match, then saw her replacement, Vera Zvonareva, pulling out after a single game. The tournament, which also featured Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva, eventually produced an all-Williams final, with Serena coming out on top to retake the No. 1 spot.

Grandmasters check in

Chess: Moscow hosts the strongest tournament of the year, the Tal Memorial, from Thursday, with a field including 10 of the world's top 13. Despite the absence of current world no. 1 Veselin Topalov, this is set to be the biggest event of the current chess season. As a further tribute to Mikhail Tal, world champion in 1960 and a passionate fan of speed chess until his death in 1992, the World Blitz Chess Championship will follow on November 16, including the Tal Memorial contenders plus 10 more grandmasters.