Chess

The Scottish Chess Championship starts a week today in Stockbridge in Edinburgh. Full details can be found via www.chessscotland.com.

One of the likely favourites to win in Edinburgh is local grandmaster Keti Arakhamia-Grant. Arakhamia-Grant has been in good form recently including a fine ninth place in the European Women's Championship a couple of months ago in Arakhamia-Grant's native Georgia. This result qualified Arakhamia-Grant for the next stage of the Women's World Championship.

The reigning Women's World Champion is a 17-year-old Chinese girl called Hou Yifan while the overall World Champion is of course Viswanathan Anand of India, so Asia is beginning to achieve the dominant position that was widely predicted decades ago.

During the European Championship Arakhamia-Grant took the scalp of former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, but her most attractive win was against a young Georgian Women Grandmaster.

White: S Guramishvili; Black: K Arakhamia-Grant.

Opening: King's Indian Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6

The King's Indian is an ambitious opening which is perfectly suited to Arakhamia-Grant's attacking style. 5 Be2 0–0 6 Be3 e5 7 Nf3 exd4 8 Nxd4 Re8 9 f3 c6 10 Bf2 d5 11 exd5 cxd5 12 0–0 Nc6 13 c5 Nh5 14 Qd2 Be5 15 g3 Ng7 16 Rfd1 Be6 17 f4 White will regret letting the e6-bishop live. The usual move is 17 Nxe6 when White can continue with f3-f4 without worrying about her king. 17...Bxd4 18 Bxd4 Nf5 19 Bf2 d4 20 Nb5 Bd5 21 Bg4 Bc4 22 Bxf5 Bxb5 23 Bg4

Far safer was 23 Bd3 when the exchange of bishops ends any possibilities of a mate on g2. 23...Qd5 Now White is always one step away from disaster: if the b5-bishop can get to c6 or b7 then the white king is doomed. 24 a4 Bc4 25 Rdc1 a5 26 Ra3 d3 27 Qc3 Ba6 28 Rd1 Rad8 29 Rd2 Nb4 30 Bd1 Qc6!

A devious idea: Black plans ...b7-b6 and prevents the diagonal-blocking c5-c6 in reply. After ...b7-b6 if White instead captures on b6 then ...Qe4 and ...Bb7 is a mating plan. 31 Bb3 Re2! Removing one of White's few effective defenders. 32 Ra1 Rxd2 33 Qxd2 b6! 34 Kf1 Re8 35 Bd1 Bb7

Arakhamia-Grant achieves the deadly set-up she had planned 18 moves earlier. 36 Bg1 Re2 37 Bxe2 Qg2+ 38 Ke1 Qxg1+ White resigned since 39 Bf1 Nc2+ is hopeless.