Chess: How does White win?

IT WASN’T all that long ago when it would take days, or even weeks, for games from major tournaments to reach chess columns. But over the past decade or so, chess coverage has been transformed out of recognition by the internet.

We now have the ability to watch games live over a cappuccino while enjoying: move-by-move commentary from various prominent Grandmasters; projections of likely play from all the top-ranked computer programs; a live video feed streaming the players in action in the playing hall; and candid post-game press conference by the players, this is a marvel of modern communication technology.

Generating all this action are the super-tournaments that proliferate in the chess scene these days, featuring superstars Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik and world champion Viswanathan Anand. The circus now moves to the biggest tournament of the year, the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, which gets under way on Saturday.

To keep in the Dutch spirit, we conclude our coverage of the traditional holiday tournaments with the 49th Groningen Chess Festival that ran from 21-30 December 2011. The main event was won by Ukrainian GM Alexander Kovchan on tie-break from GM Robert Hess of the USA after both finished on a score of 7/9.

R Hess - S Tiviakov

48th Groningen Open, (8)

Scandinavian Defence

1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nf3 g6 6 Nb5 Qd8 7 Bf4 Na6 8 Na3 c6 9 c3 Nc7 10 Nc4 Bg7 11 Be5 0–0 12 a4 Ncd5 13 a5 Bh6 14 Be2 Nh5 15 0–0 Nhf4 16 Re1 Nxe2+ 17 Qxe2 Be6 18 Bg3 Rc8 19 Nce5 Bf5 20 Nd3 Bxd3 21 Qxd3 e6 22 c4 Ne7 23 Qb3 b6 24 axb6 Qxb6 25 Qc3 Nf5 26 Be5 f6 27 c5 Qb7 28 Bg3 Rfe8 29 Qc4 Qd7 30 Ra4 Nxg3 31 hxg3 Rc7 32 Ra6 Kf7 33 Qa4 Rb8 34 b4 Rb5 35 d5! Qxd5 36 Rxa7 Rxa7 37 Qxa7+ Kg8 38 Qe7 Rxb4 39 Ra1 Bf8 40 Ra8 Rb1+ 41 Kh2 Qh5+ 42 Nh4 Qh6 43 Qxe6+ Kh8 44 Qf7 1–0