Chess: How does White win?

We already knew Anish Giri had won his second Dutch Championship title with a round to spare. But the 17-year-old didn't rest on his laurels in the final round: he won that also to finish on 7.5/9 (TPR: 2843) and a massive two-point margin of victory over his nearest rival.

While the Dutch Championship had a strong lineup, ominously missing from the mix was six-time former champion Loek van Wely, who instead opted for the hard grind of the 39th World Open in Philadelphia, held over the traditional US Independence Day holiday weekend.

The field there certainly proved to be more formidable than the Dutch Championship, with 29 grandmasters that included top seeds Gata Kamsky, Michael Adams, Van Wely, Ilya Smirin and Pentala Harikrishna.

Although Van Wely beat Kamsky in round four, the US Champion recovered to go on to win the bragging rights to the title after he beat Adams in a blitz tiebreaker after both finished equal first on 7/9.

Things started to go wrong for the Dutchman in round seven, in a highly-entertaining theoretical tussle with the Indian No 3, Harikrishna, as he missed the only possible save with 29 ..Qf2+ 30 Kh1 (30 Kh3 Qd2 31 Rxa7+ Kb6 32 R1a6+ Kb5 33 Ra5+ Kb6=) 30 ..Kb8 31 Qg4 Rg5 32 Qh3 Qxf3+ 33 Qg2 (33 Kg1 Qe3+) 33 ..Rxg3! and a draw.

P Harikrishna - L Van Wely

39th World Open, (7)

Semi-Slav, Botvinnik variation

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 e6 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bh4 dxc4 7 e4 b5 8 e5 g5 9 Nxg5 hxg5 10 Bxg5 Nbd7 11 g3 Bb7 12 Bg2 Qb6 13 exf6 0–0–0 14 0–0 c5 15 d5 b4 16 Na4 Qa6 17 a3 Bxd5 18 Bxd5 Ne5 19 axb4 Rxd5 20 Qe2 cxb4 21 Nc3 Qd6 22 Nxd5 Qxd5 23 f3 Nd3 24 Be3 Bc5 25 Bxc5 Qxc5+ 26 Kg2 Rd8 27 Ra6 Rd5 28 Qe4 Kb7 29 Rfa1 Kb8 30 Qh7! Ne5 31 Rxa7 Qxa7 32 Qg8+ Kb7 33 Rxa7+ Kxa7 34 f4 Rd2+ 35 Kh3 Nd7 36 Qxf7 c3 37 bxc3 b3 38 Qxe6 b2 39 Qa2+ Kb6 40 f7 Kc5 41 g4 Kd6 42 g5 Ke7 43 g6 1–0