S L Narayanan clear first at Groningen Festival

A great way to end the year

The top seed of the tournament, GM S L Narayanan (India), was the sole leader with 6½/8 points heading into the final round. GM Thomas Beerdsen (Netherlands), IM Nick Maatman (Netherlands) and IM Manish Anto Cristiano (India) were trailing by a half point. Narayanan drew with Maatman to become the clear champion, as Manish drew with IM Arthur De Winter (Netherlands) to share second place.

WIM Machteld van Foreest (Netherlands) was the only female player to make a top ten finish. She scored an impressive 6/9 to secure seventh place. Her stellar performance earned her a WGM and an IM norm.

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

A total of 65 players, including 6 GMs, 10 IMs, a WGM and a WIM from 13 countries across the world participated. The 10-day 9-round Swiss league tournament was organized by Stichting Schaakfestival Groningen at Sportcentrum RUG & Hanze in Groningen, Netherlands from 21 to 30 December 2024. The rest day was on 25 December. The time control for the event was 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game and 30-second increments from move 1.

L to R: 6^th IM Arthur De Winter (NED) 6/9, 7^th WIM Machteld van Foreest (NED) 6/9, 1^st GM S L Narayanan 7/9, shared 2^nd-4^th IM Theo Stijve (SUI) 6½/9, IM Manish Anto Cristiano 6½/9 and GM Thomas Beerdsen (GER) 6½/9 | Photo: Harry Gielen

Top women participants: 2^nd WGM Kateryna Dolzhykova (GER) 4½/9 and 1^st WIM Machteld van Foreest (NED) 6/9 | Photo: Harry Gielen

In round 5, Narayanan played a nice knight sacrifice with 26.Ngxf6! to expose his opponent's kingisde. He was facing the 2322-rated FM Onno Elgersma from the Netherlands.

There followed 26...gxf6 27.Nxf6 Nxb1 28.Rc7 Bg7 29.Nxe8 Qxe8 30.Qe1 Bf6 31.Rxb7 and White eventually won the game.

Endgame essentials you need to know Vol.1 & Vol 2

In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.

GM S L Narayanan during his final round game | Photo: Harry Gielen

The tournament hall at Sportcentrum RUG & Hanze in Groningen | Photo: Harry Gielen

Final standings

...65 players

All available games

Links

• Official website
• Full technical information on Chess-Results
• Qatar Masters: Narayanan beats Gukesh to grab the lead (2023)