S L Narayanan clear first at Groningen Festival

by Shahid Ahmed
1/5/2025 – GM S L Narayanan scored an unbeaten 7/9 to win the main section of the Groningen Chess Festival 2024. The top seed finished a half point ahead of the competition. Four players collected 6½ points: GM Thomas Beerdsen, IM Nick Maatman, IM Manish Anto Cristiano and IM Theo Stijve. The 9-round Swiss open was organised in Gronigen, Netherlands from 21 to 30 December 2024. | Photo: Harry Gielen

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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.

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.

Groningen Chess Festival

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

Kateryna Dolzhykova, Machteld van Foreest

Top women participants: 2nd WGM Kateryna Dolzhykova (GER) 4½/9 and 1st 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.

S L Narayanan

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

Groningen Chess Festival 2024

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

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Narayanan, S L 7 0
2 Beerdsen, Thomas 6,5 0
3 Maatman, Nick 6,5 0
4 Manish, Anto Cristiano F 6,5 0
5 Stijve, Theo 6,5 0
6 De Winter, Arthur 6 0
7 Van Foreest, Machteld 6 0
8 Mitusov, Semen 6 0
9 Pham, Khoi 5,5 0
10 Poetsch, Hagen 5,5 0
11 Elgersma, Onno 5,5 0
12 Schoppen, Casper 5,5 0
13 Kollen, Zyon 5,5 0
14 Koster, Ramon 5,5 0

...65 players

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Shahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
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