Chess

I reported last week on the final results in the superb top group at Wijk aan Zee won by Peter Leko and the very strong "GM B" in which the young Ukrainian star Sergey Karjakinran out the winner. But such is the strength in depth in Wijk that even the third group "GM C" is more than worthy of attention.

This year's event averaged a very respectable 2442 (category 7) - a more or less average international tournament: with the field of 14 including two players just over 2600, Russians Evgeny Aleseev and Alexey Korotylev and a couple over 2500 - Vladimir Georgiev (Macedonia) and IM Erwin L'Ami (Holland); though the tail was of course much longer than in "GM B".

In a closely contested event, it was Georgiev who ran out the winner on 10.5/13 ahead of Korotylev and Women's Grandmaster Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine) 10; and L'Ami and Alekseev 9.

This group of five was well clear of the rest none of whom got more than 50 per cent. The result which really stands out is Zhukova's big score. She won eight lost just one (to Korotylev) and drew four. Her last round win against Manuel Bosboom involved a large accident in which he missed that his f pawn was pinned.

In a very messy French, Bosboom's troubles started in the diagram in which he can probably safely take the exchange with 25.Qa3+ though his reluctance to weaken the white squares was understandable. Instead, he erected a powerful barrier along the long white diagonal but simply missed that his forcing moves were "preparing" 28...Rxg3+.

Manuel Bosboom v Natalia Zhukova

Wijk aan Zee C 2005 (round 13)

French Defence

1.e4 e6

2.d4 d5

3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.Nge2 dxe4 6.a3 Be7 7.Bxf6 gxf6 8.Nxe4 b6 9.Nf4 f5 10.Nc3 c6 11.Nh5 Rg8 12.g3 Bb7 13.Bg2 Nd7 14.0-0 Nf6 15.a4 Rg4 16.Nxf6+ Bxf6

17.a5 bxa5 18.Ne2 Rb8 19.c3 Kf8 20.h3 Rg5 21.Re1 Ba6 22.Nf4 Qc8 23.Qa4 Bd8 24.Bxc6 Rxb2 (see diagram) 25.d5?! Rb6 26.Rad1 Bf6 27.Bd7? Qc5 28.dxe6 Rxg3+

29.Ng2 Bb7 0-1