Chess - The Scotsman 11/01/2013 - News - Scotsman.com WHILE the Hastings International Congress traditionally ushers in the new year, its peak period, from the 1930s to the 1970s, is long gone and it is now overshadowed by Holland's Wijk aan Zee, which, as the first major of the year, has become the winter mecca for elite grandmasters. The latest edition gets underway tomorrow. The top group A (average rating 2731.5) is headed by the new rating record-breaking world No 1, Magnus Carlsen. The rest of the field, though, is just as impressive, and includes: Levon Aronian (No 3), Fabiano Caruana (No 5), Sergey Karjakin (No.6), world champion Viswanathan Anand (No 7), Hikaru Nakamura (No 9), Wang Hao, Peter Leko, Anish Giri, Pentala Harikrishna, Loek Van Wely, Ivan Sokolov, Erwin L'Ami and the former women's world champion, Hou Yifan. Tradition is everything in Dutch chess, and this will be the 75th jubilee edition of the tournament, which began in nearby Beverwijk in 1938 as a works-only tournament, sponsored by the steel giant Hoogovens. It has gone through several incarnations since before Tata Steel took over in 2011. Another great Dutch tradition is the strong Groningen Open held over the Christmas period, which ended in a three-way grandmaster tie with Zaven Andriasian, Alexander Kovchan and Sipke Ernst sharing the honours. R Schoorl - S Ernst Groningen Open, (2) Ruy Lopez 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4 Qc7 12 Nbd2 Rd8 13 a3 c4 14 Nf1 Bb7 15 Ng3 h6 16 Nf5 Bf8 17 d5 Kh7 18 g4 g6 19 Ng3 Bc8 20 Nh2 Nd7 21 h4 Nc5 22 Be3 Be7 23 h5 Bh4 24 Kg2 Qe7 25 f4 Nd3 26 Bxd3 cxd3 27 hxg6+ fxg6 28 f5 gxf5 29 gxf5 Rg8 30 Nhf1 Nc4 31 b3 d2 32 Re2 Bxg3 33 Nxg3 Rxg3+! 34 Kxg3 Bxf5 35 Qh1 Nxe3 36 Rxe3 Qg5+ 37 Kf2 Bg4 38 Rf3 Qg7 39 Rg1 Qa7+ 40 Ke2 Bxf3+ 41 Kxf3 d1Q+ 42 Rxd1 Rf8+ 0-1