The 2017 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has ended, with the United States’ Hikaru Nakamura winning for the third year in a row. This year as last, he had to play a tie-breaker for the $28,837 first prize. This time, he had to play two blitz matches (G/10+5). The first was against Chinese grandmaster Yu Yangyi and the second against the young Spanish grandmaster David Anton Guijarro, who had the tournament of his life. If normal tie-breaks had been used, he would have won the event. Other notable results were Fabiano Caruana, whose 13th-place finish was determined by his sixth-round loss to English grandmaster Nigel Short; Brandeis grad Sam Shankland finished 35th; and Cambridge’s Marc Esserman was 61st.

A key highlight was the fine tournament that Ju Wenjun of China had. She won the women’s prize of $18,795, beating Hou Yifan and Sam Shankland. The win confirms her position as the leading contender for Women’s World Championship. Fan favorite Vassily “Chucky’’ Ivanchuk had a rather dubious tournament, ending up in 39th place. We only hope that this poor result doesn’t propel him back to checkers, as chess is much more interesting with Chucky in it!

A really interesting and somewhat bizarre moment, which has come to be called Pairingsgate, came in the last round, when Hou Yifan played the following game, as white, vs. Indian Babu Lalith 1. g4 d5 2. f3 e5 3. d3 Qh4+ 4. Kd2 h5 5. h3 hxg4; 0-1. This game was Hou Yifan’s very strange protest against her pairings for the event, especially that she had to play seven women out of the 10 rounds. Though assured by the tournament organizer and directors that the pairings were proper, she decided to throw the game. Normally, and the acceptable way, would have been for her to withdraw in protest, but to just throw a game is an almost unforgiveable sin in the chess world. Not to mention that her pairings were correct and legal, so how can she complain? A very strange affair, and one that we believe will leave a mark on Hou Yifan’s reputation.

Coming events: Feb. 17, Waltham Free Wild Card #41, Waltham CC, www.WalthamChessClub.org; Feb. 18, Boylston Tornado #127, Boylston CC, www.BoylstonChess.org; Feb. 19, 56th Papa Gino’s Scholastic, Papa Gino’s Waltham, 1018 Lexington St., Waltham, MatthewGosselin24@yahoo.com

Recent results: Wachusett’s CC’s Reggie Boone Memorial, 1st: Geoffrey LePoer, 4.5-.5, 2nd- 3rd: Paul Godin, Diego Ubiera, 4-1,

Answer to today’s problem: The sneaky 1.Qe7! (With the threat of 2.Qf8+ Rxf8 3.RxR#) wins for White. If 1…Rxe7 2. Rf8# or 1…Rxf3 2.Qg7# or 1…B (anywhere legal) 2.Qxf7+ Kh8 3.Qg7#

Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@gmail.com.